Author: George Malik

Moritz Seider played 16 minutes and 22 seconds in his SHL debut with Rogle BK on Thursday, and afterward, he spoke with Rogle’s website regarding his first competitive hockey game in 7 months. Seider also spoke with Hockeysverige.se’s Mans Karlsson for a wide-ranging profile, which follows in roughly translated form:

The Detroit Red Wings slowly but surely conducted Zoom calls with the remainder of their 2020 draft picks on Thursday, affording beat writers the opportunity to speak with Jan Bednar, Kyle Aucoin, Alex Cotton and Chase Bradley.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a write-up regarding each player, and, among her notes is the following:

D Kyle Aucoin, 6th round (No. 156)

No pressure at all on Aucoin, other than trying to emulate the greatest sixth-round pick in franchise history in Datsyuk, who won two Stanley Cups and played 953 games for the Wings. Also, there’s Aucoin’s dad, Adrian, a former defenseman who played more than 1,100 games in the NHL. Kyle (5-10, 164) is a smart two-way player and a strong skater. He’s committed to playing at Harvard starting in 2021-22. “Education has always been really important to me and my family,” he said. “That was the best of both worlds with a great hockey program and a great education.”

Aucoin has history with the Wings’ next pick. While their dads were battling at the NHL level, the boys were battling at the triple-A level. “(Kienan Draper) played on Little Caesars (Hockey Club) growing up and I was at Chicago Mission, so that was kind of like our rival team,” Aucoin said. “So we were playing almost every couple of weekends and it was always a battle. They had a great team, so it was pretty awesome he got picked. He texted me after and was, ‘We’re finally on the same side.’ So that’s cool.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings posted a series of Zoom calls with prospects later in the day on Thursday, and this one, from forward and 203rd overall draft pick Chase Bradley, is available both from NHL.com and the Wings’ YouTube channel:

When asked which team has improved itself the most over the course of free agency (thus far), NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika makes the case for Steve Yzerman’s job so far with the Red Wings as the NHL’s best…

Nick Cotsonika

I’m going to lead off with a surprise: the Detroit Red Wings. Coming off a season when they had the worst record in the NHL since the salary cap arrived in 2005-06 (17-49-5, .275 points percentage), there is a lot of room for improvement. Under general manager Steve Yzerman, the Red Wings chose forward Lucas Raymond No. 4 in the NHL Draft with their highest pick since 1990 and selected 11 players in rounds 2-7, including three in the second and two in the third. They have signed goalie Thomas Greiss, defensemen Jon Merrill and Troy Stecher, and forwards Bobby Ryan and Vladislav Namestnikov to short-term, economical contracts as unrestricted free agents. And they have acquired defenseman Marc Staal and a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft from the New York Rangers for future considerations, using cap space to their advantage. They’re early in their rebuild, not close to contending for the Stanley Cup, but they have taken smart steps forward.

And Cotsonika also penned an article in which he discusses Yzerman’s work in greater detail. This article is superb, and it’s worth your time:

The Red Wings posted defenseman Alex Cotton’s Zoom call with the Wings’ beat writers this afternoon…

And this evening, the BC Local News’s Dan Ferguson posted a quote-light article discussing the second day of the draft, when Cotton realized that he’d been drafted by Detroit:

He was waiting with his family to see whether he would be tapped for the 2020 NHL Entry draft and before anyone else noticed, he saw his name come up on the video feed, and the name of the team that had drafted him.

“Oh, crap,” Cotton remembers saying. “Wow. I was pretty shocked.”

It was a mixture of disbelief and delight at being picked by the legendary Detroit Red wings.

“It’s unreal,” Cotton told the Langley Advance Times.

Cotton was selected 132nd in the fifth round of the 2020 draft on Wednesday, Oct. 7. by the Detroit franchise that has been home to legends like Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio, to name just a few.

Continued

Neither Joe Veleno nor Moritz Seider had particularly busy debuts with the Malmo Redhawks or Rogle BK, respectively, on Thursday, but both players spoke to their new teams’ websites after their SHL debuts.

You can watch a 2-minute interview with Veleno via the Redhawks’ website here after playing 17:55 in Malmo’s 5-2 loss to HV71;

And Seider spoke with Rogle BK’s website for just under a minute and fifty seconds, after playing 16:22 in Rogle’s 2-1 loss to Brynas.

The Red Wings are indeed holding a set of Zoom calls with the Wings’ second-day drafted prospects this afternoon, and the Free Press posted defenseman Alex Cotton’s Zoom call with the media:

Update: Here’s the Red Wings’ version:

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects were very busy in Europe today, but almost all of the Wings’ European-playing skaters had quiet Thursdays.

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki registered a goal and an assist and a +1 in 21:28 played, and Kasper Kotkansalo played 20:46 as Assat Pori lost 3-2 in a shootout to Jukurit;

In the SHL, Albin Grewe had an assist and 5 shots in 10:55 played as Djurgardens IF lost 5-4 to Linkoping;

Moritz Seider had 2 shots on goal and played 16:22 in his debut for Rogle BK, which lost 2-1 to Brynas;

Joe Veleno had 1 shot on goal and finished at -1 in 17:55 played as Malmo lost 5-2 to HV71. Malte Setkov did not play for Malmo due to an injury;

Lucas Raymond had 2 shots and finished even in 15:23 played as the Frolunda Indians won 3-2 over the Vaxjo Lakers;

Matias Brome had an assist and 2 shots, finishing at +1 and winning 50% of his faceoffs in 24:31 played as Orebro lost 2-1 in a shootout to Lulea;

Jonatan Berggren took 1 shot and played 16:46 in Skelleftea AIK’s 1-0 win over Farjestads BK. Albert Johansson had 2 shots in 17:40 played for Farjestad.

Berggren scored a beautiful goal, but it was waved off:

Berggren ger @skelleftea_aik ledningen! Men efter en lång videogranskning döms målet bort… ? #twittpuck #SHL pic.twitter.com/4xkXmrSskS

— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 15, 2020

Update: The Malmo Redhawks posted a 2-minute video of Joe Veleno’s post-game remarks (not embeddable), as well as a teaser Tweet:

TV: @jveleno91 efter sin debut i Redhawkströjan
? “Vi fick inte det resultatet vi ville ha, men under stora stunder spelade vi väldigt bra i fem mot fem”

? https://t.co/ynli6wc7eT#HjärtaKvalitetStolthet #HV71MIF pic.twitter.com/Ji89NdRw8n— Malmö Redhawks (@Malmo_Redhawks) October 15, 2020

The Red Wings must be holding interviews with the later-drafted prospects today. The latest Zoom call comes from defenseman Kyle Aucoin:

Video: Kyle Aucoin, who as a kid used to play against fellow 2020 Red Wings draft pick Kienan Draper: “He texted me after and was, ‘we’re finally on the same side.’ So that’s cool.” https://t.co/iQbNK6Tai3— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) October 15, 2020

From the Grand Rapids Griffins comes this charitable note: