Author: George Malik

The Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye, have had a busy summer, signing half-a-roster’s worth of Minor Pro free agents as the team attempts to replenish its roster.

Due to the level of roster turnover in the ECHL, combined with the uncertainty as to when the ECHL season will start, the Walleye have lost players like ECHL MVP Josh Kestner (who signed in Europe), so the team has had to display resiliency in inking undersized prospects and a couple of Ohio natives.

Today, the Walleye signed two players in defenseman Ryker Killins and forward Keeghan Howedeshell, as noted by the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

The Walleye signed Michigan native Keeghan Howdeshell, a forward, and Ontario native Ryker Killins, a defenseman, on Tuesday. Both players are entering their second seasons as pros and both played last season for the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush.

Howdeshell, a native of Brighton, Mich., produced 37 points in 47 games at the ECHL level. The 6-foot-2 and 209-pound forward scored 13 goals to go along with 24 assists for Rapid City.

Howdeshell, 22, also played in one game for the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League.

Walleye coach Dan Watson called Howdeshell a big, powerful forward who possesses good vision.

“Keeghan has the ability to score goals in tight … and can make plays under pressure,” Watson said. “We are happy to have Keeghan join the Walleye and continue to develop his skills to help grow his game.”

Continued…

The Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy frames NHL teams’ decisions to send some of their top prospects over to European pro leagues as the NHL, AHL and ECHL deferred their 2020-2021 season starts to December 1st at the earliest. Kennedy kicks his column off by noting that the Red Wings have sent Moritz Seider to Adler Mannheim of the DEL, and Filip Zadina to Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Extraliga.

As you know by now, Filip Hronek (HK Mountfield), Gustav Lindstrom (Almtuna IS), Mattias Brome (Orebro HK) and Albin Grewe (Djurgardens IF) are the other Wings prospects playing in Europe instead of North America.

Kennedy focuses on the players with AHL experience who’ve been assigned to European teams, noting that the team

The important aspect of this shift overseas is that both Seider and Zadina have already played in North America. Zadina was over here the longest, having come over to playing junior in the QMJHL with Halifax as an import before graduating to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins last year. The talented winger has also seen some time up with Detroit both this season and last, so he is well on his way to becoming a top-six NHLer. Seider was a rookie with Grand Rapids this season, but as one of the Griffins’ top blueline scorers, proved he could handle himself on North American ice.

And there is an adjustment period for many Europeans. Not only are their cultural barriers to overcome off the ice (learning the language, getting a driver’s license and so forth), but the smaller ice surfaces in North American rinks has quite the impact on game play: over here, players have less time and space to make decisions with the puck and the game tends to be a lot more physical.

As such…

Of brief Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Joe Starkey answered reader questions today, and one of those questions involved a hypothetical trade between the Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford and the Detroit Red Wings:

Dave Ryckman, @dryckman_13: With GMJR including a first rounder in [Kasperi] Kapanen trade I’m inclined to believe he feels he can get a first in a deal for [goaltender Matt[ Murray. Do you see a team out there willing to part with their pick to land him? Quite a few teams need a No. 1 goalie. Need to hit home run with that move imo!

Starkey: I’ll take a double, Dr. Ryckman. I’m not sure there are a ton of teams willing to part with something significant (such as a first-round pick) for Murray. Kevin Allen of USA Today recently told me he believes the Detroit Red Wings would be interested, but not at that price.

Might the Minnesota Wild and GM Bill Guerin be interested? I think that’s a distinct possibility. Carolina, Calgary or Edmonton might see Murray as a guy who could put them over the top in big games. All it takes is one. I’m just not convinced there is one — at least not at the price of a first-round pick.

At this point, the Red Wings don’t need to invest a first-round pick in a starting goalie. No way, no how.

2. DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examined Frans Nielsen’s 2019-2020 season “By the Numbers” today, so this is your friendly reminder that Nielsen is signed for 2 more seasons at $5.25 million:

Earlier this summer, Red Wings prospect Albin Grewe “crossed the pond,” signing with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit after the Canadian Hockey League’s import draft.

Grewe, a physical forward, hoped to play much more regularly than he did as a member of Djurgardens IF in Sweden.

Grewe had some harsh words for Djurgardens because he felt that he was unable to earn a regular shift with the team during the 2019-2020 season; instead, Grewe often played on the SHL team’s fourth line, as a 13th forward, or he played in the Under-20 league.

As it turns out, the OHL’s decision to not start their 2020-2021 season until December has Grewe looking for a little redemption with the team he “dissed.”

Hockeysverge.se’s Mans Karlsson reports that Grewe is walking back his harsher remarks as he prepares to spend a couple of months skating his way toward regular playing time. What follows is a rough translation of Karlsson’s article:

Prospect guru Corey Pronman is working his way through the developmental systems of the NHL’s 31 teams at present.

This morning, Pronman ranks the Red Wings as having the 18th-best prospect pipeline in the NHL, based upon his ranking of the Wings’ top 11 (and, ultimately, 17 total) prospects.

Pronman’s assessment of Moritz Seider leads off his excellent article:

1. Moritz Seider, D, Grand Rapids-AHL

April 6, 2001 | 6-foot-4 | 207 pounds

Tier: High-end NHL player

Skating: 55
Puck Skills: 55
Physical Game: 70
Hockey Sense: 55

Seider had a great first season in North America, playing big minutes for Grand Rapids as a teenager and was one of the top defensemen at the world juniors. Seider isn’t a flashy player but he’s very well-rounded. He’s a 6-foot-4 defenseman who is highly mobile for his size, can move the puck well and is a top-end defender. His wingspan, great mobility and elite physicality allow him to make so many stops and project as a tough minutes defenseman in the NHL. Seider can move the puck, although I don’t ever see him as a big offensive player, as there will be stretches he can be quite bland with the puck. There are stretches he makes a very nice outlet pass with pace as well.

Continued (Paywall). I’ve got no problem with Pronman’s overall ranking of the Red Wings as having dropped from 13th to 18th overall in prospect rankings this season, but it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m a little more bullish on the Wings’ youngsters.

Here’s hoping that the Red Wings snag more NHL-caliber players during this fall’s NHL Draft. Perhaps that may move Pronman’s needle in a more positive direction.

Red Wings forward Darren Helm is teaming up with Humble Design, a non-profit agency that helps people exiting domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters furnish their places of residence, to hold a “Virtual 5K” to raise funds for the organization. Here’s a press release regarding Helm’s involvement with the charity…

Local Red Wings Player Darren Helm and his family want to share their support for a local nonprofit, Humble Design.

Several years ago the Detroit Red Wings and the Lady Wings, teamed up to completely furnish the home of the Finleys, who had been staying in a homeless shelter until they could transition to permanent housing. After learning that the Finleys had nothing but an air mattress, a few camp chairs, and not much else, they volunteered to work for a day putting together all the things the Humble Design team had curated from their warehouse.

It was an unforgettable experience for Darren and his wife, Devon. When they heard that Humble Design was hosting a Virtual 5K August 31-September 7, they wanted to help. Darren told us, “It’s important to me, my wife, and our kids that we do what we can during this time.”

The press release continues, and Humble Design‘s YouTube channel posted a short video in which Helm’s family promotes the Virtual 5K:

The Red Wings lost an assistant coach to the United States National Team Development Program this past week as Adam Nightingale headed to Plymouth to coach the U.S. Under-17 team. WXYZ’s Brad Galli posted a video report on Nightingale and Adam Muse’s hiring as the U-17 and Under-18 teams’ head coaches, respectively:

The Athletic posts its daily crop of articles around 7 AM each morning, so I’m probably going to post whatever they discuss regarding the Red Wings in a single post most mornings. I don’t want to lean on their paywalls too heavily, and I simply feel that posting separate entries for multiple articles is a little…Spammy.

So:

1. This morning, Red Wings beat writer Max Bultman examines the possible “fits” of this year’s unrestricted free agents on defense (click for CapFriendly’s list of UFA defensemen), including Livonia native Torey Krug, who’s been linked to the Red Wings by every Red Wings fan and every Red Wings pundit as a possible Hometown Hero:

My Waffle House Hot Takes regarding the 2020 NHL Draft involve: (1) lot of complaining about the draft lottery being stupid (I don’t believe that the NHL should reward mediocre teams with a 50% chance of earning a top 3 draft pick at the expense of teams that really need help); and (2) the belief that the Red Wings should use their 4th overall pick to snag the player with the highest developmental ceiling, regardless of whom that player might be.

If I were to “show my hand,” I’d suggest that the Wings take Erie Otters defenseman Jamie Drysdale on October 9th and run for the hills, but one never knows what GM Steve Yzerman or director of amateur scouting Kris Draper are thinking.

That being said, there’s been a lot of buzz about the Wings snagging Ottawa 67’s center Marco Rossi, Frolunda Indians winger Lucas Raymond, and, more and more regularly, the Wings are tied to Saginaw Spirit forward Cole Perfetti over Drysdale thanks to the “local ties” (see: Draper and company have probably seen a lot of Perfetti as he’s in the Wings’ backyard, and both Chris Osgood and Jimmy Devellano have ownership stakes in the Spirit) and the Wings’ build-up-the-middle philosophy.

Chris Peters posted a mock draft for ESPN+ this morning, and he’s on the Perfetti train:

The Detroit Red Wings’ salary cap situation looks pretty good heading into the 2020-2021 season. Per CapFriendly and PuckPedia, the Wings have somewhere between $32 and $34 million in cap space (under what will be a $81.5 million “flat cap” for the next two seasons) after having re-signed Robby Fabbri to a 2-year, $5.9 million contract.

The Wings have two more big priorities on the restricted free agent market: Tyler Bertuzzi will be looking for a big raise over his $1.4 million salary this past season thanks to a 21-goal, 48-point 2019-2020 campaign, and Anthony Mantha posted 38 points in a 43-game, injury-abbreviated season, so he’ll be looking for more than his $3.3 million salary this past season as well.

In terms of the team’s unrestricted free agents: