Red Wings forward Patrick Kane is going to take part in a “Patrick Kane Day” back in Chicago on Friday, August 8th, and today he posted a reminder thereof:
Appreciate you guys. See you both 8/8! https://t.co/sUqMoFxa4J
— Patrick Kane (@88PKane) July 31, 2025
Kane shared memories from his Chicago days on an ESPN podcast (with “Carmen and Jurko”) last month, he was on Barstool Chicago as well, and the event is going to be very Blackhawks-centric.
The Red Wings have drafted a significant number of prospects over the course of the NHL Draft’s 2nd round over the past couple of seasons, and MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that the Wings’ record has been hit-or-miss, with the exceptions of Dmitri Buchelnikov, Dylan James and Max Plante:
The Detroit Red Wings have loaded up on second-round picks since Steve Yzerman became general manager and Kris Draper the director of amateur scouting, with 14 selections in seven drafts.
Only defenseman Albert Johansson, the lowest of those picks at No. 60 in 2019, has reached the NHL thus far.
Three others – defensemen Antti Tuomisto (No. 35 in 2019), William Wallinder (No. 32 in 2020) and Shai Buium (No. 36 in 2021) are with the Grand Rapids Griffins, hoping to soon reach the NHL.
Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine (No. 41 in 2023) is one of the organization’s top prospects.
Defenseman Brady Cleveland (No. 42 in 2023) is headed into his third collegiate season with his third different school (Minnesota-Duluth). Eddie Genborg, a physical two-way forward selected this year (No. 44), will be playing for Timra in the Swedish Hockey League.
Defenseman Andrew Gibson (No. 42 in 2023) was traded to Nashville for prospect Jesse Kiiskinen and a second-round pick needed to move Jake Walman to San Jose.
Robert Mastrosimone (No. 54 in 2019), Theodor Niederbach (No. 51 in 2020) and Cross Hanas (No. 55 in 2020) didn’t pan out and are no longer in the organization.
Continued with profiles of Buchelnikov, James and Plante; the draft is a hit-or-miss business, and I’m not overly concerned that the Wings’ 2nd round picks have been more “miss” than hit.
Ideally, you want to draft 3 or 4 NHL players per 7 picks, and that’s not easy to do for anyone.
DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills caught up with Red Wings forward Jonatan Berggren on Thursday, discussing Berggren’s desire to build upon a solid 2024-2025 season via hard summer training back home in Sweden:
“Last year was a good year for me,” Berggren recently told DetroitRedWings.com. “I feel like I got more opportunity after Todd [McLellan] became head coach, and I think I played better. This one-year deal is a prove-it-deal for me. I want to show what I can do.”
The 24-year-old forward skated in an NHL-career high 75 games last season, recording 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points. Berggren said spending the full campaign with the Red Wings boosted his confidence and helped him stay even keel through the highs and the lows.
“It felt like I was part of the team,” Berggren said. “It’s hard when you’re going up and down between the AHL and NHL, so I got that confidence being there for a full year and I’m going to build off that.”
Since being taken by Detroit in the second round (No. 33 overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Berggren has added more and more to his game. In total, the Uppsala, Sweden, native has notched 58 points (29 goals, 29 assists) in 154 games with the Red Wings since 2022-23. A lot of the progress he’s made, Berggren said, is the result of all the hard work he’s put in behind the scenes.
“Especially last summer, I feel like that was really good and then at Training Camp, everything felt good,” Berggren said. “I took another step last year, but I feel like I’m starting at a higher level this year maybe than where I was two years ago. I want to do the same thing this summer because I feel like that’s going to give me a good result this year.”
Continued; Berggren’s got nowhere to go but up in terms of his level of performance, and I’m glad that he’s setting himself up to succeed before a pivotal season.
My apologies for the lack of posts over the last 20 or so hours.
I’m dealing with a very bad summer cold and it’s gotten worse, not better, over the course of the next couple of days, and I’ve slept for the last day or so because I’m feeling just terrible.
I’ll try to catch up as able today and/or tomorrow. Sometimes these things happen.
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan profiles Red Wings prospect and HPK Hameenlinna forward Jesse Kiiskinen today, noting that Kiiskinen had a very good season on a very mediocre team in the Finnish Liiga this past year:
Kiiskinen had 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists) in 46 games with HPK Hameenlinna in Finland last season, despite missing 14 games with injuries. For a 19-year-old playing against established competition in Finland’s best pro league, it was an impressive showing.
“My playing was way better all the time after the tough start,” Kiiskinen said at the Wings development camp this month. “We started to play together better with my line, and then my own game just got better. “
Kiiskinen, 19, has one season left on his contract with HPK Hameenlinna. The timeline for Kiiskinen at this point is to complete the season, then come over to North America to a Wings organization searching for young offensive talent.
“He had good year in Finland,” said Dan Cleary, the Wings’ director of player development. “He came (to Detroit, before development camp) over 10 days prior to hang out with a couple of the other prospects and became friends, and became a little more familiar (with surroundings). He’s a character. He had a good season in HPK, and we expect him to have another strong season; then we’ll see him in North America next year.”
At 6-foot-2, 197 pounds, Kiiskinen has good size, and he’s effective around the net, able to make plays in tight places. Scouts like his forechecking ability, and Kiiskinen enjoys the physical aspects of the game. Kiiskinen has scored as many as 20 goals in junior hockey, and possesses a hard, accurate shot.
“I’m still like a scorer, like a shoot-first player,” Kiiskinen said. “Maybe the stats don’t show that because I had a lot of assists and more than goals, but I like to still make plays and make a goal. I still love scoring and have loved that like all my life.”
Continued; again, I was very puzzled when the Red Wings sent rugged defenseman Andrew Gibson to Nashville for Kiiskinen and a 2nd round pick (which was used in the Jake Walman trade)…
But Kiiskinen is a net-driving presence who has a real edge to his game, and he fills a need for the Wings as he’s something of a pesky forward who enjoys going to the net. All in all, the Red Wings may have ended up with the better player.
Red Wings prospect Carter Mazur spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills recently. This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James wonders aloud whether Mazur’s best chance to make the Wings’ roster might have passed by due to a sustained set of injuries:
The 23-year-old third-round draft pick from 2021 projects to be a lower-six forward, a grinder-type who provides energy and is the type of player a coach loves to throw on the ice after an opponent scores a goal to settle things down.
His first shot at helping the Wings ended so quickly, it was easy to miss. On March 6, 2025, he was in the lineup for the first time – and as it turned out, last time time in the 2024-25 season. He suffered an elbow injury that took months to heal and required Dan Cleary, the team’s director of player development, to have a heart-to-heart with Mazur.
“He’s a great kid, good player,” Cleary said earlier this month. “He’s had some tough-luck injuries over the course of his pro life, which is unfortunate. I tell him, you have to start over – dig in, you’ve got to rehab, you’ve got to keep going because he was in such a good place last year. He’s just had some bad luck.”
Mazur’s dislocated elbow derailed the plans the Wings had for him down the stretch this past spring, which were to audition the 6 foot, 172 pound, right shot forward to see where he would fit into the rebuild.
Continued at length (paywall); as St. James notes, Mazur has been banged-up at both the AHL level on a repeated basis…
But he’s a 23-year-old who told Mills that he’s put on 15 pounds over the course of the summer, and Mazur’s grit and snarl are the kinds of elements that the Red Wings want to add to the bottom half of their lineup.
I’m expecting that Mazur will be afforded every chance to make the Red Wings’ roster come September, and, for lack of a better term, his time is now.
Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva examines 5 potential destinations for Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Bryan Rust and/or Rickard Rakell, and he includes the Detroit Red Wings on his list:
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings’ need for offensive help is so pressing, it’s seemingly begun to cause friction within the organization. At his end-of-season availability, captain Dylan Larkin lamented the fact that his club didn’t add any pieces at the trade deadline, sending a message to GM Steve Yzerman about what’s expected from the group before 2025-26 rolls around.
“We didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline, and guys were kind of down about it,” Larkin had said. “So, it’d be nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice, and a morale boost as well.”
Yzerman has brought in a couple additions up front, signing veteran James van Riemsdyk and former Winnipeg Jets forward Mason Appleton. But both are depth pieces who don’t figure to significantly alter the club’s approach. A 30-goal threat would do more to move the needle — Rust, a product of Pontiac, Mich., seems a natural fit, and such a homecoming might be easier to stomach for both the winger and the Penguins fanbase. Financially, there would be no issue here, as the Red Wings still have more than $12 million in cap space to work with.
Continued; we’ve talked quite a bit about the Rust/Rakell rumors and the players’ perceived trade values, and I’m iffy on the concept of dropping a top prospect and a first-round pick for guys in their early 30’s (Rust is 33, Rakell 32) with two years remaining on their contracts (Rust earns $5.125 million, Rakell $5 million), but the Red Wings do need to add offense, and there aren’t many established scorers on the marketplace other than free agent Jack Roslovic.
If the Red Wings do anything this summer, they’re going to have to pony up and pay a price for whoever they add on offense and/or defense.
The Red Wings signed 23-year-old goaltender Michal Postava to compete for starts with Sebastian Cossa in Grand Rapids. As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes, the Wings are hoping that the Kometa Brno backstop and Czech League Champion this past spring will bolster the team’s goaltending depth:
Postava (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) quickly drew the interest of NHL teams. Several Western Conference teams were in discussions with Postava, before he had a lengthy meeting in Czechia with Jiri Fischer, the former Wings defenseman and current associate director of player personnel, who apparently convinced Postava to sign with Detroit.
The Wings had been searching for a goaltender to fill a spot in Grand Rapids, where Postava will compete for playing time with Sebastian Cossa, while also capable of making NHL starts if injuries confront John Gibson or Cam Talbot.
“It’s maybe because there are many Czech players before, like Jiri Fischer,” said Postava, about signing with the Wings. “Detroit is a big club, big (original) six. It’s a big opportunity for me. I’m proud to be in this organization.”
Postava had a 23-18-0 record in 42 games, with three shutouts a 2.39 GAA and .920 SVS for Kometa Brno during the regular season.
“The confidence was No. 1,” Postava said of what he gained most last season. “Be calm (for the) full game and focus to be the best and win all games.”
Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman believes that Postava can thrive in the AHL:
“It’s very realistic he can play in the AHL next year,” Yzerman said. “I haven’t seen him do it, so that’s the only question mark. He had an outstanding year. One of our scouts in Europe, who lives in the Czech Republic, has watched Kometa all year and really pushed hard for him. He’s watched him climb through every league, and the next step for him after a really good year is to go to the American League.”
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin turns 29 today.
IT'S OUR CAPTAINS BIRTHDAY 🥳 pic.twitter.com/xDItcJ3FWo
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 30, 2025
71 days from 71's birthday 🤯
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 30, 2025
See you October 9th! pic.twitter.com/PEn8re3cT1
I know that this is silly, but I really have a hard time believing that Dylan Larkin is 29.
— George Malik (@georgemalik) July 30, 2025
This little ditty from "Friends" comes to mind. pic.twitter.com/5yJ14TtGyL
As previously noted, Marco Kasper scored a “Michigan” goal while playing summer hockey in Austria’s the “Sunshine Hockey League”…
And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a really nice postscript to Kasper’s goal:
Continue reading A fine postscript to Kasper’s ‘Michigan’ goal