The Edmonton Sun’s Robert Tychkowski spoke with Red Wings first-round draft pick Sebastian Cossa and Arizona Coyotes pick Dylan Guenther, who are both members of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings, regarding their takes on being drafted highly (Guenther 9th and Cossa 15th overall, respectively) this past weekend.

Both players spoke glowingly of the assets provided to them by the Oil Kings, and Cossa suggested that he’s ready to begin forging a path toward the NHL:

It feels good knowing that a Hall-of-Fame player and elite general manager like Steve Yzerman believes that strongly in you.

“Being such a high pick, there are high expectations, but I want to exceed those expectations,” said the six-foot-six product of Fort McMurray. “Him wanting me that bad is satisfying, for sure.

“There are a lot of good prospects and in the coming years we’re going to have a strong team there. I want to be a main factor in that team’s success.”

…

Where do they go from here? Teams have been reluctant to pick goalies high in the draft because you can ever be sure and it takes them long to develop. But Carter Hart and Spencer Knight showed that the wait time doesn’t have to be as big as it was before.

“I want to be playing in the NHL in two or three years,” said Cossa. “I have extremely high expectations for myself. There is a long way to go and I have to put a lot of work in, but I can’t wait to get started.”

Continued

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only notebook on Sunday evening, discussing the Red Wings’ assessment of their possibly-NHL-ready prospects as they apply to management’s desire to field a more competitive roster.

With oodles of cap space and 7 restricted free agents of note to re-sign, the Wings have enough room on the roster to make some changes, playing prospects included…

But the Wings’ re-signing of Marc Staal may indicate that a few more veterans will return before the start of unrestricted free agency on Wednesday:

The Red Wings, according to CapFriendly.com, have $37.5 million in salary room left with seven restricted free agents still to sign. They could also still buy out Nielsen to open up a roster spot. He’s not in Detroit’s plans.

They are still interested in some of their unrestricted free agents, including faceoff artist Luke Glendening or right-shot forward Sam Gagner.  The free agent market has very few right-shot forwards.

The Red Wings have interest in soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Alex Martinez.  The Red Wings could look at younger left-shot D men like Ryan Murray or Mike Reilly.

Allen continues (subscription), projecting the Wings’ roster without the services of Glendening, Gagner or Bobby Ryan, who are all possible re-signings…

And it’s a relief to know that the Wings may want to cut ties with Nielsen. The years of losing took their toll on ol’ Frans, and I felt that last season, he really looked exhausted.

I’m not sure how Alec Martinez decides to come to a rebuilding team, Michigan ties included, however.

In Fox Sports Detroit’s latest episode of “The Third Half with Brooke Fletcher,” Fletcher speaks with Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and Robby Fabbri at the Wings’ summer youth hockey event (for about three minutes):

The Red Wings have six prospects taking part in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, Michigan this week–Eemil Viro (Finland), William Wallinder, Theodor Niederbach (Sweden), Shai Buium, Carter Mazur and Cross Hanas (Team USA)–and a seventh (Red Savage) is skating with Team USA as he rehabilitates an injury.

I spoke with Viro, Wallinder, Buium, Mazur and Hanas on Sunday during the post-game availabilities; Viro’s Finns won a 2-1 decision over Team USA White, and Mazur scored the game-winner in Team USA Blue’s 4-2 win over Sweden.

It’s hockey in July, and some of these players haven’t hit the ice since March or April, but I do have a few observations about said players:

Continue reading Brief impressions from Sunday at the WJSS →

The Red Wings are well-represented at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI this week. Eemil Viro (Finland), William Wallinder, Theodor Niederbach (Sweden), Shai Buium, Carter Mazur and Cross Hanas (Team USA) are all here, and Red Savage is attending as well, rehabbing an injury while skating with the U.S. World Junior team.

Today’s games were eventful, and there will be more games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday:

Viro’s Finns dismantled Team USA White, winning a tight 2-1 game, and Carter Mazur happened to score the game-winning goal as Team USA Blue edged Sweden 4-2.

After the Finland-USA White game, Viro spoke with the media regarding his performance and the Finns’ suffocating defense:

Continue reading Audio from Sunday at the World Junior Summer Showcase: Viro, Mazur, Buium, Hanas and Wallinder →

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a post-draft notebook today, discussing Liam Dower Nilsson’s selection by the Wings, Red Savage’s connections to Kris Draper, and the Wings prospects’ status as something of the Frolunda Indians West:

Nilsson was a teammate of Wings’ first-round pick defenseman Simon Edvinsson at Frolunda, of the Swedish Elite League. The two celebrated when Nilsson’s name was called.

“True moment of happiness,” Nilsson said.

Along with Nilsson and Edvinsson, recent Wings’ draft picks Lucas Raymond, Theodor Niederbach, and Elmer Soderblom are all Frolunda products.

Frolunda has become a sort of pipeline for the Wings, although director of amateur scouting Kris Draper calls it a coincidence that so many recent picks have come from the Swedish club.

“They run an amazing program from youth hockey all the way up,” Draper said. “These guys are coached the right way, brought up the right way, and taught how to play the game. They’ve had so much success at the youth level and the pro level as well.”

Continued

Updated 6x at 2:03 PM: From TSN’s Bob McKenzie:

Working free agent day on Wednesday. Let’s see if I remember how to do this: Marc Staal returning to DET on a one-year deal. @TSNHockey— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) July 25, 2021

Update: The Red Wings confirm:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today agreed to terms with defenseman Marc Staal on a one-year contract extension. pic.twitter.com/ajdvbGxDq1— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 25, 2021

I have no problem with a Staal extension. The Red Wings and Staal liked the fit and finish, he’s probably coming back affordably, and that pretty much takes care of the Wings’ need for a left-shot defenseman on the 3rd pair.

Done, done, done.— George Malik (@georgemalik) July 25, 2021

Khan:

#RedWings sign the left-shooting D-man they were seeking. Blue line now consists of LD: Leddy, DeKeyser, Staal; RD: Hronek, Stecher, Lindstrom, Seider. https://t.co/QGi0QX324Z— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) July 25, 2021

Appears to be in the $2 million range.— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) July 25, 2021

Marc Staal’s extension with #RedWings is 1 year x $2 million. Full no-move clause. @DFOHockey— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 25, 2021

TSN report:

Staal, 34, was set to become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday.

He spent last season with the Red Wings after playing with the New York Rangers for the first 13 seasons of his NHL career. He was dealt to Detroit last September and is coming off a six-year, $34.2 million contract.

He had three goals and seven assists in 56 games last season.

More: The No-Move Clause doesn’t bug me a bit:

Continue reading TSN’s Bob McKenzie: Red Wings re-sign Staal for one year, $2 million →

I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I really did find Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper’s comments regarding balancing the concept of icing a more competitive team this season with continuing to develop for the future.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a noontime article discussing just that aspect of the Yzerman and Draper post-draft press conferences, and this quote from Draper is worth noting:

“When I’m walking into Little Caesars Arena, there’s a sense of pride to watching the Red Wings play,” Draper said. “Those moves, and moving out those picks to bring in players we brought in, it made sense to our organization.

“They made sense. We were able to bring in Nick Leddy, and he’s going to be a great mentor for all of your young defensemen. He can skate and the last couple of years going on long playoff runs with the New York Islanders, it just made sense to bring Nick Leddy in.

“And Nedeljkovic, it was a position we were looking for and we were able to get a 25-year-old goaltender that was pretty impressive this year and stepped up in big moments in the playoffs.”

Continued…

DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter filed a story about the Red Wings’ two-day draft haul this morning, duly noting that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper believe that the eight prospects they’ve drafted are at the start of their journey toward (hopefully, anyway) an NHL future:

“We’re trying to find good kids. Solid character kids that have drive and motivation,” Yzerman said to wrap up the draft. “Ultimately, we think they’re all competitive kids. We think they’re all motivated and driven, and time will tell.

“But I guess what would be in common, and we’re trying to do that every year, is draft kids that are good, solid kids that we think have a chance to play in the league and are really driven and motivated.”

Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper agreed with Yzerman in his optimism for Detroit’s 2021 Draft haul. Draper said he’s excited to see these players compete in the 2021 Prospects Tournament this fall and continue developing as they strive to don the Winged Wheel at Little Caesars Arena in the future.

“We feel good about today. We felt we drafted in a lot of areas that we needed,” Draper said. “You talk about the character of the prospects that we brought in, the talent of the prospects, and now they all know the work starts now, and that’s something that’s been always true. Once they’re named, selected and they’re part of the organization, away they go.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings aren’t going to contend for a Stanley Cup in the immediate future, but Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has made some intriguing comments over the past couple of days, suggesting that the team he’s building must play more competitive hockey this upcoming season for the sake of lifting a weight from the shoulders of Detroit’s core players.

For the sake of bolstering the Wings’ immediate stead, Detroit surrendered 2 draft picks, acquiring Nick Leddy and Alex Nedeljkovic in the process; on Friday and saturday, Detroit made a total of 5 more draft pick swaps in order to trade up and pick both Sebastian Cossa and Shai Buium.

As a result, the Wings ended up utilizing only 8 of an original set of 12 picks to take players in this year’s draft. Yzerman isn’t exactly thrilled with having to surrender draft picks, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes…

“I hate giving up draft picks,” Yzerman said. “I feel every draft pick, regardless of a first-rounder or seventh-rounder, is hope. It’s hope for a Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk or Sergei Fedorov or Nicklas Lidstrom or you name it. So I hate giving up picks. I love accumulating them and keeping them and using them.

“We still ended up with eight selections, and we did a lot of things with the picks that we had, so it does give you options.”

But the Wings’ GM made sure to emphasize the fact that he wants to make the Wings a more competitive team, both now and in the future, first after the Nedeljkovic trade, and then after Friday and Saturday’s picks:

Yzerman is balancing stoking the rebuild with improving the current team. He knows how hard it is to build a competitor — he waited 14 years as a player to lift the Stanley Cup, and that was eight years after a draft that yielded Lidstrom and Fedorov. He also knows how miserable it is to lose game after game, and doesn’t want his young core to be buried under such despair.

“I feel strongly that it’s important that we try to be competitive, so that cost us,” he said.

St. James continues (paywall), discussing the Wings’ latest draft picks, as well as the potential of the Wings’ 2019 and 2020 draft classes.

As for the Wings’ desire to improve its current lot in hockey life, the fan in me understands that being a little less competitive in terms of high draft picks is, in my opinion, the next necessary step in the rebuilding process.

For better or worse, the Wings haven’t been a very competitive team over the past two seasons, and that’s definitely worn upon the Wings’ current players. Their record doesn’t inspire the fan base, nor does it sell tickets, frankly.

There is something to be said to rounding the turn from draft lottery powerhouse toward somewhat competitive NHL team, for the players and fans’ sake, and it appears that the Wings’ GM is finally ready to shift the franchise out of neutral.

How will he and the Wings’ coaches and management accomplish said task? By balancing the necessary folding of prospects into the lineup with some aggressive work on the free agent front, both in terms of re-signing 8 restricted free agents and attempting to add to the roster on the unrestricted free agent front.