Category: Uncategorized

Tweets of note: Some EDGE-y Red Wings stats

Of note from NHL.com’s “Edge” stats this evening:

Video: IIHF posts a ‘hype reel’ for Red Wings prospect Michal Pradel

The IIHF’s YouTube channel posted a short clip hyping Red Wings prospect goaltender Michal Pradel’s goalkeeping for Slovakia during this past season’s Under-18 World Championship:

The Red Wings drafted the 6’5,” 198-pound Pradel 75th overall this past June after a strong season split between the Slovak national team and the USHL’s Tri-City Storm.

This past summer it was pretty difficult to determine where Pradel would play as the WHL’s Regina Pats drafted him in the CHL Import Draft, but Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen reported that Pradel’s going to play for Tri-City as the 18-year-old eyes earning an NCAA Division 1 school scholarship this upcoming season.

A bit of praise for Amadeus Lombardi

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye discusses three Red Wings prospects who may play in their first NHL games this upcoming season in Amadeus Lombardi, Nate Danielson and Shai Buium. We haven’t talked all that much about “Ammo” Lombardi, so let’s give him a fair shrift:

EliteProspects has Lombardi listed at 5’10” and 165 pounds, but no one who’s watched him play in Grand Rapids or with the Red Wings’ prospects (be it through development camps or during the Prospect Games) doubts that Lombardi can make the NHL in a checking role. The 22-year-old is extraordinarily tenacious, and he posted 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points over the course of 44 AHL games this past season…

And he’s just got the kind of wheels and the kinds of hands necessary to complement his tremendous competitive advantage.

Here’s Tye’s take:

Amadeus Lombardi, C

Detroit‘s fourth-round pick back in 2022 has found his game this past season with a near point-per-game average with the Grand Rapids Griffins. The 22-year-old Newmarket native recorded 40 points, tying for fourth on the team in points with winger Sheldon Dries. His 19 goals was also tied for third on the team with former NHLer Austin Watson. This is all with Lombardi having played just 44 games compared to the others around him that played closer to the full 72-game AHL season. If an opportunity becomes available with an injury that would require the team to call up a center for the fourth line, we can count on Lombardi getting a chance to make his debut.

Continued; Lombardi’s NHL ceiling may be as a checking forward, but he’s going to be a real pain in the ass for opponents to deal with. If he shows up to training camp with even 5 to 10 more pounds of muscle, opponents better look out.

Red Wings’ front office helped William Horcoff excel on the pickleball court

Red Wings assistant GM/Grand Rapids Griffins GM Shawn Horcoff’s son, Will, was drafted 24th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2025 NHL Draft this past June, and the younger Horcoff reveals that he’s spent a considerable amount of his time playing pickleball against the Red Wings’ front office, as noted by Pickleball.com’s Matt Cudzinowski:

The 18-year-old forward grew up in the Detroit suburbs just steps away from a court courtesy of his father, former NHL player, Shawn Horcoff, who suited up for over 1,000 games between Edmonton, Dallas, and Anaheim.

“We’ve kind of played our whole lives. Our old house in Birmingham had a court in the backyard and so does our new house in Bloomfield Hills, so it’s one thing that I’ve played since I was very young. It’s something that my family has always played,” said Horcoff, a first-round NHL Draft selection (24th overall) this past June. “My friends would come over and play, too. We would just play all the time growing up.”

Horcoff, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, also has fond memories of watching his father and his work colleagues from the Detroit Red Wings front office go head-to-head on the 20×44 from time to time.

Guests included Stanley Cup champions, Kris Draper and Dan Cleary, whose genuine appreciation for America’s fastest-growing sport is well documented.

Shawn currently works as the assistant general manager of the Red Wings and general manager of the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins as well.

“I just love how competitive it was. They’d be best friends, but screaming at each other and going at it,” recalled Horcoff. “That’s what I loved about it, just guys getting super into it. Those were really fun games to watch. There were some pretty heated matches.”

Continued; Kris Draper is so good at pickleball that he rides a fine line between his amateur status and professional status. Here’s hoping that Draper’s recovering well from his hip replacement surgery in the spring as well.

Sixth out of eight–that’s Khan’s take on where the Red Wings belong in a stacked Atlantic Division

MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that the Detroit Red Wings should be ranked 6th in the Atlantic Division going into the upcoming season, behind both the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, and ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins:

6. Detroit

GM Steve Yzerman had ample cap space and still does ($12 million), but the free-agent market was thin, and he wasn’t able to swing a significant trade. The Red Wings return with mostly the same roster, adding depth forwards James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton and third-pair defensemen Travis Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker. They fell five points short of the final playoff spot and hope an upgrade in goal to John Gibson and a full season under coach Todd McLellan, along with internal growth, can be the difference in ending the 100-year-old franchise’s longest playoff drought.

Continued (paywall); the Red Wings’ performance this upcoming season will have to surprise a lot of people, including the team’s own beat writers.

Prospect round-up: Nikita Tyurin blocks 2 shots as MHK Spartak wins 2-0 over MHK Dynamo

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the MHL, Nikita Tyurin finished at +1 with 2 blocked shots in MHK Spartak’s 2-0 win over MHK Dynamo.

Update: Per Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

Dylan James and the long road to becoming a strong NCAA prospect

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye posted a profile of Red Wings prospect and University of North Dakota left wing Dylan James, and while I wouldn’t call the 6,’ 190-pound senior a “blue-chip prospect” going into his senior year at UND, the 40th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft is something of a “wild card” prospect.

As Tye suggests, James faces an incredibly important senior season as he vies for a contract offer from the Red Wings:

In his freshman season, James scored eight goals and dished eight assists for 16 points through 36 games. His sophomore season saw little improvement as he played four more games at 40 but only recorded three more points at 19 on the year. This past season as a Junior, he continued his subtle climb in production up another three points to a fairly decent 22 through 38 games. Entering his Senior year, we can predict based on his regular three-point increase every season that he likely record 25 points, which would be solid but will it be enough to get an entry level deal?

The Red Wings just finished letting go of the rights to an in-state standout this past off-season in former fourth-round pick Red Savage. The Michigan State captain had a stellar junior season with 27 points over 38 games (0.71 point-per-game average) before finishing off his collegiate career with an injury and being limited to 11 points through 20 games. Savage has, for the most part, produced at a higher clip than James on average and Savage still did not receiving an entry level deal. He would go on to sign with the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL affiliate in the Rochester Americans.

Hopefully, this isn’t the same path for James as the Red Wings would like to get the most out of their picks. What would James need to do to show the organization that he’s ready to take the leap to pro hockey? 

Tye continues, noting the comments made by Nate Danielson and Shai Buium regarding the adjustments necessary to thrive at the AHL level, but the one thing he leaves out is important:

The University of North Dakota is the type of school where you have to earn your shifts, beginning as a seldomly-used freshman and a slightly more-involved sophomore. It took James two years to establish himself at the NCAA level, and his junior and senior seasons are really going to tell the tale as to whether he’s worth an NHL or AHL deal.

There’s much at stake for James this season, obviously, but the Red Wings believe that his game and conditioning are top-notch. We’ll see where he goes.

The fantasy hockey-relevant Seider and DeBrincat ‘iron man’ streaks

DobberHockey’s Eli Fieldman offers a list of 10 fantasy hockey-relevant “iron men” for poolies to pay attention to this upcoming season, and in doing so, he reveals that one Red Wings player has played in more consecutive games than Moritz Seider:

3.   Moritz Seider (328 Games)

Without missing a single game in his NHL career thus far, Moritz Seider has emerged as Detroit’s defensive anchor and a top-notch fantasy asset. For a workhorse defenseman logging heavy minutes against top competition each night, Seider’s durability is extraordinary. While his elite category coverage (including hits, blocks, power play production) makes him one of the most valuable fantasy defensemen in fantasy hockey, his durability adds yet another layer of appeal.

2.   Alex DeBrincat (374 Games)

At just 5’8″, DeBrincat has faced questions about his ability to handle the rigors of the NHL throughout his career. Cat’s response, however, has been emphatic – to the tune of 374 consecutive games and counting. Along with his reliable goal scoring, DeBrincat offers power play punch in a top-six role. Cat’s combo of production and durability makes him a key part of Detroit’s rebuild and one of the most dependable wingers around.

Continued;

Positives and negatives for the ‘bubble’ Wings

The Hockey News’s Michael Augello examines “pluses and minuses” of three “bubble teams” in the NHL’s Eastern Conference in the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, and both the good and not-so-good news about the Red Wings involves a single position:

Detroit Red Wings

Positive 

After years of struggling to find a legitimate No. 1 goalie, GM Steve Yzerman may have finally solved the issue with the acquisition of John Gibson from Anaheim. The rest of the summer was spent solidifying their depth, adding veterans Travis Hamonic, Mason Appleton and James van Riemsdyk. 

Negative 

The Wings did not add any offense to a club that had only four players who scored 20 or more goals last season, which means they will have to play much better defensively, even though the depth on their blueline is questionable, and will need their improved tandem of Gibson and Cam Talbot to steal points. 

Continued; the Wings need to both manufacture more offense and improve their defensive play, and at present, it appears that the team’s desire to add a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman will have to wait.

NHL Network names Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin the 41st-best player in the NHL today

The NHL Network spent this past summer ranking top players by position, and this morning, they begin releasing their list of the top 50 players regardless of position in the NHL. Of numbers 50 to 41, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin occupies the 41st position:

41. Dylan Larkin, C, Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings captain is the ninth player in team history with four consecutive 30-goal seasons and the first to do it since Henrik Zetterberg from 2005-09. Last season, Larkin played all 82 games for the second time, finishing with 40 assists and 70 points, and had a goal and an assist in four games at the 4 Nations Face-Off to help the United States reach the championship game, a 3-2 overtime loss to Canada. The 29-year-old center has also had at least 13 power-play goals in each of the past three seasons.

I can’t embed it, but there’s a video of Mike Johnson and Corey Schneider discussing Larkin’s pluses posted within the article.

Update: you can watch the video here.