Category: Uncategorized

Red Wings sign Travis Hamonic to 1-year, $1 million contract

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Hamonic is 35 as of tomorrow, he’s 6’2″ and 205 pounds, and he posted 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points, with a -16, over the course of 59 games with the Ottawa Senators last season.

Update: Here’s the Wings’ press release:

Continue reading Red Wings sign Travis Hamonic to 1-year, $1 million contract

Regarding Anton Johansson’s auspicious SHL preseason start

As the European leagues’ preseason games continue, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes this regarding Red Wings prospect and Leksands IF defenseman Anton Johansson:

Earlier this week, Red Wings Prospects reported that Anton Johansson (105th, 2022) was on Leksands’ first defensive pairing. Undoubtedly, the Red Wings (and their fans) would prefer to see Johansson in the AHL this season. However, he can still grow his game in the SHL. The only issue is that Johansson is a physical player and playing for the Griffins would have allowed him to explore that ability more than the SHL.

Leksands IF won 2-1 over Djurgarden yesterday, and while you and I may not get much from it, their website posted a clip of Johansson speaking with the media:

Press release: Griffins offer more details regarding Red vs. White Game

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

MORE DETAILS FOR DETROIT RED WINGS’ RED & WHITE GAME ANNOUNCED

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Detroit Red Wings’ Red & White Game at Van Andel Arena on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. will feature a pre-game autograph session with Red Wings legends such as Dan Cleary, Kris Draper, Jiri Fischer, Niklas Kronwall, Kirk Maltby, and Darren McCarty (lineup subject to change).

From 2-3 p.m., fans will have the opportunity to receive autographs from some of their favorite Red Wings alumni on the arena concourse. Photo cards will be available for fans to get signed, but patrons are welcome to bring their own items. There will be a strict limit of one autograph per fan from each Red Wings alum.

The game format, which is subject to change, will consist of two 20-minute, stop-time periods with a full intermission. Following the second period, which may include scheduled power-play and penalty kill segments, a dry scrape of the ice surface will precede a shootout featuring a select number of players from both the Red and White teams.

Tickets for the Red & White Game are available to the general public through griffinshockey.com. Group ticket packages may be ordered by calling the Griffins’ office at (616) 774-4585 ext. 4 or visiting griffinshockey.com. 

Red Savage set to test unrestricted free agent marketplace on Saturday

Today is the last day for NHL teams to sign college-age draft picks drafted four years ago. Several 2021 draft picks will walk as unrestricted free agents if their NHL rights-holders don’t sign them today, and Wings pick Red Savage appears to be one of them.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, the Red Wings sounded like they were going to sign 5’11,” 185-pound center and Michigan State University captain Savage to some sort of two-way NHL or AHL contract in July, but as of today, it appears that Savage will test the unrestricted free agent marketplace tomorrow:

The Red Wings made center Red Savage the 114th overall pick of the 2021 NHL entry draft. He was playing with the USNTDP in Plymouth, Michigan, at the time. The son of former NHL forward Brian Savage went on to play college hockey at Miami (Ohio) and Michigan State. He completed his final year of eligibility with the Spartans in 2024-25.

Earlier in the offseason, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman wasn’t ruling out getting Savage’s name on a contract.

“We’ve had some discussions on potentially Red remaining in the fold on some type of contract,” Yzerman said.

As the clock ticks toward the deadline, it would appear that those talks didn’t come to fruition.

Continued; as of early July, Yzerman suggested that Red Wings assistant GM and Grand Rapids Griffins GM Shawn Horcoff would be in charge of signing Savage, and again, it appeared that the Wings were looking to sign Savage to an AHL deal. That’s unlikely now.

I’m a little disappointed that the Wings probably won’t hammer out a deal with Savage, because he’s a doggedly hard worker bee of a heart-and-soul player, but the Red Wings have several examples thereof in the organization already.

PuckPedia also has a full list of the players who will become unrestricted free agents if they don’t sign with their rights-holders today…

Another ‘Mount Rushmore’ for the Red Wings’ Quarter Century team

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson has compiled a list of the “Mount Rushmore” fours for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams over the course of the last quarter-century, and his picks for the Red Wings’ foundational players are, for the most part, empty-net tap-ins:

Nicklas Lidström, Defense

Steve Yzerman, Center

Pavel Datsyuk, Center

Henrik Zetterberg, Center

Lidström won the James Norris Memorial Trophy seven times from 2000-01 to 2010-11 and was the first European to captain an NHL team to the Stanley Cup (2008).

Yzerman is the franchise assist leader (1,063) and captained the Wings to three Stanley Cups, including his last in 2002. Both are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Datsyuk is also in the Hall of Fame, winning four Lady Byng Memorial Trophies and three Frank J. Selke Trophies between 2005-06 and 2009-10.

Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2008 and is fifth among the franchise leaders with 337 goals, 623 assists and 960 points.

I’m not certain whether I’d have Yzerman as one of the Wings’ Quarter Century icons as his career was a little more prolific in the 90’s, but that’s just a small quibble.

It’s just survival

Raising funds to keep the blog running…Is always difficult. This August is no exception.

After a really spectacular start, we haven’t received any contributions over four of the past five days, and we’re stuck at about $320 of the $617 necessary to pay the bills this time around.

I know that it’s August, when the hockey news is relatively quiet (other than trade rumors). I know that it’s never easy to ask for funds from one’s readers, either.

But this is how a non-commercial and sponsor-free blog works, and if enduring fundraising drives is how we get by, it’s how we get by.

Continue reading It’s just survival

Lashoff on the Red Wings’ defensive standard

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins assistant coach and former Griffins defenseman Brian Lashoff about the state of the Red Wings’ defense:

The Hockey News recently caught up with Brian Lashoff, Assistant Head Coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate, who shared compelling insights into the system and scheme adjustments being introduced ahead of next season by the Red Wings coaching staff. According to Lashoff, it’s important for a team that struggled in a particular area the previous year to reset and establish a new “standard” for their style of play moving forward.

“You see the structure they’re putting in place, the details that they’re focusing on, and I think those types of things are going to give them success in the long run,” Lashoff explained “I think the start of the season is going to be the biggest thing and I think that’s a great thing about their staff, and is setting a standard right away, and then holding the team to that standard.”

Lashoff is no stranger to the Red Wings organization, having played 136 NHL games over seven seasons with Detroit, including a notable NHL debut in which he scored his first career goal from the blueline. However, the bulk of his career was spent in the AHL, where he logged 629 games over 14 seasons with the Griffins, serving as team captain in his final years. In 2023, he transitioned from player to coach, joining the Griffins’ coaching staff. While the shift came with its challenges, Lashoff credited the strong support from the staff around him for making the adjustment much smoother.

Continue reading Lashoff on the Red Wings’ defensive standard

Press release: Grand Rapids Griffins announce that current, former Red Wings will sign autographs prior to, after Red vs. White Game

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a promotional email regarding the Red vs. White Game to be held at Van Andel Arena on Sunday, September 21st…

And the email indicates that the Griffins will be hosting a slate of current and former Red Wings (as well as some Griffins alums) for autograph-signings:

JUST ANNOUNCED: Red Wings Alumni Signing!

The Detroit Red Wings are bringing their annual Red & White Game to Grand Rapids on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 3:00 p.m. This special game will feature stars such as Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, and Alex DeBrincat along with future Griffins standouts.

Just announced: Meet Red Wings legends like Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, Jiri Fischer, Dan Cleary, and Niklas Kronwall during a pre-game alumni signing on the concourse.

You can purchase your tickets here, and they range from $32.89 – $43.26.

Buy your tickets today and you will receive a special discount code for Griffins Opening Night, presented by Huntington Bank on Friday, Oct. 17 in your confirmation email.

Good news for Griffins season ticket members: This exciting Red & White Game is already included in your season ticket package! No additional purchase necessary.

The Athletic’s Mirtle discusses the Red wings’ rebuilding effort

The Athletic’s James Mirtle answers league-wide questions in a eclectic mailbag feature this morning, and one of the questions he answers involves the Detroit Red Wings’ rebuild.

I’m only going to post part of his answer as it’s particularly long–ten paragraphs:

Will the Red Wings ever be a free-agent destination? Is the Yzerplan a massive failure?  — Derek F. 

Here’s the gist of his answer:

Is Detroit as sexy of a UFA landing spot as Vegas or Dallas right now? No. But it’s also not one of the teams that’s going on the top of players’ limited no-trade clauses like some other markets. It’s still an Original Six team, with a strong history and a new building, and it’s also close to home for a lot of NHLers. Patrick Kane certainly likes it there, for example.

The biggest thing working against the Red Wings, and the reason they’re having to overpay lower-tier talent to add free agents, is that they just haven’t been competitive enough. The no-state-tax factor has been talked to death, but the other thing in common between a lot of the teams that most players want to go to (or stay with) is that they win a lot of games. It’s coming up on a decade for Detroit out of the playoffs and they haven’t won a playoff round since that lockout-shortened season in 2013.

Steve Yzerman came back as general manager in 2019, so only six of those seasons are on him — and realistically, given the mess he inherited, this was a pretty long-term project. And they’ve had some bad luck in the draft lottery, dropping more than anyone in recent years and only picking in the top five once (Lucas Raymond at No. 4 in 2020).

But now is about the time you’d want to see real progress in the standings, and the second-half fall-off last season was disappointing.

The big question for the Red Wings is whether they have their elite talent base that can elevate them from wild-card contender to one of the best seven or eight teams in the league. I’m a big fan of Simon Edvinsson. Marco Kasper has flashed potential. And they have other very good prospects coming. We’ll see if their young players will be (a) high-end enough to compete with some of the best star cores in the league and (b) ready when their existing talent like Dylan Larkin isn’t in a downswing.

Adding a marquee free agent right now would be nice, obviously, but the Red Wings are not realistically an Ekblad away from contention anyway. Their biggest hope is a little more patience, as the kids start to hit their stride and some of the other contenders in the Atlantic Division age out. They should be a wild-card team this year, especially with their cap flexibility to work with in-season.

Continued (paywall); Mirtle suggests that this year is going to be a pivotal season for the “Yzerplan,” which is under significant pressure to display some positive results.

Quite frankly, I’ve heard on the grapevine that the Red Wings raised season ticket prices over the summer, and there are fans who are willing to pay a little more for the progress they’ve seen, and there are, of course, fans who are particularly pissed off because the Wings haven’t made the progress that they were hoping for.

The Wings are at a crossroads for sure. I don’t believe that it’s necessary to throw the rebuild in the trash and start over–nor do I believe that Yzerman is going to be fired if the Wings go nowhere this season–but there’s pressure for the Winged Wheel’s rubber to meet the road this year.