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In another subscriber-only article, the Detroit News’s Mark Falkner reports that Saginaw Spirit forward and top 2020 draft prospect Cole Perfetti is hoping that his “local team,” the Detroit Red Wings, call his name when the Wings pick 4th overall in this fall’s NHL Draft:

Perfetti said he wants to be “selected as high as possible” after finishing in second place in league scoring with 37 goals, 74 assists and 111 points this year, but knows there’s a chance he could be Draper’s first pick in his new job of running Detroit’s draft.

“At the end of the day, I hope what I did throughout the year on the ice and off the ice speaks for itself and makes it a no-brainer for them,” Perfetti said. “There would be no hard feelings if they don’t draft me because it’s a business and they have to do what’s right for them. If it was the Red Wings, it would be amazing and a dream come true.”

Saginaw general manager Dave Drinkill said [Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris] Draper “probably knows more about Cole than any other NHL scout.” The team’s ownership partners also include Red Wings senior adviser Jimmy Devellano and former Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood.

“Cole has been a big-time point producer, a go-to player, ultra-competitive and our team has taken off since he came on board,” said Drinkill, who selected Perfetti fifth overall after Byfield and Drysdale were taken in the 2019 OHL draft. “Kris will remove that relationship aspect and do his job. That’s what he’s paid to do and the Red Wings are in good hands. If they do take Cole, they’ll be getting a heck of a player.”

Continued (paywall)…

FYI from Twitter:

Loan: Filip Larsson (G) | Detroit Red Wings -> Almtuna IS | https://t.co/4NabxBZO10 #HockeyAllsvenskan— EP Transfers (@ep_transfers) September 2, 2020

Update: The #RedWings have loaned goaltender Filip Larsson to Almtuna (Swe-2). pic.twitter.com/2jQSYe5mDM— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 2, 2020

Almtuna IS’s website confirms, via website editor Peter Tjern:

We are proud to announce that goaltender Filip Larsson, who’s trained with the Detroit Red Wings, will be with Almtuna for a while, and will start the season in Almtuna and the Allsvneskan.

A loan agreement with the NHL team the Detroit Red Wings and goaltender Filip Larsson is ready.

Filip played for Stockholm team Boo IF as his parent team, and then continued with Djurgardens’ junior teams. He’s only played at the junior level in Sweden, at Djurgarden, but he also played on the other side of the Atlantic for the Tri-City Storm (USHL), the University of Denver (NCAA), the Toledo Walleye (ECHL) and the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Filip has also played in the Swedish U16, J18 and J20 national teams, and has a J18 World Cup silver medal on his resume.

“I’m happy that it’s been resolved after I’ve been training with the team for a couple of weeks. It feels damn fun to get the chance. It will be my first senior season in Sweden after living in the USA for three years, so I look forward to joining the team and playing games with them,” says Filip Larsson.

“Filip Larsson has a high capacity. He’s a technically skilled netminder and also is tactically aware, plays consistently after a goal and has a simple game understanding based upon his strengths. Filip is skilled at moving upright and down. He is wise in his decisions in choosing a working position, and according to that position related to the puck, he usually saves by good margins,” says goaltending coach Sebastian Johnsson who continues: “Filip is humble, easily laughs and competes every day. It will be fun to work with him.”

Five days ago, I decided to try to give blogging a try for the first time in almost a year. I asked for help in reaching a fundraising goal–paying pending bills to my blog’s hosting company, Bluehost, the essential add-on to my website in Jetpack, and Dlvr.it, which provides updates to my Twitter account and TMR Facebook page.

You guys and gals delivered in a big way, with most of the donations being surprisingly big ($20-50) and coming from a lot of people who’ve never donated to the TMR cause before.

I am SUPER GRATEFUL to each and every one of you for your support. We’re at the fundraising goal ($420) plus about $50 after all of five frickin’ days’ worth of fundraising.

Continue reading As the blog starts, you also want to believe, which is awesome

Two hockey publications discuss the exploits of the Red Wings’ Swedish prospects this morning.

1. Dobber Hockey’s Pat Quinn offers assessments of 2020 draft-eligible Swedish players, Swedish players that have been drafted by NHL teams, players loaned to Swedish teams, and a couple of “dark horses.”

Wings prospect Jonatan Berggren is mentioned in the “drafted prospects” category…

Continue reading Two Things: Talking about three Swedish Red Wings prospects

The Detroit Red Wings posted a press release this morning in which the team announced that both the Wings and the Detroit Tigers are going to provide assistance for the upcoming 2020 election by 1) training poll workers and 2) offering a drop-off location for absentee/mail-in ballots.

I’m posting this because it may be relevant to you, and I’m posting this because I think that it’s pretty cool that the Red Wings and Tigers are stepping up to help a city that had serious problems counting absentee ballots during this summer’s primary elections.

Voting is the foundation of our legislative republic, regardless of whatever side or sides one supports when one exercises their civic duty to vote, and it’s good to see the city receiving aid from a pair of teams who’ve built partially publicly-subsidized sports facilities:

Continue reading Press release: Red Wings, Tigers to offer election assistance in Detroit

The Detroit News, to its credit, is rolling out a significant amount of subscriber-only content to push their (and the Detroit Free Press’s) attempts to promote a paywall. Mark Falkner’s talked with agent Dan Milstein at length, Wings beat writer Ted Kulfan’s spoke with Manny Legace about his second career as the Blue Jackets’ goaltending coach, and, this morning, Kulfan speaks with Wings coach Jeff Blashill about the pandemic-lengthened offseason, which will see Detroit’s players and coaches off the ice from March to mid-November (at the very earliest).

In that vein, Blashill discusses the weirdness that is attempting to prepare both coaches and players for playing after an eight-and-a-half-month break…

►Q: How difficult is the uncertainty right now – not knowing when camp will begin, when you’ll start playing games?

►A: “Uncertainty is tough in life, it’s just reality. Uncertainty causes angst among people and causes stress and there’s no doubt uncertainty in these times, probably at an unprecedented high for everybody. With that said, pertaining to our situation, I’ve heard the dates floated about, but certainly there’s nothing written in stone and one of the things the NHL has done in their original Return to Play is not committing to anything before knowing it was really possible. So, right now, from a planning perspective, we have to make sure we’re prepared for the earliest possible start and if that gets delayed, at least we’re prepared, and that’s how we’ll go about it.”

And Blashill addresses the New York Post’s Larry Brooks’ report that the NHL teams that weren’t invited to “The Bubble” (see finishers 25 through 31) want to hold early camps and a mini-tournament to address comparative rust that they’ll be feeling, as compared with the teams that have skated in July, August and September:

Continue reading In a subscriber-only Q and A, coach Jeff Blashill discusses the Wings’ weird off-season with Detroit News’s Kulfan

Very briefly: Here’s a neat little story about a charitable donation made by the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, from NBC 24 in Toledo, Ohio:

Thanks to funds provided by the Toledo Walleye, local American Heart Association representatives made a potentially life-saving donation to two Toledo Public Schools Tuesday morning.

The Association delivered CPR in Schools Training Kits to Woodward High School and Start High School allowing students to learn CPR, AED use and choking relief in one class period.

The kit can train 10 to 20 students at a time and lasts for enough uses to train hundreds of people.

“I’ve been talking to our health teacher quite a bit and she’s gonna have it as part of the curriculum so yeah, every student that she sees that’s part of her health class will be able to be trained to use the CPR equipment,” said Joe Jablonski, a nurse at Woodward.

Each kit is valued at roughly $650.

Red Wings TV play-by-play announcer appeared on the Red Wings’ weekly web series, “The Word on Woodward,” which yo can watch here…

And Daniels was promoting both the Jamie Daniels Foundation and the JDF’s roast of Scotty Bowman:

Established in 2019, the Jamie Daniels Foundation Celebrity Roast was an evening full of laughs and entertainment, but more importantly – it was opportunity to raise awareness and funds to provide solutions for those suffering from Substance Use Disorder.

This year, the comedic enjoyment will be televised for more people to enjoy as we roast the greatest NHL coach of all time, Scotty Bowman!  Tune in for star-studded appearances from professional athletes, celebrities and comedians.

Tune into FOX Sports Detroit on Wednesday, October 14 at 8 p.m. for The Celebrity Roast of Scotty Bowman presented by Delta Dental of Michigan. More details to follow.

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…

Continue reading A bit about NHL prospects’ European options from THN’s Kennedy