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NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale penned an intriguing article regarding Germany’s slow but steady growth as a hockey-player-developing nation.

While the article mostly focuses on Tim Stuetzle’s status as one of the best prospects available in the 2020 draft, Morreale’s thorough examination of the German ice hockey machine that is the Adler Mannheim involves some discussion of Moritz Seider as a trailblazing prospect:

Seider was named rookie of the year in the DEL in 2018-19 despite being limited to 29 games because of a shoulder injury. He had five assists in 14 playoff games to help Mannheim win the DEL championship.

“For a lot of young players like myself, Seider was the go-to guy,” Stuetzle said. “He showed everybody that you can develop a lot even if you stay in Germany.”

Seider had six assists in seven games for Germany in the 2020 World Junior Championship and didn’t look out of place his first season in North America with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League, scoring 22 points (two goals, 20 assists) in 49 games.

“I was really high on [Seider] prior to the 2019 draft,” [Red Wings director of European scouting Hakan] Andersson said. “I liked his hands, skating, poise and size, but a big thing also was his personality. He’s a human being that is above your average player … he’s caring, outgoing and confident.”

Continued; Andersson, never one to mince words, also says this about Germany’s development in terms of producing hockey talent:

“I know the country has been working on ways to get more young players in their league instead of older guys from other countries taking up lots of ice time, and that looks like it’s paying off this and last season, for sure,” Red Wings director of European scouting Hakan Andersson said. “I think if young hockey players see that there’s a chance to play on the big senior team, that’s a big boost for many of them and could maybe even be a boost to get more young hockey players starting in Germany.”

The Red Wings are in quite the pickle with one Frans Nielsen. The 36-year-old center is signed for 2 more years at a cap hit of $5.25 million, with his no-movement clause switching to (per CapFriendly) a modified no-trade clause this and next season.

Nielsen had a rough 2019-2020 season for the Wings, posting only 4 goals and 5 assists in 60 games, down from 35 points during the 2018-2019 season. There’s been a little bit of chatter from Denmark regarding Nielsen heading home to play for his hometown Herning Blue Fox of the Dansk Metal League, but it doesn’t appear that Nielsen wants to retire just yet.

Instead, Nielsen tells the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan (via a subscriber-only article) that he’s dedicating himself to bouncing back from the worst season of his career:

“My mindset this summer has been one of putting it all out there,” said Nielsen, who compared the situation as if he was training as a 25-year-old again. “I haven’t been burying my head. I’ve been working. I’m pushing myself, and the body is feeling good. I’m putting the work in. Hopefully that’ll carry over into the season. I had to work even harder.”

Nielsen has been working out with Timra of the Swedish Elite League, along with Danish teams in his native Denmark, where he and his family have been living since about late April. Nielsen has been skating three times a week — rinks in Sweden and Denmark have generally remained open during the pandemic — and feels it has done him, and will continue to do him, good.

“Absolutely, because these guys I am skating with, they’re fighting for jobs and to get into the lineup, so it’s a high pace, and people are competing out there,” Nielsen said. “So I’m getting that right now. I’m back to that mindset, a little bit, of I’m 25 again. I went all in this summer. I don’t know how long I’m going to play and I’ll see where it takes me. But I’m training as hard as I can. I needed to do something and this has been a different type of summer. I knew this would be a long break, so I’m building up over a longer period of time.”

Continued (paywall); Nielsen also tells Kulfan that he believes the Wings won’t be as woefully bad as they were last season:

Continue reading Kulfan speaks with Frans Nielsen regarding rebounding from the 2019-2020 season

Of prospect-related note today, from Sweden’s SHL:

Wings prospect and Farjestad BK defenseman Albert Johansson scored a goal, added an assist and finished at +1 in 13:13 of ice time as Farjestad beat Lulea 4-2.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman found a clip of Johansson’s goal…

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Johansson scores a goal, Berggren 1+1 in SHL action

This isn’t Red Wings-related, but it’s a “good read”: one William Scott “Scotty” Bowman spoke with NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs regarding the Stanley Cup Final.

As Bowman is generally based in Sarasota, Florida, he sees most Tampa Bay Lightning home games, but he’s been at home in Buffalo since the regular season was cancelled due to the pandemic. He tells Stubbs that he expects the final to live up to its billing:

“I think we’re going to see spectacular hockey,” the legendary coach said of the series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, which starts Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS). “We never knew what was going to happen with the pandemic, but now the end is in sight.”

Bowman, who turned 87 on Friday, might have a winner picked, but he’s not sharing it publicly out of respect for each organization. Based near Tampa during the winter, he scouts for the Chicago Blackhawks as senior adviser of hockey operations at almost every home game of the Lightning and is friendly with their front office and coaching staff and familiar with their roster.

He includes Dallas CEO Jim Lites and general manager Jim Nill, each of whom he worked with in the Detroit Red Wings organization, and Stars coach Rick Bowness among his friends.

But Bowman, who has won the Stanley Cup 14 times — a record nine as a coach with the Montreal Canadiens (1973, 1976-79), Pittsburgh Penguins (1992) and Red Wings (1997-98, 2002), then five more as an executive with the Penguins (1991), Red Wings (2008) and Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015) — has advice for each team.

Continued

The Red Wings own 11 picks in the upcoming 2020 draft, and Sportsnet’s Luke Fox brings up an interesting point in this morning’s “Quick Shifts“: a significant portion of marquee free agents-to-be have been traded by their rights-holding teams approximately at or around the time of the NHL draft (October 6th and 7th, 2020, ahead of free agency on October 9th).

So, should the Red Wings truly have some interest in signing Torey Krug or any other marquee free agent, would it not make sense for the team to pony up one of those draft picks in order to obtain their rights prior to the free agent period?

Fox notes that the price for acquiring UFA’s-to-be isn’t cost prohibitive:

Continue reading When free agency nears, should the Wings utilize their draft picks to snag UFA’s ‘early?’

File this one under “a timely video”: Alex Wood, a.k.a. AWood40 on YouTube, posted an 18-minute highlight clip spotlighting Filip Hronek’s 2019-2020 season:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a Stanley Cup Final preview on Friday evening, and as part of his article, he notes that Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill is still grateful for his time spent as the Detroit Red Wings’ assistant GM:

“Every day you came to work and learned something new,” said Nill during Stanley Cup Final Media Day on Friday, mentioning being able to work and learn from the likes of Jimmy Devellano, Ken Holland and Steve Yzerman, along with players such as Nicklas Lidstrom. “It prepared me for where I am now and I owe so much to those people. The way the Ilitch family operates their franchise, everything was first class. You respect people and we played the game the right way.

“I was very fortunate and happy to be associated with those people.”

Continued; Kulfan discusses the Wings’ ties to both the Stars and Lightning.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji posted an article profiling 20-year-old Wings prospect Ryan O’Reilly, who will begin his college career with the Arizona State University Sun Devils sometime this fall. Red Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff weighs in on O’Reilly’s outlook:

Quotable: “He’s committed to Arizona State University next year. I think he’s excited to leave junior and go do that. He’s a guy that’s a scorer. When Ryan’s playing his game, he’s putting the puck in the net and he’s using his size to get in on the forecheck and turn pucks over and be a good, physical presence, get to the hard areas, get to the front of the net. We’re excited to see. I think for him, it’s just another step in his development, going to ASU, going to a good program down there. We’re going to look forward to seeing what he can do in college.” — Shawn Horcoff, director of player development and assistant director of player personnel

Continued.

In a subscriber-only story, the Detroit News’s Mark Falkner penned a profile of Buffalo Sabres director of player development Matt Ellis, who played for the Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins, regarding the Wings-and-Griffins-learned lessons the AHL veteran will apply to developing Sabres prospects:

“On some teams, a lot of guys do a lot of talking but they don’t walk the walk,” Ellis said. “They get labelled as heroes because they turn it on and off when the time is right. In Detroit, the guys just did it and it wasn’t broadcast all over the place. This is what we do, our habits, our preparation. They aren’t necessarily the sexy things, the work, the sacrifice but when it’s driven internally like that, you have a really good thing going because the people who come in are either on board or they don’t last long.”

Ellis spent six years in the Red Wings’ organization, starting with a 27-goal season with the ECHL Toledo Storm and then another four straight years of improved point production with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins.

Named the youngest captain in Griffins’ history at age 24 in 2005-06, the 6-foot, 210-pound forward went on to become captain with the Portland Pirates and Rochester Americans and registered 21 goals and 28 assists in 356 career NHL games.

“Being a leader and being counted on in Grand Rapids allowed me to grow and gave me the very, very solid foundation and great lessons to draw on to this day,” Ellis said. “The beauty of the organization was the great mentors to look up to, the great players and great staff to look to, to learn from. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Continued (paywall); this article’s about Ellis’ journey as much as anything else, and Griffins fans will tell you that Ellis is easy to root for.

Red Wings senior vice president Jimmy Devellano spoke with MLive’s Ansar Khan regarding the numerous ties between the Wings and the management of the Dallas Stars (see: GM Jim Nill, director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell, assistant coach Todd Nelson) and Tampa Bay Lightning (see: Steve Yzerman helped build their roster; assistant GM Stacy Roest and assistant coach Derek Lalonde).

Khan illustrates said ties while discussing Nill and Yzerman’s respective managerial ascents but Devellano’s most interesting comments involve the team he still works for:

“I’m kind of proud because both teams have Red Wings-trained backgrounds,” Devellano said. “It’s nice to see.

“Now we have to figure out how to get our house in order. We’ll find a way. It’s just going to take some time. There is no easy way out of this. We need to get luckier in the draft.”

They weren’t lucky in the lottery, dropping to fourth overall despite finishing 23 points below anyone else.

“It’s unfortunate, but we got to do what we got to do,” Devellano said. “As I always say to Steve, ‘We got you at No. 4. Just find another you.’ “

Continued with Khan’s Cup Final pick…