Author: George Malik

Updated at 7:41 PM: Red Wings defenseman Marc Staal was introduced to the media today via a conference call…

And the Wings’ beat writers took note of Staal’s remarks, including the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

“I didn’t really have much of a heads-up,” Staal said Tuesday from his home in Connecticut. “Just got called and they told me I was on my way to Detroit. Obviously, it was surprising and shocking when it happens. This is the only place I’ve been my whole career, it’s been home to me for a very long time.

“After the shock of it kind of wore off and I started thinking about it more, talking to the coaching staff and Steve, that shock turned more to excitement. We had a really good talk. Talking with him makes you feel a lot more comfortable with where the team is heading. You’re going to an outstanding franchise, beautiful new rink. It’s an Original Six, so I get to go from one great franchise to the next. I’m excited to be a part of that. I think it’s a pretty good situation I’m walking into.”

…

Staal has spent the past couple of weeks acclimatizing to coming to a new team; chatting with Yzerman made a difference.

“A lot of the conversation was him trying to relieve the shock of what happened and try to speak good things about Detroit,” Staal said, “which I know pretty well already. I’ve known a lot of guys who play there and speak very highly of it. That part I wasn’t really too worried about. The next thing was, just the opportunity to come in and be a big part of the team and play some minutes and be a guy that’s counted upon every night. I’m looking forward to that responsibility.”

MLive’s Ansar Khan…

There was only one game in which Red Wings prospects participated today. In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki had an assist and finished at +2 in 16:45 played, and Kasper Kotkansalo had an assist and finished even in 20:27 played as Assat Pori lost 4-3 in OT to IFK Helsinki.

New Red Wings defenseman Marc Staal spoke with the Wings’ media corps for 15 minutes on Tuesday, and you can watch the entire press conference here:

Marc Staal commented that in the NHL, you’re never as far from winning as you think, and never that far from losing either. I’ve heard Jeff Blashill say something similar. DRW obviously have a long way to go in their rebuild, but it’s a good reminder of the margins in pro sports— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 13, 2020

Marc Staal on trade from NY Rangers to Red Wings: “I didn’t really have much of a heads-up. Just got called and they told me I was on my way to Detroit. Obviously it was surprising and shocking when it happens.”— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) October 13, 2020

The Detroit News’s Mark Falkner penned a lengthy profile of NHL referee Wes McCauley, and his article’s a “good read”:

Wes McCauley’s rise to the top of the National Hockey League officiating ranks began to take shape as a freshman on the campus of Michigan State in 1989.

He just didn’t realize it at the time.

Now the NHL’s most animated official whose dramatic pauses and amusing calls after disputed goals and penalties have gone viral on YouTube and shared on social media by hockey fans and whose popularity among players was underscored in an NHLPA poll when he was voted the No. 1 referee in 2018, McCauley back then was about to follow his father’s advice and attend Michigan State, which had an enrollment (40,000) about the same size of his hometown in Georgetown, Ontario, just outside of Toronto.

In 1985, his dad John McCauley, an NHL referee for 15 years and the league’s director of officiating at the time, was in East Lansing for a series of exhibition games between the Canadian Olympic team and the Spartans at Munn Arena.

“Dad came home and said, ‘You’re going to Michigan State,'” McCauley said. “He was good friends with league commissioner Bill Beagan and as the boss, he (McCauley) would watch the young officials in the CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association) and meet the coaches there. He always wanted me to go to Michigan State.”

Continued

Ahead of the Jamie Daniels Foundation’s Celebrity Roast of Scotty Bowman (8 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 14th on Fox Sports Detroit), The Athletic’s Max Bultman sat down for a Q and A with Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels:

While we’re talking, I should probably ask you what you made of the RedWings’ pickups in free agency last weekend.

They’re more skilled, for sure, with some veterans up front who can still skate. I think Namestnikov … (Yzerman) certainly knows what he brings. And I think that will help with some speed up front. Bobby Ryan will help on the power play.

Defensively, they’re so much better. Right side with Hronek, Stecher and then Lindstrom and then you’ve got Biega. And then you don’t have to worry about Seider and those guys. And then on the left side you get DeKeyser back … You’ve got Merrill, you’ve got Staal and Nemeth; that’s pretty good. … Greiss isn’t flopping (around), he’s positionally sound. And yeah, he played behind a good Islander team, that’s one thing. But then you look at the save percentage.

…  So I think even with the guys they brought in, especially on defense, they’re better, they’re going to be more composed. … They’re going to be able to stop the bleeding more often.

Continued (paywall)

Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels appeared on 97.1 the Ticket’s Stoney and Jansen show ahead of tomorrow night’s Celebrity Roast of Scotty Bowman (8 PM EDT on Fox Sports Detroit) to benefit the Jamie Daniels Foundation. Daniels addressed the roast and the Wings’ offseason moves over the course of a 12-and-a-half-minute-long interview:

The Red Wings’ biweekly “The Word on Woodward” show is airing now, and they’ll be interviewing Marc Staal and Ken Daniels:

From DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce:

The #WordOnWoodward is live today from 12-2!! We’ll here from new Red Wings’ dman Marc Staal along w/ interviews from Jon Ogrodnick, @cotsonika, @CodyStavenhagen and Ken Daniels. Tune in on @DetroitRedWings and @tigers social media & websites! #LGRW #DetroitRoots— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) October 13, 2020

The Athletic’s Down Goes Brown penned a subscriber-only article in which he examines the best and worst of the NHL’s post-2005-lockout free agency deals, discussing one-year through eight-year-plus contracts. According to Mr. Sean McIndoe, the Red Wings earn the best one-year contract of the post-2005-lockout free agency era for signing Marian Hossa to a 1-year deal…

Best deal: Marian Hossa, one year at $7.45 million with the Red Wings, 2008

Hossa didn’t come cheap – at over 13 percent of the cap, his AAV would translate to north of $10 million today. But his willingness to sign a one-year deal in the prime of his career was the key to finding a fit with the defending champs in Detroit. He reportedly turned down a five-year offer to stay in Pittsburgh because he thought he had a better chance of winning a Cup with the Wings.

OK, that part didn’t work out great, as those same Penguins beat Hossa’s Red Wings that spring. Still, you have to give him credit for taking his swing, and he did his part with a 40-goal season before heading back to the market in 2009.

On the flip side, there aren’t a ton of candidates for truly awful one-year deals because… well, they’re one year. Most veterans on expiring deals can be flipped at the deadline for at least a pick, and the absolute worst-case scenario is that the guy is a complete bust and you free up some cap space at the end of the year.

Continued; you and I both know that the re-signing Hossa part didn’t go great, either as Ken Holland was willing to match the salary that the Blackhawks were offering Hossa, but not the $9 million on the back end of the deal as “retirement money.”

Holland did get permission after re-signing Johan Franzen in “first come, first served” fashion to go after Hossa by the Red Wings’ ownership, but he was reluctant to sign Hossa to a free agent deal that looked like it was circumventing the spirit of the salary cap (and the Hawks did get dinged for the Hossa deal by the league)…

And the Wings missed out on Hossa’s 3-Cup run with the Blackhawks as a result. I don’t believe that the Wings were in a position to win 3 Stanley Cups going into the 2010 season, but his presence would have altered the trajectory of the team for years to come, and the Wings swung and missed when they tried to retain him at the last minute before free agency.

Instead, the Wings allowed the LA Kings to negotiate with Hossa from the draft up to free agency, and Hossa and his agent, Rich Winter, were swayed by that $9 million in back-end money (as well as the Hawks’ signing of Tomas Kopecky as a “sweetener”).

The Score’s John Matisz offers six “Free Agency Thoughts” this morning, and one of his points of emphasis involves the Detroit Red Wings:

Suddenly Sunny in Detroit

While being unveiled as the Detroit Red Wings’ GM last April, Steve Yzerman repeatedly said, “There’s a lot of work to be done.” The 2019-20 season hammered that point home; the Wings lost 54 of 71 games and finished with a stunning minus-122 goal differential.

Conversely, the past couple of weeks have been awfully encouraging for the franchise. First, the Yzerman-built Lightning won the Stanley Cup, which is a confidence booster. A few days later, Detroit received glowing reviews after taking Swedes Lucas Raymond and William Wallinder fourth and 32nd overall, respectively, in a 12-pick showing at the NHL draft.

Yzerman then made some shrewd moves over the weekend, signing middle-six forwards Vladislav Namestnikov (two years, $2 million per season) and Bobby Ryan (one year, $1 million) to beef up the Wings’ attack. The blue line has been reinforced, too, with UFAs Troy Stecher (two years, $1.7 million per season) and Jon Merrill (one year, $925,000) brought into the fold alongside veteran Marc Staal, who Detroit acquired via trade last month.

Toss in new starting goalie Greiss (two years, $3.6 million per season) and re-signed forward Sam Gagner (one year, $850,000), and you have a ton of short-term, low-cost, low-profile pickups. That’s exactly what the Wings need in abundance right now as the franchise evolves from a miserable tanking team to a semi-competitive rebuilding club.

Former GM Ken Holland left Yzerman a mess to clean up – bloated contracts, a lackluster prospect pipeline, no hope – but the ex-captain is starting to leave his mark.

Continued