Category: Uncategorized

Datsyuk’s in Detroit to learn, too

Updated at 10:57 AM: Pavel Datsyuk isn’t joining the Red Wings’ organization despite skating with the Red Wings’ prospects during Detroit’s development camp.

Datsyuk happened to be in town for an in-person autograph signing at Detroit City Sports, and it coincided with Detroit’s Summer Development Camp cycle, so Datsyuk’s in town to both impart wisdom and learn about skill development as he continues to work with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg to develop hockey talent in his hometown.

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Datsyuk’s cameo appearance:

“I miss Detroit, and I have hockey player development job back home,” Datsyuk said. “I wanted to see how this goes. I wanted more experience and more study from one of the best teams.”

…

“If I can give them any advice — it’s your favorite job, you choose this job,  you need to fall in love with the job,” Datsyuk said. “(That’s) how you can make it farther. And then come every day and enjoy.”

The 45-year-old doesn’t miss playing — “I have no fire in my heart” for that, he said — and coaching isn’t for him, either. But he’s enjoying taking on a role back home in developing young players.

Continued; the Red Wings posted Datsyuk’s press conference on YouTube:

Continue reading Datsyuk’s in Detroit to learn, too

Duff discusses the Red Wings’ 2024-2025 schedule

The Detroit Red Wings released their 2024-2025 season schedule yesterday, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses some of the significant dates on the sked:

The Detroit Red Wings will be counting on some home cooking to get the 2024-25 NHL regular season off to a tasty start. The Red Wings open the season with back-to-back home games – Pittsburgh (Oct. 10) and Nashville (Oct. 12).

In fact, seven of the first 11 Red Wings games will be taking place on home ice at Little Caesars Arena. On the flip side, the Red Wings will close out regular-season play with five of the last six and 10 of the final 15 games on the road.

The Detroit Red Wings will be counting on some home cooking to get the 2024-25 NHL regular season off to a tasty start. The Red Wings open the season with back-to-back home games – Pittsburgh (Oct. 10) and Nashville (Oct. 12).

In fact, seven of the first 11 Red Wings games will be taking place on home ice at Little Caesars Arena. On the flip side, the Red Wings will close out regular-season play with five of the last six and 10 of the final 15 games on the road.

The team will play a pair of four-game homestands – from December 23-31 and from January 7-14. There are a quartet of four-game road swings, three of them in the New Year. The first is from November 13-18. There are also four-game road swings on January 16-21, and from January 30-February 4. Detroit will also play four in a row away from home March 18-25.

Continued; the Red Wings’ schedule is typically more home-heavy over the first half of the season, and then road-heavy after January 1st. I don’t know why that is.

Discussing the Red Wings’ goaltending moves

The Athletic’s Jesse Granger posted an article which discusses the goaltending moves made by NHL teams during the offseason thus far, and he suggests that the Red Wings “filled a need with potential for more” in signing Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell:

There’s a lot going on in the Detroit crease at the moment. After two signings on Monday, the Red Wings now have four goalies with extensive NHL experience under contract: Cam Talbot, Ville Husso, Alex Lyon and Jack Campbell. Plus, they have two of the top goalie prospects in the league, Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine.

Augustine will be a sophomore at Michigan State, so he’s not ready to join the traffic jam, but Cossa (a first-round pick in 2021) has already put together excellent seasons in the ECHL and last year in the AHL. He’s likely the future in net for Detroit, and one of the reasons why the signing of Talbot makes a ton of sense.

Not only can Talbot still play — he proved that with 15.01 GSAx last year in Los Angeles — but he’s a perfect veteran presence to have around Cossa. How many games Talbot will end up playing is still to be settled, but he adds a professionalism to the Red Wings’ goalie room that should benefit everyone in it.

Continued (paywall); if Talbot assumes the starter’s role over Alex Lyon, he’s 36 going on 37 this Friday, and he’s signed two-year deal, so that does track toward an eventual succession plan where Cossa comes up to the NHL and Augustine joins the Red Wings’ organization in Grand Rapids.

How the Wings will alleviate their goalie glut, I don’t yet know, but my gut feeling is that Husso will be the odd man out, with some salary retained, and that Campbell is going to mentor Cossa and push him for starts in Grand Rapids.

Jake Walman holds a conference call with San Jose reporters

Former Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman held a conference call with reporters yesterday afternoon, and the now-San Jose Sharks defender told the Hockey News’s Max Miller that he found out he was traded while traveling to the NHLPA meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada…

When he found out he had been traded, Walman was on his way to Las Vegas for NHLPA meetings as the Detroit Red Wings representative. When GM Steve Yzerman called, Walman said he knew the only reason was that he had been traded.

“He didn’t really have any reason to call me other than, I guess, to tell me I was traded,” Walman said. “It started off [with], how was my summer going and then waiting for him to get to the point, and when he told me, it was almost like a little bit surreal. I didn’t think that trade was in the equation, but it almost felt like a dream. Once it kind of settled in my head, I called my family and told them. I called my brother and my best friends, and off I was with my thoughts.”

But Walman is optimistic about joining the Sharks…

Continue reading Jake Walman holds a conference call with San Jose reporters

Now work on the front half of the roster, GMSY

If you’ve been sleeping since the NHL Draft ended on June 29th, here’s what the Red Wings have accomplished over the course of the weekend and the start of unrestricted free agency, per Daily Faceoff’s Hunter Crowther:

It has been a very busy few days of free agency for the Red Wings. On Monday, the club signed goaltenders Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell, as well as forwards Christian Fischer and Sheldon Dries, and defenders Erik Gustafsson and William Lagesson.

And tonight, the team has signed Tyler Motte to a 1-year contract.

On Sunday night, Detroit re-signed Patrick Kane to a one-year contract with a base cap hit of $4 million. Last season, he scored 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points in 50 games with the Red Wings, giving Detroit a valuable option on the wing as they attempt to make the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.

Unless you’re interested in Vladimir Tarasenko, Joe Pavelski or James van Riemsdyk, there aren’t many options left in terms of adding the top-six scoring winger the Red Wings need, and there’s only so much cap space with restricted free agents Jonatan Berggren, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and Joe Veleno left to sign…

So the Red Wings may require a trade or two this summer in order to truly improve the team in a meaningful manner.

Fundraising update: ‘we wonder all about him, and the point of it all’

I’ve been walking around today exhausted from five long days starting up the blog again during the busiest time of the season…and in a daze, almost feeling grief about the fact that I’m not able to attend the Red Wings’ summer development camp due to vehicle trouble.

As I’ve already told you, our 18-year-old Chrysler Pacifica was deemed unsafe-to-drive over eight months ago, but we can’t find any outside resources to help us replace the vehicle (after contacting Oakland County, our congressperson and even WDIV; there are also no car charities that can legally spend their funds in Oakland County, so we’ve gone down that road as well), so we’ve been letting the rusted-out vehicle serve as an errand-runner.

Regrettably, its tailpipe’s fallen off and drags on the road (in three places) when I try to drive it, and we can’t afford to fix it, so the whole purpose of fundraising was to get me in a rental car for the week and down to Little Caesars Arena for the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp.

Now I’m not down there at the Red Wings’ rink for the first time since 2006, and…

Continue reading Fundraising update: ‘we wonder all about him, and the point of it all’

Press release: Red Wings confirm Tyler Motte signing

Another good down-the-lineup player:

RED WINGS SIGN FORWARD TYLER MOTTE TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT
… St. Clair Native and University of Michigan Product Has Skated in 400 NHL Games Since 2016-17 …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today signed center Tyler Motte to a one-year contract with an average annual value of $800,000.

Motte, 29, spent the 2023-24 season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, recording nine points (6-3-9) and 28 penalty minutes in 69 regular-season games. The 5-foot-10, 194-pound forward also netted one goal in five postseason games with the Lightning. Motte split the 2022-23 campaign between the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers, logging nine points (3-6-9) and four penalty minutes in 38 games with the Senators before adding 10 points (5-5-10) and two penalty minutes in 24 regular-season contests with the Rangers. Originally selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fourth round (121st overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Motte has registered 90 points (49-41-90) and 110 penalty minutes in 400 games with the Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, Rangers, Senators and Lightning since 2016-17. He also collected 32 points (21-11-32) and 49 penalty minutes in 67 American Hockey League games with the Rockford IceHogs, Cleveland Monsters and Utica Comets.

A native of St. Clair, Mich., Motte played three seasons at the University of Michigan from 2013-16, where he skated alongside Red Wings forwards J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp and Dylan Larkin. As a junior, Motte earned First Team All-American honors after racking up 56 points (32-24-56), a plus-28 rating and 36 penalty minutes in 38 games, helping the Wolverines earn a Big Ten Tournament championship. In total, Motte accumulated 105 points (50-55-105), a plus-38 rating and 72 penalty minutes in 107 games with the Wolverines. Motte also spent two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2011-13. On the international stage, Motte represented Team USA at the 2016 IIHF World Championship, notching three points (1-2-3) in 10 games. He also competed at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, picking up one assist in five appearances. Motte captured a silver medal at the 2013 World Under-18 Championship with seven points (5-2-7) in seven games, and also won silver at the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

Red Wings sign Tyler Motte to 1-year contract

Per the Red Wings on Twitter:

Motte’s 29, he’s from Port Huron, and he played for the University of Michigan for four years.

Red Wings make a ‘movie magic’ cameo in ‘Axel F’

According to the Detroit News’s Adam Graham, the Red Wings make a cameo appearance in the new Beverly Hills Cop film Axel F, but only as b-roll footage and a little bit of “movie magic”:

Detroit Red Wings: The movie’s first big set piece is a robbery at Little Caesars Arena, during a Red Wings game. Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley is seen in the stands at the game and in a standoff inside the Red Wings locker room, but that was all movie magic: cameras were rolling when the Red Wings faced the Las Vegas Golden Knights at LCA on Dec. 3, 2022 — the Wings lost that game, 4-1 — but Murphy never stepped foot in Detroit for the shoot. And the locker room is a set, not the Wings’ real locker room.

Continued; I’d imagine that it was easier (and less smelly) to recreate the locker room, but it’s a bit of a bummer that they didn’t use the Wings’ real locker room, too.