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The Athletic’s Max Bultman asks “burning questions” regarding the Detroit Red Wings a month out from training camp, and this question is of most urgency to me:

What does a full season with McLellan mean?

This one will be the hardest to quantify, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. The Red Wings looked markedly better after hiring Todd McLellan at Christmas, reviving their season in the second half. One of those aforementioned March slumps ultimately derailed any playoff hopes, but even with that lumped in, Detroit played to a 95-point pace under McLellan. That would have been enough to make the playoffs over a full season.

Of course, there won’t be any new coach bump this time around. But in its place will be other advantages, like a full training camp to install McLellan’s preferred systems and structures. And after how the second half went, the buy-in from players should remain strong.

Ultimately, the players’ effort and engagement level is probably more important than the particulars of which schematic McLellan and his staff decide on. And McLellan certainly got that out of the roster in his 48 games last season. Now the key will be to maintain the same blend of energy and instinct that fueled last season while also mixing in any new structures. That’s easier said than done, but it could go a long way toward determining the season’s trajectory.

Continued (paywall); while concerns about who plays with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, the goaltending under John Gibson, the improvement of the Wings’ young players and the potential impact of rookies are all interesting discussions, I feel that the coaching staff’s performance may be the greatest determinant of success or failure this upcoming season.

Coach Todd McLellan and his revamped staff have to set the tone for team consistency starting on the first morning of training camp, and avoiding customary swoons in December, March and April will be essential for the team’s playoff relevancy.

McLellan, assistant coaches Trent Yawney and Alex Tanguay, and video coordinators Jeff Weintraub and Erich Junge have a hard job ahead of them, and marginal personnel improvements to work with. It’s going to be essential that the coaches get the most out of their players regardless of their “name value” for the team to take a step forward.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, former Maple Leaf, Red Wing and Vancouver Canuck Mark Kirton has passed away at 67 years of age due to ALS:

Former Detroit Red Wings center Mark Kirton never sought out sympathy as he battled with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The neurodegenerative disease, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, claimed Kirton’s life on Sunday. He was 67 years old.

“I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me,” Kirton said in a 2021 interview with the CHL website. Right until the end, even as his body steadily betrayed him, he never allowed his bleak prognosis to impact his outlook on life.

“Even though it’s humbling, I just wasn’t going to change,” Kirton said. “I was going to be positive and not allow any negativity to enter my DNA.”

He worked tirelessly raising funds for research into the illness. Kirton was able to incorporate several of his NHL contemporaries to help with his fight, including former Red Wings star Paul Henderson.

He’s the second former Detroit player to lose his life to ALS in recent years. The disease also killed Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming in 2022. Salming spent his last NHL season with the Red Wings in 1989-90.

Continued;

Dobber Hockey’s Puneet Sharma brings up a Red Wings “Bubble Keeper Prospect” who does have some questions to answer in what is likely a pivotal season for his North American hockey career in one William Wallinder:

William Wallander, D – Detroit Red Wings

Wallander took another step forward in his second North American season, posting 19 points with Grand Rapids. He is a big mobile defenseman that uses his mobility and frame effectively to control space and read plays well in his own zone. Offensively, he makes smart plays under pressure but will not drive production. He projects as a steady third-pair option who could see NHL time with Detroit this season. From a fantasy perspective Wallander is a keep in deeper formats as he is a low-risk, defensively sound option with modest upside.

Bubble Keeper Status: Keep

The Red Wings have two left-shooting defensemen with solid futures in the 6’4,” 190-pound Wallinder, who’s 23, and 6’3,” 222-pound Shai Buium, who’s 22, but I do wonder whether players like Wallinder or right-shooting defenseman Antti Tuomisto, 24, might end up packing their bags for Europe if they don’t make progress this season.

Put bluntly, when European pros hit their third year in North America, they tend to make a decision as to whether they’re willing to ply their trades in the AHL for another season or two in order to make the NHL–or at least make a good living here in North American pro hockey…

Or whether they’re of the mind to head back to European pro hockey, where they can make several hundred thousand dollars more per season while playing a less-demanding schedule in terms of both travel and the number of games played.

In Europe, being an “NHL-merited” or “NHL-drafted” player carries a bit of a cachet, too, and it earns players bigger paychecks as a result.

When you can play about 50 regular-season games in the SHL, Liiga, DEL, Swiss league, Czechia, Slovakia or even the KHL, and earn more money as while not enduring those 8-to-10-hour bus rides and 74 regular-season games of punishing AHL hockey, well…Some guys choose the former option, understandably so.

Given that Wallinder came from a very successful Rogle BK team, and that Tuomisto has already gone back home to Finland and come back to North America, it’s getting close to “fish or cut bait” time for both players, and you and I tend to hope that everybody succeeds, but it’s very difficult to make the NHL, and harder still to stick there.

It’s going to be a climb up the depth chart for Wallinder, Buium and Tuomisto, and it’s not going to be easy for any of them. I certainly wish them all success.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggests that the Red Wings are going through another “Dead Things” era under the Ken Holland/Steve Yzerman rebuild, but Allen lets Yzerman’s remarks on the team’s attempt to turn its ship around as well:

GM Steve Yzerman was asked after last season whether he had concerns that this young group only knows frustration when it comes to trying to qualify for the playoffs.

“I guess I do,” Yzerman said. “I look at last season and this season, although we didn’t make it, we’re fighting every night for a playoff spot if you like, believe it or not, we are trying to win, our players are trying to win. We need to be better.”

What the Red Wings want to avoid is to make the playoffs once, like the 1977-78 Red Wings, and then miss again for a few years. They are trying to build a team that can make the playoffs every year for an extended period.

Continue reading Slowly but surely

Former Red Wings center and current SKA St. Petersburg coach Igor Larionov is hosting a podcast on Vedmosti.ru, as first reported by Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff on August 1st.

This morning, Duff shares a readout of a conversation Larionov had with fellow Wings alumnus Pavel Datsyuk from Sport-Express, and Datsyuk told Larionov that even #13 was a bit star-struck when he joined the 2001-2002 Red Wings team:

“The whole time it seemed like I didn’t close my mouth,” Datsyuk explained. “I ended up on some crazy planet, where another world opened up to me, a hockey world. I could attend a training session, where each training session was like a lesson for me. One day I could watch one player, another day another. It was such a wonderful time.”

Detroit’s roster that season included nine future Hall of Fame players – Larionov, Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Chris Chelios. And of course, Datsyuk, who would go on to a spectacular career of his own.

“You joined the team and still became an outstanding personality,” Larionov said to Datsyuk. “This is something to strive for, understanding that this is a lot of work that you have to go through. And you did it. And I am glad that I was able to play with you on the same team for a couple of years.”

Continued; the actual readout is interesting. Kudos to Duff for finding it and sharing it with us.

If you look at the Red Wings’ depth chart after the Travis Hamonic signing, Detroit has Ben Chiarot, Erik Gustafsson, Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson and William Lagesson as left-shooting defenders–though Albert Johansson plays the right side–and Moritz Seider, Justin Holl, Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker as right-shot defenders.

Long story long, the Red Wings are now 4 NHL defensemen deep on the left-D side, and 5 NHL defensemen deep on the right-D side.

As such, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan made the following assumption about one Axel Sandin Pellikka‘s immediate playing future…

Friday’s signing likely erases any chance of Axel Sandin-Pellikka, the Wings’ 2023 first-round draft pick, of making the opening-night roster. The offensive defenseman turned pro last spring and played three playoff games with minor league affiliate Grand Rapids.

But the 5-foot-11, 176-pound Sandin-Pellikka likely needs more time, and develop more strength, to play the more physical and faster North American pro game.

While Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen offered a slightly more optimistic tone on Sandin Pellikka’s chances of “stealing a job” on defense:

Continue reading On the realm of possibility

NHL.com has posted its “Quarter-Century Team” as determined by the NHL Network–with players who debuted after January 1st, 2000 eligible–and Pavel Datsyuk is the only Red Wings representative (unless you count Patrick Kane):

Pavel Datsyuk: The center ranked second in games played (953), goals (314), assists (604) and points (918) for the Detroit Red Wings in the quarter-century. He won the Stanley Cup in 2002 and 2008, the Selke Trophy three straight times from 2008-10, and the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and playing ability four seasons in a row from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Datsyuk finished his career plus-249, the sixth-highest total in the quarter-century. Datsyuk was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players.

The Hockey News’s Steve Warne adds some context to the Red Wings’ signing of depth defenseman Travis Hamonic to a 1-year, $1 million contract today:

Last season was a turbulent one for both [Jacob Bernard-Docker and Hamonic]. Bernard-Docker overcame a serious leg injury at practice early in the season and thought he might find a new opportunity with the Sabres. But they healthy-scratched him for over two weeks after he arrived. He played the final 15 games in Buffalo, but the Sabres chose not to re-sign him.

Hamonic did a bit of everything here last season. He started in the bottom pair, then got some top-four minutes after an early injury to Artem Zub. Hamonic had more healthy scratches than any veteran pro would like, but he always made himself available to the team’s young defenders, particularly during the rookie seasons of Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven.

It quickly became clear after the Senators’ 2024-25 season ended that Hamonic wouldn’t be part of the club’s future plans. The team immediately re-signed Matinpalo to a two-year deal, brought former first-rounder Lassi Thomson back from Sweden, and traded for L.A. Kings defenseman Jordan Spence at the draft. With that logjam on the right side, including former first-rounder Carter Yakemchuk pressing for NHL work, Hamonic’s exit was inevitable.

When asked about his season at the year-end media availability in May, the classy veteran took the high road and didn’t dwell on any of the negatives.

“I just, quite frankly, tried to do whatever was needed from me and whatever was asked,” Hamonic said. “And I kind of played a little bit of everything this year, I think, a little bit of different roles here and there. And just tried to do that as best I could and have as much fun as I could with it. Because we are blessed to play this game and do what I do for a living. So I just tried to show up with a smile on my face and let the chips fall where they may every day.”

Continued; Hamonic doesn’t stand to be much more than an NHL veteran to replace William Lagesson as the Wings’ #7 or #8 defenseman, but his character isn’t in question.

Hamonic had this to say to Warne about his status as having fallen out with the fans by the end of the 2024-2025 season:

Continue reading Travis Hamonic may or may not be a liability, but he’s going to be a fine depth guy from a character standpoint

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins:

We have partnered with the @TexasStars to support their flood relief auction. All money raised will go to the Austin Disaster Relief Network to help their neighbors in nearby Sandy Creek clean up, reset, and rebuild 🫶

SUPPORT HERE>> https://t.co/ggkVFZVaZd pic.twitter.com/vB8fCK2DvH

— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) August 15, 2025

NHL scout Will Scouch discusses the Detroit Red Wings’ prospect system over the course of a 10-minute video today: