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Bultman’s reasons why the Wings’ rebuild has ‘dragged’ include the pro scouting elephant in the room

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses the reasons why the Red Wings’ rebuild, or the “Yzerplan,” has “dragged out” over the past couple of years, discussing the Jakub Vrana trade, the Wings’ struggles to beat the Senators, the Jake Walman trade, and what I believe is the most important issue:

Pro scouting departures and fallout

The Yzerman front office has been in place for six years, but it underwent a fairly significant makeover right around the midway point. Mark Howe, who had been the team’s director of pro scouting since 2005 (and a scout since 1995) retired in 2021. Then, during the 2021-22 season, the Red Wings lost another huge voice in that area when assistant general manager Pat Verbeek left to become Anaheim Ducks general manager.

That’s two prominent executives to lose from a key department in a span of months.

The very next offseason, in 2022, saw Detroit get a bit more aggressive in trying to climb the standings. After moving on from head coach Jeff Blashill and bringing in Derek Lalonde, the Red Wings also made their first real push in free agency that year, signing veterans David Perron, Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, Olli Määttä and Dominik Kubalik and trading for goaltender Ville Husso.

That free-agent class has aged a bit better than it once appeared it would, but the player acquisitions since then have been a mixed bag. Despite two big wins in trading for DeBrincat in 2023 and signing Kane four months later, the pro scouting department has taken a lot of valid criticism for the 2023 and 2024 offseasons in particular.

Detroit spent a combined $12.49 million per year on Justin Holl, Jeff Petry, Vladimir Tarasenko and Klim Kostin (a trade acquisition) in those summers, which left the Red Wings squeezed against the salary cap. That led to some difficult departures in 2024, including a key leader in Perron and a significant puck mover in Shayne Gostisbehere (himself a 2023 signing), as well as Jake Walman via trade.

Yzerman defended his pro scouting group — which never technically hired a director to replace Howe — at the end of last season, saying: “I think very highly of these young men (on the scouting staff). … They’re starting to learn the league more, understand what we’re trying to do, understand the value of the dollar amount. So I think as a pro scouting staff, we’re becoming a better team. We just simply have to walk away from some of these contracts.”

Continued (paywall); the Red Wings’ pro scouting department has to do much, much better in terms of recruiting players as both undrafted players and as unrestricted free agents. The team needs to import a goal-scorer and a top-four defenseman, and they’ve got to sign players that are better fits for the organization–or just not sign anybody at all some summers.

Morning Khan: Red Wings’ youth movement, ‘top six’ among training camp questions

MLive’s Ansar Khan has posted his morning column, and today, he asks five questions of the Red Wings as training camp is set to begin tomorrow morning:

Which rookies are best positioned to earn a job?

It’s entirely possible, if not probable, that no rookie makes the season-opening roster. Gritty winger Carter Mazur, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury in his NHL debut, has the best chance. But, like all waiver-exempt players, he’s not sticking around as the 13th forward, he’ll need to be part of the every-night lineup to earn a job. Other forwards eyeing a spot but likely needing more seasoning with the Grand Rapids Griffins include Amadeus Lombardi and first-round picks Nate Danielson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard. Heralded defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka is almost certain to start in Grand Rapids since there are eight NHL-experienced D-men on the roster and it typically takes a defenseman longer than a forward to be ready for the highest level.

Who is going to fill out the top six on the forward lines?

Pencil in five players for their top six – Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane and Marco Kasper. Who’ll join them? Chances are, Kasper will center the second line with DeBrincat and Kane. Possibilities to play right wing with Larkin and Raymond include young Jonatan Berggren and veteran van Riemsdyk. Berggren has untapped potential, but defensive issues have prevented him from establishing himself, and this season could be his last opportunity in Detroit. Van Riemsdyk would provide a net-front presence for Larkin and Raymond.

Continued (paywall); Khan also asks whether there’s room on the roster for more substantial changes, who might be partnered with Moritz Seider, and how the Wings’ bottom defensive pairing will shake out.

The Red Wings’ biggest ‘burning question’ surrounds its goaltending situation

ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton discuss the biggest “burning question” facing every NHL team this morning, and there’s a trend in terms of the Red Wings’ situation:

Detroit Red Wings
Will John Gibson be a game-changer for the Red Wings?

It’s not like Detroit hasn’t had decent goaltending in recent years. What the Red Wings have lacked is consistency. For all the good runs Ville Husso or Petr Mrazek managed to put together, they inevitably bookended too many subpar stretches that, combined with Detroit’s below-average defensive play, held the Red Wings back from fulfilling their potential.

Well, the midseason addition of new head coach Todd McLellan yielded improvement. And now, enter John Gibson. GM Steve Yzerman traded for the veteran netminder from Anaheim in a bold offseason move that could be the difference between whether Detroit sinks or swims this season.

Gibson may have struggled with the rebuilding Ducks, but the Red Wings are a more established team with enough talent to support him. He still posted a .911 save percentage in 29 appearances last season, showing he has the potential to reclaim his form as a No. 1 goalie. If Gibson can indicate early on he’s a reliable presence in the crease, then confidence should spread in Detroit and give them a boost that’s been missing. Can Gibson provide all that in Year One? We’ll find out.

Continued; I’m not expecting any miracles here, but a steady Gibson and a less-overworked Cam Talbot should equal a solid goaltending pair, with Sebastian Cossa and/or Michal Postava waiting in the wings.

Record-Eagle: Red Wings’ training camp activities in Traverse City will be short, but they’re going to scrimmage each day

This year’s training camp consists of a very short stay in Traverse City for the Red Wings’ organization. In previous seasons, when Detroit’s prospect tournament was a hopping 8-team event, the Wings would set up camp in Traverse City for a full two weeks.

This year, between the two “Prospect Games” taking place in Frisco, Texas and the Red vs. White Game taking place in Grand Rapids, the Wings will only spend three days skating at Centre ICE Arena.

The “Prospect Games” will shift back to Traverse City next year, but for now, the Traverse City Record-Eagle’s James Cook reports that Centre ICE will make the best of what it’s got this fall…

And Cook also reports that the Red Wings will take part in an intra-squad scrimmage each day:

The Red Wings practice and scrimmage from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day Thursday-Saturday. Scrimmages returning helps lessen the sting of the Red & White Game moving to Grand Rapids for a year. Former head coach Jeff Blashill did away with scrimmages as part of training camp during his tenure.

“It’s almost like a Prospect Tournament,” training camp director Tom Rodes said. “You have guys battling for a job. They get to showcase themselves more than in drills.”

The Red Wings moved their Development Camp from Traverse City to Detroit in 2018, and general manager Steve Yzerman has indicated the Prospect Showcase — previously known as the Prospect Tournament when as many as eight teams converged on Traverse City for a week — will alternate between Dallas and Traverse City, unless they can find more franchises to participate in more of a tournament setting.

“We’re looking for more teams,” Rodes said. “It seems like since Covid, more teams are looking to stay closer to home.”

Put bluntly, the teams that saw what Detroit had going in Traverse City wanted a piece of the action for themselves, and they got a little cheap, too, in terms of the expense of flying their prospects to Traverse City to stay for a week, so teams have chosen to stay closer to home for the most part. That being said, I believe that 22 or 23 of the NHL’s 32 teams have some sort of prospect vs. prospect tournament these days.

Also, regarding the Red & White Game:

Continue reading Record-Eagle: Red Wings’ training camp activities in Traverse City will be short, but they’re going to scrimmage each day

Eddie Genborg earns praise after scoring his first goal for Timra IK

As noted on Tuesday, Red Wings prospect Eddie Genborg scored a goal in Timra IK’s 5-2 win over Genborg’s previous team, Linkopings HC (via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter).

Playing on Timra’s first line, Genborg, a 2025 2nd round pick, chipped home a bouncing puck in front of the opposition net:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of some Swedish praise for Genborg from both his teammate Jonathan Dahlen (who scored a hat trick on Tuesday; Dahlen is an SHL star player), as well as an SHL analyst…

Continue reading Eddie Genborg earns praise after scoring his first goal for Timra IK

Tweet of note via Red Wings Prospects: Max Plante named alternate captain at University of Minnesota-Duluth

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter: University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante was named an assistant captain at UMD:

Does Dylan Larkin face pressure? Yes. Blame for the playoff-less streak? No.

Yardbarker’s Chris Morgan offers a list of 20 NHL players who he believes will be under the most pressure to perform this upcoming season, and Morgan lists Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin on his list:

Dylan Larkin

The Red Wings made the playoffs for 25 straight seasons between 1990-91 and 2015-16. Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg all captained the Red Wings to playoff appearances, the first two hoisting Cups. Detroit has now missed the playoffs nine seasons in a row, including every season Larkin has been captain. This kind of drought doesn’t fly in Hockeytown. It pretty much needs to end now. If it doesn’t, Yzerman, now the general manager, will take some blame, but Larkin will also receive a lot of it.

Continued; Larkin is always under significant pressure as the Red Wings’ captain…

But he’s not going to be at fault if the Red Wings miss the playoffs. Larkin brings his best effort every night, and while he’s still looking for the most consistency he can muster, the Wings’ much-beleaguered captain does a damn good job.

Discussing AHL preseason games (or the lack thereof)

Via the Hockeytown West Podcast, Inside AHL Hockey’s Tony Androckitis reports that the Grand Rapids Griffins won’t play a preseason game this upcoming season:

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye wondered aloud whether the Red Wings and Griffins might want Grand Rapids to play in some stand-alone exhibition games in order to further evaluate the Wings’ prospects when the NHL drops down from 8 exhibition games to 4 exhibition games…

Continue reading Discussing AHL preseason games (or the lack thereof)

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov 1A, Genborg 1G, Anton Johansson 23:13 played on a busy day in Europe

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov registered an assist, finishing with a penalty, a won faceoff and a hit in 16:18 played as CSKA Moscow lost 6-5 in a shootout to Spartak:

In the SHL, Michal Svrcek dressed but didn’t play a shift as Brynas IF lost 7-5 to Lulea Hockey;

Anton Johansson took 2 shots, finishing even in 23:13 as Leksands IF won 4-2 over Orebro Hockey;

And Eddie Genborg scored a power play goal, finishing at -1 with 2 shots and a minor penalty taken in 15:20 played as Timra IK won 5-2 over Linkopings HC: