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The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau discusses potential targets for the Red Wings to consider adding as March 7th trade deadline sits only a week and a half away:

Despite Copp’s injury, Detroit’s need right now should be a minute-munching blueliner to ease the responsibilities for Moritz Seider. Getting someone, such as Chicago’s Seth Jones and his $9.5-million cap hit, would make a lot of sense for the Wings if they can fit him in for the long term.

The Red Wings are tied for the 10th-most goals against per game, with 3.14. That’s the worst goals-against average for any team in a playoff spot right now. And although the Red Wings have the third-most points since Jan. 1, their 2.95 goals against per game is only 18th in the league.

Not many NHL teams could afford to absorb Jones’ full salary without Chicago having to retain salary, either.

It was rumored last year and over the summer that Yzerman had interest in acquiring Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers. This happened, of course, before the Rangers dealt Trouba to Anaheim. But moving on a Jones trade is exactly the type of big swing Yzerman has been looking to make for some time. If he can find an asset match for the Blackhawks, making a Jones trade happen might not be as tough a task as it seems to be on the surface.

Detroit also could be interested in one or two experienced forwards with that cap space after losing Copp, who has 10 goals and 23 points in 56 games. A new second-line center to play between Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane could work, as J.T. Compher only has three points in 15 games since Jan. 1 and 22 points in 51 games overall.

In any case, the Wings do look primed to be a buyer at the deadline. Yzerman is under massive pressure to get his team into the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. Changing coaches to Todd McLellan has been a big success so far, and Yzerman should capitalize on that momentum.

Continued; everybody and their brother’s trying to trade Seth Jones, and I really don’t see a fit. Yes, he’s a right-shooting defenseman who can shut down opponents, but at that Gord-awful $9.5 million cap hit, no team should have to take on that entire millstone without some relief taken on from the Blackhawks.

To me, this feels like a case of making a square peg fit in a round hole.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen provides an update on the Grand Rapids Griffins:

Coach Dan Watson’s team will play the Texas  Stars (Dallas Stars) tonight for second place in the division. The Griffins (27-19-4) and Stars (28-16-3) are tied at 58 points, although the Stars have four games in hand.

The Griffins, scoring 19 goals in their past 10 games, are looking to find the net with more frequency. It doesn’t help that 19-goal scorer Sheldon Dries was recently called up by the Red Wings.

The key for Grand Rapids now may be prospects Carter Mazur,  Amadeus Lombardi and Nate Danielson. Mazur and Lombardi are finding their scoring touch after lengthy stays on the injured list. Mazur boasts five points in his past five games, while Lombardi scored Sunday against Iowa. Danielson has two goals and two assists over the past five games.

One of the Griffins’ underrated offensive contributors this season has been prospect defenseman Antti Tuomisto who has two goals and 19 assists for 21 points.

The Griffins and Stars are both two points behind the division-leading Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators).

Continued

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan was blunt when he spoke with the Free Press’s Helene St. James regarding the loss of Andrew Copp for the remainder of the regular season due to surgery on his left pectoral tendon:

“I don’t mean this disrespectfully to Andrew, but we have to move on,” McLellan said Tuesday. “There’s other people in the locker room that have been chomping at the bit to get more ice time and to show their teammates and show the staff and the organization and the fans that they have more to give, and they get an opportunity now, so – game on.”

As St. James points out, the Red Wings aren’t going to give up assets in the form of prospects or draft picks for a rental, so for the present moment, the coaches coach…

While McLellan deals with the immediate impact of losing Copp, who had centered the second line and played both special teams, the onus is on general manager Steve Yzerman to decide if the loss should be addressed from the outside.

“The information we got has been short term,” McLellan said. “We’ll have more time to talk about long term look and all that stuff. But as we work here, the staff up there continues to do their work. Our job is to coach the players that are in the locker room, try and get the most out of them and we’ll continue to do that.”

And the players, including Dylan Larkin. J.T. Compher, Joe Veleno, Sheldon Dries, Marco Kasper, Tyler Motte and Christian Fischer, play:

“Everybody has something to give,” McLellan said. “Sometimes it’s just a small portion, sometimes it’s a lot, depending on the situation, both on and off the ice. But often when you’re a little further down the food chain, you don’t offer what you have. That window has been opened up now because of Copper’s absence and the invitation is there for all the players to step up and give more. We’ll be watching. We’re anxious to see who is going to step up and who is going to contribute.”

There’s also the possibility the Wings decide to call up Nate Danielson, their first-round pick from 2023. Another option is to move Marco Kasper to center the second line, which he did earlier this season. He’s looked at home on the left wing on the top line next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, but long term the Wings see Kasper as a center.

“He has played well in that position,” McLellan said. “He looks very confident there. For as much as he’s benefited from playing with those two players, they’ve also benefited from playing with him. It’s something that we would like to keep together, but situations are going to present themselves as we go forward. There may be times where he does slide back into the center ice hole. We’ll see.”

Update: The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan also spoke with coach McLellan regarding Copp’s injury…

Continue reading Coach McLellan addresses the loss of Andrew Copp, and where the Wings go from here

The Red Wings’ morning skate ahead of tonight’s game between Detroit and the Minnesota Wild (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/FanDuel SportsNet North/FanDuel SportsNet Wisconsin/97.1 FM) was incredibly busy.

The Wild found out that Joel Eriksson Ek will be sidelined for “weeks,” with Jakub Laukko rotating back into the lineup, and Detroit lost Andrew Copp for at least 4-6 months due to pectoral tendon surgery.

Lineup-wise, the Wings will bring in Christian Fischer and start Cam Talbot opposite Filip Gustavsson, per the Free Press’s Helene St. James, but we didn’t get that much news about either team’s lineup from the morning skates.

The Free Press’s St. James posted a 4:34 video of coach Todd McLellan and forward Patrick Kane speaking after the morning skate…

And the Wings posted a 6:50 clip of Simon Edvinsson and coach McLellan speaking with the media:

Take this podcast for what you will, per Daily Faceoff’s Tyler Kuehl:

All of a sudden, the Detroit Red Wings have the potential to be players at the NHL Trade Deadline.

On Monday, the team traded goaltender Ville Husso to the Anaheim Ducks for future considerations. That took Husso’s $4.75 million AAV off the books. On top of that, the team announced that forward Andrew Copp is out for the remainder of the season, which relieves the team of his $5.63 million cap hit for the rest of the year.

That means the Red Wings are heading into March with plenty of cash to spend, if they so choose, to bolster their lineup as they push to end their near-nine-year playoff drought.

On Tuesday’s edition of Dailly Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed what Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman is eligible to do prior to the deadline.

Continued; the Hronek line is hilarious. Here’s the video below:

The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Minnesota Wild this evening at the Xcel Energy Center tonight (8 PM EST on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/FanDuel SportsNet North/FanDuel SportsNet Wisconsin/97.1 FM), hoping to earn a series split after dropping last Saturday’s 4-3 OT decision to the Wild.

Even before the Wild took to the ice for their morning skate, they received bad news:

BAD #mnwild NEWS: Center Joel Eriksson Ek was injured in practice yesterday and has been placed on injured reserve. Must miss at least 7 days (next 4 games), but I hear he's going to be out a lot longer. Jakub Lauko will likely be activated off IR and replace him on roster

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 25, 2025

Russo reports that the Wild’s IR list includes Kirill Kaprizov as well, and that Ryan Hartman is suspended for the next 8 games, complicating the Wild’s playoff push:

The Wild have 25 games left this season. They currently sit in third place in the Central Division — four points behind the Dallas Stars and four points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche with two games in hand on the Avs. They are 10 points in front of ninth-place Calgary, which has played one fewer game than Minnesota.

The Wild’s social media team is trying to stir up shit…

Continue reading Red Wings-Wild morning skate Tweets: Eriksson Ek out for Minnesota; Copp to miss 4-6 months; Talbot vs. Gustavsson, Fischer in for DET

FYI:

With #LGRW having $3M of projected cap space & $14M of deadline space, Copp going to LTIR is not an option to gain more cap space unless they first added $14M of annual cap hit.

LTIR allows a team to exceed the cap, since they are well below the cap, Copp to LTIR would not… https://t.co/DYxWbqGeUK

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) February 25, 2025

This is not ideal:

An update on Andrew Copp. pic.twitter.com/FZ5mZ2WlhP

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 25, 2025

Here’s the press release:

ANDREW COPP UNDERGOES SUCCESSFUL SURGERY

  … Ann Arbor Native to Miss the Remainder of the 2024-25 Season …

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings forward Andrew Copp underwent successful surgery today to repair his left pectoral tendon.  He will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season with an expected recovery time of 4-6 months.

Copp, 30, was signed by Detroit as a free agent on July 13, 2022.   The 6-foot-1, 203-pound center has skated in 217 games with the Red Wings over the last three seasons, notching 32 goals and adding 66 assists for 98 points.  He has 23 points (10-13-23) in 56 games played this season. 

Copp was injured during the second period of Saturday’s game against Minnesota.  Prior to the injury, he registered his 300th career NHL point with an assist on Alex DeBrincat’s first-period tally against the Wild.  Saturday was also Copp’s 700th career NHL game.  He has appeared in 467 games with the Winnipeg Jets, 16 with the New York Rangers, and 217 with the Red Wings.

NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika spoke with both Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets players about their outdoor hockey experiences, as well as what they expect to happen this upcoming Saturday at the Stadium Series:

The Red Wings will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; ESPN, TVAS-D, FX-CA).

More than 80,000 fans are expected at the Horseshoe, which means the attendance won’t approach the record but should rank among the top three or four in NHL history.

“It’s cool to have the bragging rights,” Compher said. “But that’s quite a lot of people to play hockey in front of.

J.T. Compher and Dylan Larkin were younger when the NHL’s Winter Classic was held at the Big House in Ann Arbor…

“It was cold, but it was really cool,” Compher said. “You could see the divide at the 50-yard line of the red and the blue. It was super fun to go watch. It was a fun day.”

Larkin called it “awesome.”

“It was just a great day, beautiful, the Big House with the snow,” Larkin said “It was picturesque. I’ll remember that. It was a cold day, but just a great setting for hockey with that jersey matchup and the Winter Classic logo. It was great.”

And Larkin is looking forward to this Saturday’s game:

“It’s going to be a great event,” Larkin said. “I’ve never been to the Horseshoe, and especially with what happened this year with Michigan and the whole thing after the game … That was interesting. And credit to Ohio State winning the national championship. Their fans are excited. The last two national champions, it’s pretty cool. It’s a cool story.”

Continued

Not surprisingly, given the NHL’s student-friendly ticketing policies for Ohio State University students, the Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger reports that we’ll see mostly…blue…at Ohio Stadium this Saturday:

Historically, there have been times when Nationwide Arena has transformed into an opponent’s home away from home. That shouldn’t be the case Saturday at Ohio Stadium, where the Blue Jackets will face the Detroit Red Wings in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series matchup. Despite the Red Wings’ large following as one of the NHL’s “Original Six” franchises, the expectation is the vast majority of 90,000-plus fans will be pulling for the guys with a cannon-crested jersey.

“I think it’s going to be, and I don’t know this for a fact, but 95% Blue Jackets fans,” Blue Jackets president of hockey operations/general manager Don Waddell said. “I know we’ve kind of dominated the (ticket) market, which is good.

“There’ll be some Detroit fans, of course. They’ve got great, loyal fans up there. The difference is this is our first outdoor game for the Blue Jackets, where the Red Wings have played in (four) already. They’ve done this before in other venues, but I still think with the rivalry we have with Detroit that we’ll get a number of fans from … that city up North.”

Speaking of “TCUN,” Waddell is originally from the Detroit area and played collegiately at Northern Michigan University. It’s been a long time since he’s lived there, though, and his allegiance is to Columbus now — since leaving the Carolina Hurricanes to take over as the Blue Jackets’ top hockey executive last spring. Waddell has learned a lot about his new team’s makeup, traditions and history, which doesn’t include the type of long-term success that begets national exposure.

This outdoor game is the only scheduled national television appearance for the Blue Jackets this season, so they’re only guaranteed one shot to make a branding impact outside of Ohio. They’re not going to waste the opportunity.

The Blue Jackets, who lost star Johnny Gaudreau to an offseason tragedy Aug. 29 before losing some key players in October to injuries, weren’t expected to contend for a playoff spot. Instead, they’ve overcome long odds to put themselves in the thick of a playoff race in the Eastern Conference. Arguably, they are the league’s biggest “feel good” story this season. 

Continued with discussion of the playoff importance of the home-and-home series between Columbus and Detroit on Thursday and Saturday…

And Nathan Hart’s note about parking for Saturday’s game is scary:

Continue reading Blue Jackets expect a home-ice crowd advantage at Ohio Stadium