Okay, so the Red Wings released their prospect tournament roster ahead of the September 15th-19th tourney in Traverse City, MI.
Here’s the roster, which is particularly thin at forward and particularly stout on defense:
Continue reading Breaking down the Red Wings’ prospect tournament rosterPer the Detroit Red Wings:
Continue reading Press release: Red Wings post 2022 prospect tournament roster and scheduleRed Wings release 2022 NHL Prospect Tournament roster and schedule
First-round pair of Edvinsson and Cossa headline 24-man roster for five-team tournament
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today released their 2022 NHL Prospect Tournament roster and a complete tournament schedule for the event, held from Thursday, Sept. 15 to Monday, Sept. 19 at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich. The team consists of 24 recent draft picks, free agent signees and tryouts who will battle against prospect teams from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Red Wings roster is highlighted by a pair of first round picks from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft: defenseman Simon Edvinsson (6th overall) and goaltender Sebastian Cossa (15th overall). Edvinsson recorded 19 points (2-17-19) in 44 games for Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League and led league rookies with an average of 19:46 time on ice en route to being named a finalist for the SHL’s Rookie of the Year Award. The 19-year-old blueliner also helped Team Sweden to a bronze medal at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, averaging 22:27 time on ice and recording two points (1-1-2) in six games for Sweden. Cossa was a finalist for the Western Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Year Award last season after posting a 33-9-3 record, a 2.28 goals against average and a 0.913 save percentage for the Edmonton Oil Kings. In all, Cossa owns a 71-16-7 record with a 2.12 goals against average and a 0.921 save percentage across three seasons for the Oil Kings. The 19-year-old also appeared in one game to help Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Other roster notables include left wing Elmer Soderblom (159th overall, 2019), who at 6-foot-8, 249-pounds led Frolunda of the SHL with 21 goals in his first full season with the club and recorded 33 points (21-12-33) to lead all Under-21 SHL skaters; center Cross Hanas (55th overall, 2020), who averaged more than point-per-game to pace the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL with 86 points (26-60-86) in 63 games; defenseman Donovan Sebrango (63rd overall, 2020), who has already skated in 96 games for Grand Rapids as a 20-year-old and helped Team Canada win the gold medal as an alternate captain at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship; and blueliner Albert Johansson (60th overall, 2019), who posted a career-high 25 points (5-20-25) in 52 regular-season games and chipped in eight points (2-6-8) in 19 postseason appearances to help Farjestads claim the 2022 SHL Championship.
Fourteen of the 24 players on the roster are former Red Wings draft picks, with the two first-round picks in addition to two second-round picks, three third-round selections, two fourth-round picks, two fifth-round choices, two sixth-round picks and a seventh-round pick. The drafted prospects range in age from two 18-year olds (Andrew Oke and Tnias Mathurin) to 25-year-old Drew Worrad.
ESPN’s Greg Wyshysnki checked in on several players who remain unrestricted free agents as of August 31st, and here’s his report on former Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser:
Danny DeKeyser, D
Age: 32 | 2021-22 cap hit: $5 millionBack in 2019, DeKeyser probably thought this summer was going to be a financial windfall. Back then, he was playing over 21 minutes per game on average with the Detroit Red Wings and making $5 million against the cap. It wasn’t outrageous to think that he would be due for a raise as a 32-year-old free agent in 2022 as an established NHL defenseman.
Then came the back injury in late 2019, followed by the back surgery. That basically derailed DeKeyser’s career. He was limited to eight games in 2019-20 and then saw his ice time drop by nearly four minutes per game on average in the following season. He played in 59 games last season, passed through waivers and saw his 10-year run in Detroit end in a whimper, even as he felt better physically while the season progressed.
Agent Matt Federico and O2K Sports Management started working with DeKeyser a few weeks ago after the veteran defenseman was unable to latch on with a new team. The biggest questions they had for DeKeyser were about his health and his expectations. They found a player feeling good about his physical status, but one who might have been priced out of the market initially this summer. There were just too many question marks to justify a $5 million AAV deal for DeKeyser under a flat salary cap.
So expectations were adjusted and the interest started to build, Federico said.
“We weren’t sure what the landscape was going to be. But we’ve been pretty encouraged,” the agent said. “The interest has been good. We feel pretty confident that he’s going to get a deal before training camp here. It’s going to take some time to shake out. Hopefully we know more this week.”
Federico is confident that DeKeyser will have a deal in place before training camps open next month. It could be in the range of a $1 million “show me” contract, as DeKeyser attempts to rebuild his reputation.
“It’ll be a lower money deal, but it’ll be a chance to showcase himself outside of Detroit,” Federico said. “We kind of look at him as a Jack Johnson type, where he had to kind of reinvent himself and play at these lower numbers. But [Jack] is getting more years out of his career having done it. Danny has to reestablish himself.”
Continued; I hope that DeKeyser does find employment at the NHL level, but I also hope that it’s not with Detroit.
DobberHockey’s Rick Roos examined the NHL’s 32 goaltending tandems to assess potential “goalie timeshares” in teams’ creases, for fantasy hockey purposes, and Roos believes that Ville Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic may split time in the Red Wings’ crease:
Detroit Red Wings (Ville Husso, Alex Nedeljokovic)
One would think that Husso would have the inside track, having been signed as a UFA. Yet the gap between their salaries is less than $2M and Husso has never been tasked with being the starter going into a season. Moreover, it was when he was not the presumed starter, back with the Canes, that Neds was at his best; so he might step up again now that he’s not supposed to shine, plus due to the fact that he’s a UFA to be and thus will want to earn his next paycheck. We might be looking at a timeshare situation brewing.
Continued; my best bet is that the first half of the season will involve splitting duties for Husso and Nedeljkovic, with coach Lalonde picking a “starter” over the course of the second half of the season.
My apologies for the delay in finding this one, but a month ago Friday, Filip Zadina was training with the team where his dad Marek has become an assistant coach, HC Dynamo Pardubice (i.e. a team in Zadina’s home town). Zadina played for Ocelari Trinec during the COVID-shortened season, and dad won a championship with Ocelari before moving home to Dynamo Pardubice this season.
Anyway, the 3-minute video shows Zadina practicing with fellow Pardubice product and Dallas Stars prospect Matej Blumel.
I don’t speak Czech, so here’s an APB being sent out for all the Czech-speakers out there to figure out what Zadina is saying.
Tomorrow is September 1st, and, for Marco Kasper, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder‘s Rogle BK, as well as Liam Dower Nilsson‘s Frolunda HC, the 2022-2023 season will begin via games played in the Champions Hockey League.
The CHL is something of a promotional circuit, but the games count for bragging rights and bucks, and, as IIHF.com’s Derek O’Brien notes, the two teams which represent the “Red Wings East” will be playing tomorrow:
The first game to face off will be at 18:05 CET when Rogle Angelholm from Sweden visits Polish champion GKS Katowice to begin its title defence. Another notable opening-night fixture is four-time champion Frolunda Gothenburg from Sweden hosting Czech club Mountfield Hradec Kralove in a rematch of the 2019/20 final.
The 32 teams that have qualified for the competition this season come from 13 leagues and a record 14 countries. Leading the way are Sweden and Switzerland with five teams each, followed by Finland and Germany with four each, Czechia with three, Austria and Poland with two, and one each from Denmark, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Norway, Slovakia and Slovenia.
This is the first time that two teams will represent Poland, with Cracovia Krakow qualifying by winning the 2022 IIHF Continental Cup. Also for the first time, Hungary and Slovenia will be represented by Fehervar AV19 and Olimpija Ljubljana, who both play in the Austrian-based ICEHL.
O’Brien also summarizes the tournament’s format:
Continue reading Prospect season already? Rogle BK (Kasper, Niederbach, Wallinder), Frolunda HC (Dower Nilsson) to begin Champions Hockey League play on Thursday, September 1stThis summer marks 50 years since the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, a series which changed the course of hockey.
This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Red Wings play-by-play announcer and former Team Canada member Mickey Redmond regarding his experiences in the Summit Series, all ahead of a new set of documentaries set to air on the CBC starting on September 14th:
The Soviets led 5-3 in Game 8 before Esposito and Yvan Cournoyer scored in the third period to tie it. Then, with 34 seconds remaining, Paul Henderson fired in his own rebound past Vladislav Tretiak. Canada prevailed 6-5 to win the series 4-3-1.
“It was pure jubilation,” Redmond said. “For them it had to be devastating that we were able to come back like that. Tretiak was supposed to be, at least by international standards, the best goaltender in the world, but I think we proved that to be different. That’s where our advantage came — screened shots and confusion in front of the net. European players never played like that, so (their goalies) could see everything. Part of our strategy was getting in front of this guy as much as you can because he’s not used to it and he’s going to have trouble. Obviously, his goals-against wasn’t very good in the series (3.88).”
Players sang ‘O Canada!’ on the flight home and returned to massive parades and a hero’s welcome.
“There was a lot of nationalism, patriotism,” Redmond said. “Going back, right or wrong, we were considered the supreme hockey players in the world, and basically, we were defending that mindset going against the Russians. If we had tied that series at eight points apiece it would have been considered a loss for us and a win for them. We had to win to continue that supremacy thought.”
Continued; it’s a hell of an interview, so give Khan’s article a thorough read.
I’m a little lost as to how this would work, but the Hockey News’s Mike Stephens has offered 4 potential trade destinations for one Patrick Kane, a 33-year-old winger with a $10.5 million cap hit, and he includes Kane’s hometown Buffalo Sabres, the already cap-strapped Toronto Maple Leafs, the Nazem Kadri-less Colorado Avalanche, and the…Red Wings?
Detroit Red Wings
2022-23 Cap Space: $8,171,111These Red Wings are no longer rebuilding. They’re going for it — ready to win with a vastly improved roster of promising young talents and established, productive veterans.
Oh, and they also have the most valuable asset any team can have these days: Cap space. Of all the clubs focused primarily on winning games next season, the Red Wings arguably have the most financial wiggle room, sitting with over $8 million in cap space to spend on any further upgrades of their choice. Kane would certainly fit that bill, requiring roughly $3 million to be moved out to make the money work.
It’s right about now that Steve Yzerman might realize giving Ben Chiarot nearly $5 million per year probably wasn’t the best idea. But I digress!
The Red Wings wouldn’t need to tire themselves out too much to fit Kane’s contract onto their books, perhaps by adding a sweetener to Adam Erne’s $2.1 million cap hit along with another guy making near league minimum — maybe, Jake Walman? — in exchange for a late-round pick.
The thought of Kane alongside Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond is a tantalizing vision for anyone — Red Wings management included. With a little elbow grease, they could turn it into reality.
Continued; the thought of Patrick Kane playing in Detroit on the top line is indeed tantalizing.
But I think it’s pretty unrealistic, too. I’m just struggling to see how the Wings could manage to not have to surrender Simon Edvinsson or a first-round pick as a “sweetener” on the Red Wings’ side.
It’s a nice “thought experiment,” but I don’t see some sort of desperate need for the Red Wings to go out and grab Kane.
FYI, from the Toledo Walleye:
Hockey is coming.
🚨 Single game tickets (including Opening Night) go on sale this Friday, September 2 at 11 a.m. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/mcXkqvyxQl— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) August 30, 2022
Okay, it’s August 30th, and in two weeks, I’ll be packing up the Pacifica to head to Traverse City on September 14th. I’ve raised about $700 thus far, but that puts me about $3,000 short of a realistic goal in this economic climate.
Long story long, it’s fundraising season, and the stakes are high just over two weeks out. I don’t believe that I’ll be able to raise the full amount in two weeks–these days, it’s more likely that I’ll be able to raise what I need by the time the second half of the hotel bill comes due, but not earlier…
But I need to raise as much as possible to pay the first half of that $2K hotel bill and enough to fix the Pacifica’s headlight/tail light, go grocery shopping, do my dry cleaning, et. al.
So it’s time to ask for help. If you’re a TMR reader and find value in what you read, and you’re able to aid the cause, no matter how small your donation, it’s greatly appreciated. I understand that it’s particularly hard to send bucks someone else’s way right now, but this is a non-profit enterprise.
If you’re are willing to help, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.
