Category: Uncategorized

Roughly translated: Noah Dower Nilsson registers 3 assists in preseason game

August isn’t just trade rumor season, part 2: It’s also the beginning of a full month’s worth of exhibition games and “friendly” tournaments for European teams from Russia to Finland, Sweden, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, et. al.

Most European teams have already had their “ice premiere,” in which the teams make their first public appearances before fans after practicing informally for a couple of weeks together, and then the month-plus of exhibition games and tournaments begin around the 10th-to-14th of the month.

Now it’s incredibly important to remember that we’re talking about a month-long preseason in August here, but it is good to hear GP.se’s Viktor Freden report that Noah Dower Nilsson had 3 assists in today’s exhibition game between NDN‘s Frolunda HC and HV71.

Frolunda won 5-0, and 20-year-old Dower Nilsson, a 6,’ 185-pound winger, posted those three “apples” on a line with former Red Wings draft pick Theodor Niederbach.

Here’s a short translation of the pertinent part of Freden’s article:

Continue reading Roughly translated: Noah Dower Nilsson registers 3 assists in preseason game

Matheson confirms some long-term Oilers interest in Sebastian Cossa, but interest is not action

My English professors in college always told me to cite my sources, and so we’re citing a third source regarding the Edmonton Oilers’ long-term interest in Sebastian Cossa, from one Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal:

So we’ve got a third source in addition to yesterday’s pair thereof, and three sources is usually the threshold for accuracy. I’d trust Matheson and Cam Robinson and Bob Stauffer, to be honest, so this rumor has legs in my book…

But interest is one thing, and making a deal happen with an organization that wants to see both Cossa and Trey Augustine in its goaltending system two years down the line is a very different matter.

Today’s source of rumor-fueled discussion is Kyle Connor

I’m posting this with a big caveat here: It’s August 12th.

So Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli suggests that, should Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor not re-sign with his team, he might return home to Detroit as an unrestricted free agent next summer:

Now I have literal tons of respect for Mr. Seravalli, who’s one of the most respected experts in hockey. And he’s right that the Red Wings could use a player like the 28-year-old Connor, obviously.

But Seravalli himself suggests that the Jets have every opportunity to re-sign their own player for the next 11 months before Detroit would get its chance to swing at Connor next July.

A fundraising odyssey

Yesterday was a particularly good day on the fundraising front. We’re about $300 of the way to that $617 set of bills.

As you know, things get tougher as fundraising continues, so I don’t want to hammer the fundraising drum, but that’s exactly what I have to do to keep the blog running.

I hope that you can lend a hand in some way, shape or form. I’m very happy to provide content and commentary for you, and I wish that I could do it for free, but that’s just not how things work.

Continue reading A fundraising odyssey

Discussing Rickard Rakell’s ‘fit’

The Red Wings may very well be interested in Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Bryan Rust and/or Rickard Rakell to supplement the team’s goal-scoring, but the Wings’ front office is an airtight nuclear submarine, and it offers no hints as to what the management team might be examining.

There is presumed to be interest from Detroit, however, so Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz discusses the Wings as a possible landing spot for the latter forward, 33-year-old Rakell:

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings have to do something else this offseason…don’t they?

They cannot possibly go into this season without any major moves beyond trading for John Gibson. They cannot possibly open the season with a roster that is largely unchanged from the one that hasn’t been good enough to snap their playoff drought.

They cannot go into the season with more than $12 million in unused salary-cap space.

None of that would be an acceptable offseason.

They have the need for more scoring up front, they have the salary-cap space to easily fit Rakell’s contract in, and they have young players who could be flipped and would fit into the Penguins’ long-term rebuild.

There has to be some urgency for Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings right now given how long the playoff drought has been and how little progress has been made in the standings under his watch.

The free-agent market was a bust for Detroit. Trades are going to have to be the path from here. Any of the Penguins’ potential trade chips would fit here.

Continued; Rakell, 32, stands at 6’1″ and 205 pounds, and he posted 35 goals and 35 assists last season. He’s making a $5 million cap-hit deal for the next 3 seasons, and I think that he’d be particularly difficult to pry from the Penguins given his status as an almost-point-per-game player with strong skating skills.

Would the Swede fit right into Detroit’s top six? Sure, but the question always remains: what’s he going to cost?

Taking the compliments gracefully

The Athletic’s Pittsburgh Penguins correspondent, Josh Yohe, is ranking the NHL’s 31 non-Pittsburgh travel destinations by their desirability, and he ranks Detroit 22nd overall, but not for the reasons you’d expect:

22. Detroit Red Wings

Positives

• Little Caesars Arena is the NHL’s best building.
• Easy drive, though the weather can get nasty in the winter.
• Detroit is on the upswing and a very underrated town.
• The Penguins play here on a Saturday afternoon, which makes for great convenience.

Negatives

• The rivalry isn’t what it once was.
• This isn’t a tropical trip.
• The Penguins are missing the annual car convention in Detroit by a week, which is bad timing.

The Wings host Pittsburgh in the back half of a home-and-home series on Saturday, January 3rd at 12 PM, so…

Continue reading Taking the compliments gracefully

I’m Antti-worry about Tuomisto’s waiver status

Red Wings prospect defenseman Antti Tuomisto may stand at 6’5″ and 205 pounds, but the big defenseman is also already 24 years of age, so the Grand Rapids Griffins veteran doesn’t have a whole lot of developmental runway left.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also notes that Tuomisto’s no longer waiver-exempt due to the combination of his age and the number of AHL games that he’s played…

One thing to keep in mind in assessing how the Detroit-Grand Rapids Carousel might operate: Antti Tuomisto is no longer waiver-exempt. Would another team claim him? Maybe. He’s got size, a shot, competes hard. The question about him is his skating.

I’m not going to worry about Tuomisto getting plucked off the waiver wire. Given the fact that he hasn’t played any NHL games yet, and given that his skating is still an issue, there are going to be more appealing defenders available on the waiver wire come the end of the exhibition season.

Unless Tuomisto takes several steps forward and almost makes the Wings’ roster, he’ll continue to be a “project prospect,” and that’s generally not the kind of player who finds himself plucked off waivers.

We’re moving on from Mason McTavish-to-Detroit rumors to Sebastian Cossa-to-Edmonton rumors

The next “goose chase” is on. Whether it’s wild or not depends upon your point of view.

The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker reports that EliteProspects director of film scouting Cam Robinson, who is not one to manufacture trade rumors because it’s August or any other month, offered this on the latest “Sekeres and Price” show:

Appearing on The Sekeres & Price Show, League Insider Cam Robinson – Content Director and Director of Film Scouting for Elite Prospects – revealed that he’s been told the Oilers have reached out to Detroit about potentially acquiring [Sebastian] Cossa to present to their fans as their goaltender of the future.

“I’ve heard that they’re looking a little more long term, and their field of vision is a little wider here,” Robinson said of the Oilers. “I’ve been told they’ve contacted Detroit, I believe the first person they asked about was Trey Augustine and think it was just a non-starter. Steve Yzerman and company really love that kid, and they should.”

“But they have a 6’6″, 6’7″ former first rounder in Sebastian Cossa sitting there, who is slowly been progressing up the way, played a full season in the East Coast League,” Robinson continued. “They’re not soured on him by any means, but I think they’re hoping that he’d be quicker along the path, and the fact that they have Augustine there in the Red Wings system potentially allows him to be an expendable chip. 

Whitaker is skeptical of the trade scenario:

Continue reading We’re moving on from Mason McTavish-to-Detroit rumors to Sebastian Cossa-to-Edmonton rumors

Four multimedia things: the center-ice logo at LCA, underrated Wings, praise for Brett Hull and a Red vs. White Game reminder

Of Red Wings related note this early afternoon:

  1. I know that the Wings posted the installation of their “Hockeytown/100th Anniversary Wings logo” at center ice on LCA’s ice surface as a Tweet…but the better resolution of this YouTube short is worth 40-something seconds of your time…

2. NHL.com’s Twitter account posted a fine question regarding the entire NHL’s player corps over the past 20 years (2005-2025), and this one’s getting a lot of play on Twitter, so I’d love to hear your opinions as to the most underrated Red Wing of the last 20 years:

3. NHL.com also offered this little ditty…

4. And finally, the Grand Rapids Griffins remind us that the “Red vs. White” game will be taking place at Van Andel Arena on Sunday, September 21st:

On ‘making a move’ or the absence thereof

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon issues an early-August set of power rankings today, basing his rankings upon the offseason performances of teams’ general managers:

21. Detroit Red Wings – While you can certainly still talk yourself into some existing Wings players like Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson moving the team forward, it just feels like Detroit needs an acquisition to give this thing a meaningful push.

Continued; at this point, I’d argue that the Red Wings would be wise to make an offseason move or two to address their top-six scoring and top-four defensive shut-down abilities, but I’m afraid that, given the relative quiet of the summer thus far…

We’re going to end up seeing “our team” try to battle through the first half of the 2025-2026 season banking on improvement from within, with any trade(s) happening closer to the 2026 trade deadline.