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Kane, DeBrincat praise coach McLellan’s coaching style

The Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy spoke with Red Wings forwards Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat during the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour in Las Vegas, and they discussed the players’ trust in Red Wings coach Todd McLellan:

With NHL training camps open, hope springs eternal, and the Motor City is not immune. Last year, GM Steve Yzerman dismissed coach Derek Lalonde after a 13-17-4 start, replacing him with veteran bench boss Todd McLellan. Detroit went 26-18-4 the rest of the way, which, hypothetically, means they could have been a playoff team had they played at that pace all year. Coming into this season, Detroit’s stars are excited about what a full year of McLellan could mean for their fortunes.

“I played a lot better under him when we made the switch,” said future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane. “The team started playing more aggressive and playing better. As you get older you want to win, and I think we can do that there. That’s the goal, to get into the playoffs. We really feel we’re on the verge, and we should do it this year.”

The Detroit job brings McLellan‘s NHL journey full circle. His first gig in the league was as an assistant coach with the Red Wings, where he won a Stanley Cup under Mike Babcock. After that, he got the head coaching job in San Jose, where he guided the Sharks to back-to-back conference finals. Most recently, he was in Los Angeles, where his Kings ran into Connor McDavid and the Oilers twice in a row (before that, he coached McDavid himself in Edmonton).

And while he hasn’t even been in Detroit for a whole season yet, the Red Wings have faith in McLellan.

“Todd really preaches details a lot,” said right winger Alex DeBrincat. “You can make mistakes, but if you work hard, you’re gonna be on his good side. He wants 100 percent out of everyone at all times. He’ll hold you accountable for mistakes, so don’t do it again.”

Explaining the methods behind certain strategies is also a strength, DeBrincat noted.

“Some guys don’t like dumping the puck in, but if a certain play calls for it, he’s going to tell you what happens next that can really improve the team game,” he said. “He thinks the game really well, which is fun to be a part of. You’re not just skating around and getting nothing accomplished. He’s got a plan for you.”

Continued

It comes down to defense

Bleacher Report’s Sara Civian offers a single prediction for each and every NHL team for the 2025-2026 season this morning:

Detroit Red Wings

Prediction: The situation on defense makes or breaks Detroit’s playoff hopes.

The Reason Why: The Red Wings desperately need an upgraded defense, and they didn’t do much to drastically improve the situation in the offseason (which was fair because the market was so weak). Will the young players who stepped it up in the second half last season fully break out and solve this problem? Will Steve Yzerman outsource with a trade? One of these scenarios has to happen.

Continued; it’s going to take a combination of young players stepping up and an import or two to truly address the Wings defense’s shortcomings.

Thread post: Tweets from the 2nd day of Red Wings training camp

Updated at 2:16 PM: The Detroit Red Wings will hit the ice at Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City for their second day of training camp this Friday morning. Here are various Tweets from today’s practices and scrimmages, as well as the usual social media “stuff.”

This post will be updated throughout the day.

10:07 AM: First, the Red Wings’ social media team asked several players about their summers…

Continue reading Thread post: Tweets from the 2nd day of Red Wings training camp

Disappointment is a waste of time

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson discusses “6 NHL Teams That Will Likely Disappoint During [the] 2025-2026 Season,” and the Red Wings are on his list.

Detroit Red Wings

Over the past two seasons, the Detroit Red Wings were expected to emerge from years of rebuilding into a playoff team. Young players like Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond blossomed into stars, and they added veteran talent like Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat.

During those seasons, the Wings would enter March holding a playoff berth, only to stumble and fall out of contention down the stretch. Looking at their current roster entering this season, it could be another disappointing campaign in Motown.

The Red Wings added veteran goaltender John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks, but his injury history is a cause for concern. Other offseason additions (James van Riemsdyk, Mason Appleton, Ian Mitchell, and Jacob Bernard-Docker) provide depth, but not the kind that suggests this club is a contender.

Assuming Gibson and aging netminder Cam Talbot remain healthy, their blue-line depth beyond Seider and the promising Simon Edvinsson is questionable. It could prove to be their Achilles heel as they try to end nine years of postseason futility.

Continued; the Wings are going to have to prove their critics wrong with on-ice performance, plain and simple.

It’s slow progress, but it’s progress nonetheless

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff revisits Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s comments made during his pre-training camp press conference this morning.

Duff notes that Yzerman’s plans to build a perennial contending team continue to develop, despite fans’ impatience with the so-called “Yzerplan”:

“I see progress in the organization,” Yzerman said. “I look at the young players coming into the organization, and I look at the young players playing on the Detroit Red Wings today. As we continue to build a young core that is here for a long time, I’m hopeful that we will eventually compete on a regular basis to make the playoffs. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”

We get it. That’s not what you want to hear. You want proclamations, you want guarantees that after nine years in the wilderness, the playoffs and the Red Wings are about to become reacquainted. Believe it or not, Yzerman gets that, too.

“We’re not completely tone deaf,” Yzerman said. “I understand the frustration or maybe the lack of … I don’t want to say patience, because I think everybody’s been pretty patient. But the sense of urgency within the fan base, I understand it.”

At the same time, what he is seeking to achieve probably isn’t on the same timeframe as what you want to see, which is playoff hockey as soon as possible.

“I look at it differently than you look at it,” Yzerman said, essentially speaking to Red Wings fans. “You just want us to make the playoffs, which is fine. I’m not going to argue with you about that. We’re trying to build a team that competes for a Stanley Cup and can win a Stanley Cup. So, how many years is it supposed to take? I don’t know? Is it four? Is it five? Is it 10?”

Continued; Duff also suggests what I have regarding Yzerman’s status as not being on the “hot seat” under the Red Wings’ ownership.

Patrick Kane discusses his Olympic aspirations

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski spoke with NHL players who were not included on Team USA’s Four Nations tournament team this past season, but were invited to Team USA’s Olympic orientation camp in August. One Patrick Kane still harbors Olympic aspirations:

Patrick Kane has had [an Olympic] opportunity twice, winning silver in 2010 and losing bronze in 2014 for the Americans. The 36-year-old winger’s absence from Team USA’s 4 Nations roster wasn’t a surprise, as Kane himself admitted his play last season didn’t warrant a selection. However, his presence at the U.S. Olympic orientation camp in August was a surprise to some, although not to Kane.

“They told my agent there’s the potential of maybe making the team. That I was under consideration. So when you hear that, it’s not really that big of a surprise that you’re there,” he said.

Kane said the real surprise was that his Detroit Red Wings teammate Alex DeBrincat wasn’t invited to camp after not making the 4 Nations cut either.

“I think both of us have some motivation to get off to good starts this year,” he said.

Kane remembers back in 2010 when he was a 21-year-old star on the U.S. Olympic team, surrounded by veteran national team members such as Chris Drury, Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Rafalski. Now, he would be that elder statesman should he make the cut for 2026. But like every other NHL player that hasn’t formally been named to an Olympic roster, Kane knows he must earn it.

“I want to get to a point where obviously you put yourself in consideration for the team just on your play, right? Not for your name or what you’ve done in the past,” Kane said. “That’s the goal going into this year.”

Continued

Coach McLellan frames training camp as a learning experience

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills filed a late-evening article which summarizes Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s philosophy regarding opening his first full season as head coach via a high-intensity note:

“We talked about camp, how important it was for our group,” McLellan said. “I talked to them about the excitement around the team. When I talk to players in the summer, and certainly here through [the media], everybody’s happy to have a camp with the new coaching staff and we’ll see where it goes. That’s all fine and dandy, but if we don’t take any advantage of it, then shame on us. There are some areas of the game we have to get better at, and we talked about that. Then there’s what’s between the ears sometimes. We have to get better in that area. Addressed it right away on Day 1, and we’re going to push them to improve.”

McLellan demonstrated his ability to get his message across quickly after being hired last December, which the Red Wings embraced on their way to winning seven of their first eight games and 15 of 21 contests ahead of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off break. In total, Detroit went 26-18-4 (56 points) with McLellan behind the bench in the 2024-25 season, equivalent to a 96-point pace over a full 82-game campaign.

“I think anytime a new coach comes in, regardless of having the time with the group last year, I think you do have their attention right off the bat,” McLellan said. “The jury will be out Day 3, 4, 5, when it becomes work. Right now, they’re real excited and they should be. I thought the effort was really good. The attention to detail was there. Little ragged with passing, but it’s early in the season. And then the scrimmage was really competitive. I think we got a lot out of the day, at least what we targeted. We’re going to work every day and build our game.”

Continued