Author: George Malik

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, Frank Seravalli and Gino Reda engaged in an intriguing episode of Insider Trading tonight on TSN, and LeBrun shared some details regarding points of emphasis at Friday’s upcoming GM’s meetings…

What is next season looking like? It’s been about three weeks since the Stanley Cup was handed out and we have as much clarity on next season then as we do now. Has there been any progress?   

LeBrun: Well, what I can tell you is that the NHL and NHLPA joint committee — which has been tasked with the return to play — they haven’t met yet. It’s not because they’re not working. The league internally is gathering intel from its clubs and eventually this joint committee is going to meet. There’s going to be about 10 players on this joint committee. In the meantime, there’s an NHL general managers meeting on Friday. It’s the first official GMs meeting really since Boca Raton in March, although the GMs have met on calls, especially in the spring time after COVID-19 shut down the regular season.

This is an important GMs meeting. I mean, one key item? The American Hockey League. NHL GMs want to know what they’re going to do with their prospects as they await when the AHL season is going to begin. Now, I spoke with AHL president Scott Howson, who says that while Dec. 4 remains the target date to start the AHL season, that’s likely going to be pushed back to mirror some of what the NHL is going to do. But I can tell you this: There are some NHL GMs that want their prospects playing as soon as possible, so that’s going to be an interesting conversation on Friday.

One last note, the seven teams that did not participate in the Return to Play this past summer? They’re going to get some good news. They’ve asked for some extra training camp time and I’m told that the NHL and NHLPA have tentatively agreed that those teams could have extra training camp time ahead of the normal training camps, whenever that is next season.

LeBrun expanded upon his points in a column for The Athletic…

Red Wings prospects Lucas Raymond and Joe Veleno faced off today as Raymond’s Frolunda Indians hosted Veleno’s Malmo Redhawks, and Frolunda won 6-2 despite a slick goal from Veleno.

While Raymond (as well as prospect teammates Elmer Soderblom and Theodor Niederbach) and Veleno got top billing on the ice, two members of the Red Wings’ organization made an appearance in the stands:

Finbesök på läktaren! Henrik Zetterberg och Niklas Kronwall ?#twittpuck pic.twitter.com/QPcm5XYPaq

— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 20, 2020

Both Raymond, Veleno and the aforementioned understudies in Soderblom and Niederbach were well aware of their famous onlookers, as they told HockeyNews.se’s Mattias Persson. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

Grand Rapids Griffins play-by-play commentator Bob Kaser sits down for a 19-minute-long interview with former Griffins sniper Donald MacLean:

Of prospect-related note:

In the SHL, today’s game between Joe Veleno’s Malmo Redhawks and Lucas Raymond’s Frolunda Indians had a copule of special guests: Elmer Soderblom and Theodor Niederbach made their 2019-2020 season debuts for Frolunda’s men’s team, and these two were in the house as well:

Finbesök på läktaren! Henrik Zetterberg och Niklas Kronwall ?#twittpuck pic.twitter.com/QPcm5XYPaq— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 20, 2020

Frolunda congratulated Niederbach on his SHL debut…

På isen i detta nu är Theodor Niederbach, som därmed gör tävlingsdebut i A-laget. pic.twitter.com/CpSDMF36Pb— Frölunda Indians (@frolunda_hc) October 20, 2020

Soderblom dangled and deked (per Antonj85)…

Elmer Söderblom inne och snurrar. #SHL #FHC #DRW #LGRW pic.twitter.com/gGGyNVigGl— Anton (@antonj85) October 20, 2020

Veleno stepped up with an assist…

Eric Engstrand med sitt första SHL-mål i karriären ?#twittpuck @Malmo_Redhawks pic.twitter.com/PUDZPLQ0P8— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 20, 2020

But Raymond got a secondary helper on this goal from Joel Lundqvist, putting the game away:

? Joel Lundqvist – 2nd of the game PP
4-1 Frolunda pic.twitter.com/WHoMFpv8Mm— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) October 20, 2020

Joel Lundqvists 4:e mål i SHL 2020/21 assisteras av Jan Muršak (5) och Lucas Raymond (2).— Frölunda Indians (@frolunda_hc) October 20, 2020

Though Veleno made things interesting…

MÅL! @jveleno91 prickskjuter in reduceringen i krysset när Redhawks spelar fem mot fyra!#MIFFHC | 2-5 pic.twitter.com/hMd36E4KXS— Malmö Redhawks (@Malmo_Redhawks) October 20, 2020

WHAT A SNIPE!
? Joe Veleno PP
5-2 Frolunda pic.twitter.com/QUhDlYSX2f— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) October 20, 2020

Klass! Veleno i det bortre krysset. #twittpuck @Malmo_Redhawks pic.twitter.com/ak1TUIPLQd— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 20, 2020

Ultimately, Frolunda won 6-2. For Frolunda, Raymond had an assist, 4 shots, and finished at even in 15:35 for Frolunda; Soderblom had 1 shot in 9:36 played; Niederbach, playing in his SHL debut, got 6 seconds of ice time; for Malmo, Veleno had a goal and an assist for 2 points, with 2 shots, a -1 and 15:58 played, winning 71% of his faceoffs;

New Red Wings forward Bobby Ryan spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Art Regner today on “The Word on Woodward.” The interview starts at the 1:20 mark and goes for about 15 minutes, and Ryan is surprisingly forthright and up-front regarding his career trajectory while speaking with Regner. Give it a watch if you’re able to do so:

As a follow-up to today’s post about attempting to make the blog viable long-term, I was encouraged to finally get a Venmo account, and I did so. Those of you who are not fans of Paypal or Giftly.com can now use Venmo to help support the blog.

So that’s finally taken care of…and here are the Spongemonkeys…

Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner spotted this Tweet from Sportsnet 650 Vancouver this morning, and it surprised me a little bit:

“Sorry, if I was was a d****. I was paid to go play hockey and entertain fans.”

Todd Bertuzzi with @jamescybulski and @psolkowski. pic.twitter.com/sDPYhy2BbK— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) October 20, 2020

Bertuzzi did speak with James Cybulski and Perry Solkowski for “Sportsnet’s Starting Lineup” at 7 AM Vancouver time, and if you’re interested in Bertuzzi chatting about his career, sports of the day and his tenure with the Canucks…

Like the Jamie Macoun story, this isn’t necessarily Red Wings-related, but it’s an interesting “listen”:

A little under two weeks ago, something remarkable happened. My 8-year-old laptop broke (due to a botched repair by…well, me), and I asked you, the Malik Report’s readers, to help raise funds for a new laptop in time for the draft and free agency.

It only took a day to raise $1,000 of the approximately $1,500 needed to pay for the laptop; two days later, the laptop was more or less paid for, and I was able to cover the 2020 NHL Draft, 2020 free agency and the ramifications thereof for you on a brand new ASUS laptop.

The way the TMR community mobilized to fund what was a moonshot’s worth of hope was astonishing, at least to me.

Now that I’ve landed on the figurative moon that is a new realm of possibilities for the blog, I took a couple of days to regroup, and now that the Red Wings’ offseason has slowed down from a gazelle’s pace to something slightly slower, it’s time to explore what’s next.

As the title of this post suggests, today’s episode of “The Word on Woodward,” which airs from 12 PM EDT to 2 PM EDT, will include an interview with new Red Wings forward Bobby Ryan:

Update: FYI:

The #WordOnWoodward is live again today at 12!! We’ll be joined by @KenKalDRW, Tigers Prospect @parkermeadows3, writers @JohnNiyo & @EvanPetzold, and one of your newest Red Wings, Bobby Ryan!! Tune in on @DetroitRedWings and @tigers Facebook & YouTube pages!! pic.twitter.com/NmooP3dxVi— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) October 20, 2020

This isn’t really Red Wings-related, but there are times that remarkable stories require noting, and The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek’s tale of former Wing Jamie Macoun’s recovery from a paralyzed arm suffered during a car accident while playing for the Calgary Flames is damn good:

On his third day in the hospital after a 1987 car crash that almost took his life, Jamie Macoun was visited by a doctor who wanted to talk about amputation.

Even for a free spirit such as Macoun, it was a sobering conversation that immediately grabbed his attention.

“The doctor came up to me and said, ‘We have to have a serious discussion,’” remembered Macoun, who was playing for the Calgary Flames at the time.

“I said, ‘OK, I’ve only had three days of serious discussions since I’ve been in here — but whatever.’ But he said something along the lines of, ‘What do you want to do with your arm?’ And I’m going, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘Well, you’re paralyzed — and the chances of you ever getting use of that arm again are zero.’ He explained that the human body, the damaged nerves, to regenerate even a centimeter, for some people, takes a month or more and the chances of me getting any use of my arm back was zero.

“I’m looking at him, going, ‘I don’t think you understand who I am or what I do. I’m a professional athlete.’ Either I was so stupid or it was just that athletic mentality kicking in, where you think, ‘OK, this is just a setback, but it’s going to come back.’

Continued (paywall; worth your time)