On Tuesday afternoon, MLive’s Ansar Khan discussed several remaining unrestricted free agents who the Red Wings could target with their $12 million in salary cap space, and I’d only take a look at two or three of Khan’s listed names:

Forwards (with position, age, 2024-25 cap hit)

Jack Roslovic, C, 28, $2.8 million: He’s probably the best player available after equaling a career-high with 22 goals and tallying 39 points for Carolina. He must score to be effective because he’s not a checker or defensive player.

Max Pacioretty, LW, 36, $873,000: He turns 37 in November and his play has declined the past three seasons due to age and multiple injuries. He had five goals and eight assists in 37 games with Toronto but elevated his game in the playoffs (eight points in 11 games).

Defensemen (age, 2024-25 cap hit)

Matt Grzelcyk, 31, $2.75 million: The longtime Boston Bruin tallied a career-high 40 points (including 39 assists) while playing 82 games for the first time with Pittsburgh. He had 15 assists on the power play.

I’m not interested in a reunion with Robby Fabbri or Andreas Athanasiou; Victor Olofsson is injured too regularly, and on defense, Jan Rutta‘s a “meh” candidate, and David Savard retired.

I know that Roslovic, Grzelcyk and even Pacioretty have their fits of the litter, so to speak, in terms of remaining teams interested, but it would be encouraging to see the Wings snag one of the aformentioned players.

NHL.com dropped this little ditty overnight, suggesting that Lucas Raymond might eventually be one of 20 young wingers who could join the NHL Network’s Top 20 Wingers at some point in the future. Why “at some point?”

NHL Network will reveal its list of the top 20 wings in the League right now Wednesday when the first of a nine-part series debuts (NHLN, 6 p.m. ET).

While we wait for that much-discussed annual list, NHL.com asked a panel of its writers to identify players who could join the top 20 list next season.

Here is the NHL.com list:

It’s an honor just being mentioned, I suppose…

Lucas Raymond, Detroit Red Wings

Selected by the Red Wings with the No. 4 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Raymond quickly is developing into an elite offensive forward and soon could be considered one of the top 20 wings in the League. Raymond led Detroit last season with 80 points (27 goals, 53 assists) in 82 games. The Red Wings have not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2015-16 and will be counting heavily on Raymond to help end the drought this season. The 23-year-old has continued his steady progression since he had 57 points (23 goals, 34 assists) in 82 games as a rookie in 2021-22. With his prime years still in front of him, it’s reasonable to believe Raymond could push for the 100-point plateau. Detroit has not had a 100-point player since Sergei Fedorov had 107 points (39 goals, 68 assists) in 78 games in 1995-96. — Derek Van Diest, staff writer

Continued…Maybe next year…

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson posted a list of every NHL team’s “Mt. Rushmore of the 21st Century” (thus far), and Richardson leaned heavily upon the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup-winning teams in making his list:

Detroit Red Wings

Nicklas Lidström, Defense

Steve Yzerman, Center

Pavel Datsyuk, Center

Henrik Zetterberg, Center

Lidström won the James Norris Memorial Trophy seven times from 2000-01 to 2010-11 and was the first European to captain an NHL team to the Stanley Cup (2008). Yzerman is the franchise assist leader (1,063) and captained the Wings to three Stanley Cups, including his last in 2002. Both are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Datsyuk is also in the Hall of Fame, winning four Lady Byng Memorial Trophies and three Frank J. Selke Trophies between 2005-06 and 2009-10. Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2008 and is fifth among the franchise leaders with 337 goals, 623 assists and 960 points.

Continued; I’m of a mind to suggest that, going forward, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond will be on the team’s Mount Rushmore, but that’s educated guessing at this point.

TSN’s Travis Yost ranked the NHL’s 32 teams’ respective netminding talents into “goaltending tiers,” and he suggests that Detroit’s in tier 4 out of 5:

Detroit Red Wings (T4) – It’s desperation time for the Red Wings organization, and Steve Yzerman decided to take a big swing on the talented but inconsistent John Gibson via trade this summer. Gibson’s inconsistency, a combination of roller-coaster play and injuries, chilled what was once a pricey trade market for one of the league’s big names. Gibson did look better last season after several discouraging years, but again, his 91.2 per cent stop rate came in just 29 games. Detroit will be looking for substantially more playing time. 

Continued; Gibson is definitely a gamble, but if he does stay healthy, he’s one of the league’s better goaltenders…And streaky Cam Talbot will be backing him up.

That’s not a goaltending tandem that’s going to leave opponents shaking in fear, but it should be adequate to help the Wings improve this upcoming season.

The fundraising news for the $477 server bill and $137 personal bill is going pretty well, all things considered. We’ve raised $97, which is a good start, but given that these bills are due by the 17th of the month…

I still need to post fundraising requests until we are able to raise sufficient funds to pay for the server, at the very least. Again, this blog doesn’t have ads, we don’t sell your information, and we try keep your reading experience as clean and as predatory-script free as possible.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, no donation is too small. I just need to ask for your support right now.

Continue reading Server fundraising still continues

28-year-old defenseman Jalen Smereck plays for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye during the regular season, but this summer, he’s playing 3-on-3 hockey for the 3ICE hockey league. NHL.com’s William Douglas profiled Smereck for NHL.com on Monday:

Being a defenseman in the high-scoring, fast-paced 3ICE tournament is a seemingly impossible job, but Jalen Smereck doesn’t mind.

“When you can play hockey in South Florida in July and August, there’s not much to complain about,” the 28-year-old Detroit native said.

Smereck, who played for Toledo of the ECHL last season, is thriving as the lone defenseman on the roster for Tennessee in the eight-team, 3-on-3 professional tournament that began July 17 and concludes Aug. 14 with the Patrick Cup Championship at Baptist Health IcePlex, the Florida Panthers practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Smereck has four points (one goal, three assists) in four games for 3ICE Tennessee. Coach John LeClair said he leans on Smereck for his defensive prowess as much as his scoring touch in games where action is nearly nonstop with games consisting of two eight-minute halves and a running clock.

…

Smereck said 3ICE fits his style of play. He led all Toledo defensemen with 46 points (eight goals, 38 assists) in 70 games last season and was the highest-scoring player at the position in the Kelly Cup Playoffs (14 points; three goals, 11 assists in 20 games). Toledo lost the best-of-7 league finals to Trois-Rivieres in five games.

“Being in those 3-on-3 situations in overtimes throughout my career and doing it in practice, I love it,” Smereck said. “I liked at the end of our first game he (LeClair) said, ‘Hey, I might need you to stay out there a little longer because you’re the only defenseman.’ That’s always been my game, getting extra ice whenever I can, staying out there to play defense to win a game or provide offense to win a game.”

Continued, with significant discussion of Smereck’s charitable endeavors back home in Metro Detroit…

MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that this season’s Detroit Red Wings team needs to find more “mental fortitude” and consistency of effort if they are to make a playoff push over the course of the 2025-2026 season:

“I can’t speak for what has happened in the past, but from the time I got here, this team was very streaky,” coach Todd McLellan said. “When it goes good for this group, coaches included, we can get ahead of things. But it doesn’t take much for us to start taking on water. And when that happens, it takes a long time for us to get out of it. For me, that’s mental fortitude, some resiliency that’s built into the group that’s driven by us as a coaching staff to put them through it in practice and put them in stressful situations.

“You could see that we could sustain the good for a number of games, find different ways to win when it was going well. When it didn’t go well, we scrambled and struggled to get ourselves breathing again. It happened over days, it happened within games, within periods. I could list a number of games where that happened, and we couldn’t recover. So, mental fortitude, resiliency has to come from us.

“You probably hear me talk about game management until you’re sick of it. That has to get better. We can’t just put our skates on and play the game. We have to manage our way through the game.”

Continue reading Khan on the Wings’ ‘mental fortitude’

The Detroit Red Wings’ Alumni Association will take part in their second annual charity game against “Yoopers United,” a team representing the United Way of Marquette County, on Saturday, September 13th in Marquette.

MyUPNow’s Tor Thorne reports that the charitable game’s cast of characters, many of whom were selected from the amateur ranks, have been selected:

Continue reading ‘Yoopers United’ team selected for game against Red Wings Alumni on September 13th

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ signing of free agent goaltender and Czech Extraliga champion Michal Postava this morning, noting that Postava had his pick of the litter of NHL contracts over the course of last spring and this summer:

“I didn’t expect it at all, it was too good,” Postava, 23, said of the NHL attention. “But I’m enjoying every moment, and I’m proud to be a part of this organization. There have always been a lot of Czechs here, and they are still active in the organization. Plus, it’s a big club from the Original Six. It’s a huge opportunity for me.”

One of those well-known Czechs with the Red Wings is Jiri Fischer. Once a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman with the team, Fischer today works in player development for the club.

“I talked to Jiri Fisher, and he was telling me like, everywhere what happens and everything that was done here,” Postava said. “He helped me a lot to get here.”

The 2024-25 season was Postava’s first in the top league in his homeland. Hockey people found it impressive how poised he was, especially during the playoff run. He would post a shutout in Game 7 of the final series.

“It gave me a lot of opportunities and taught me to be calm,” Postava said. “I’ve improved a lot. This season, the main thing for me was to stay focused throughout the game and try to win every game. I think confidence was number one.”

The Hockey News’s Jared Clinton suggests that Red Wings forward Marco Kasper will “break out” this upcoming season, and I would argue that Kasper is already “breaking out” given his second-half-of-the-season performance during the 2024-2025 season:

Detroit Red Wings: Marco Kasper

The patient approach Detroit takes with prospects has paid dividends, and the development system has another success story after the rookie season Marco Kasper just had. The 21-year-old made a seamless leap to life in the NHL, with his 19 goals (fourth) and 37 points (seventh) placing him top 10 in freshman scoring. If not handed the second-line center job, Kasper will at least have a chance to earn it. His blend of speed, smarts and two-way play will make him a key cog as Detroit seeks to return to the post-season.

Continued; I’m expecting more of the same in terms of Kasper’s elite play this upcoming season.

I’m just not certain whether that’s a “breakout” given that he’s already posted just under 20 goals and 40 points while serving as the Wings’ 2nd line center under coach Todd McLellan.