The Malik Report

Of brief Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. New Toledo Walleye signing Gordi Myer spoke with Ohio State University’s student newspaper, The Lantern, regarding the possibility of a condensed ECHL season for the 2020-2021 campaign. Myer told Colin Ginnan that he spent most of his offseason studying for his LSAT’s, and now he’s gearing up for hockey again:

In the meantime, ECHL teams have yet to resume official practices. In the absence of training camp, Myer began skating with a handful of his Walleye teammates who remained in the Toledo area.

“They just said it’s going to be crazy playing so many games in a short period,” Myer said. “I’m kind of looking forward to it, though, because that means you don’t practice as much and you just get to play a lot of games, which is more fun in my opinion.”

2. Elsewhere, the homepage of the Dansk Metal Ligaen, the Danish pro hockey league, reports that Frans Nielsen told his hometown newspaper, Herning Folkeblad, that he may want to finish his professional career playing for his hometown team, the Herning Blue Fox. There’s no specific date involved in Nielsen’s plan to head home, and I was unable to find the article on Herning Folkeblad’s website, but this is something worth watching.

The Detroit Free Press’s Helene St. James checked in with Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin recently, discussing the state of the Red Wings’ prospect pool. According to Martin, the Red Wings are still in offseason mode, which means that their contact with their prospects remains limited…

Teams are subject to offseason rules and can’t monitor players, but some staff can have contact with them. 

“You can’t tell them what to do, but our development people have been in touch with our players and they’re in good spots training,” Martin said. “If they don’t have access to something they need, we help them, at their expense.”

And St. James reports that the Red Wings’ current crop of overseas-loaned prospects will likely remain capped at six (Filip Hronek, Filip Zadina, Moritz Seider, Gustav Lindstrom, Filip Larsson and Mattias Brome):

Martin did not anticipate any more Wings players being loaned overseas. There had been talk of Joe Veleno joining fellow 2018 first-round pick Zadina in the Czech Republic, but Veleno is enjoying his training in the Montreal area. 

“I think Joe is having a phenomenal offseason,” Martin said. “He likes where he is and he sees the advances he is making, so I don’t think he wants to go anywhere else.”

St. James continues (paywall); she also speaks with Martin regarding the possibility that NHL, AHL and ECHL teams might return to play with a reduced capacity format:

“Certainly the NHL has the financial means to sustain itself on less of a fan base. Minor leagues do not. That’s another piece of the puzzle. We’re going to have to work through that.”

Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen posted a column which discusses the top puck-possession teams in the playoffs since 2008, and the Red Wings’ last Stanley Cup-winning team earns a significant nod in terms of “Corsi for” percentage, “Expected goals for,” “high-danger chances for percentage” and “shots percentage” from Natural Stat Trick:

2008, Detroit: 60.38 CF% (1), 58.26 xGF% (1), 56.75 HDCF% (1), 60.26 SF% (1) (won the Cup)

The 2008 Detroit Red Wings remain the gold standard of puck possession playoff teams with a lineup that was loaded with Hall of Fame talent and they finished with a Stanley Cup win. Since 2008, no other team has reached at least the conference final and finished first overall in each of these statistical categories. The closest to repeating this feat may have been the 2015 Anaheim Ducks, who finished first in three of these categories, but were fourth-best when measuring Corsi. But that team also fell one win short of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

Continued; Boylen notes that the Vegas Golden Knights of all teams are hot on the 2008 Wings’ heels.

The Toledo Walleye continued their trend of signing smaller but skilled players to round out their ECHL team roster for the 2020-2021 season on Wednesday, signing 25-year-old center Hunter Garlent as a free agent. Garlent only stands at 5’9″ and 172 pounds, but the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that Garlent comes highly-regarded as far as Walleye coach Dan Watson’s is concerned:

“Hunter is someone I see playing in all situations because of his intelligence and knack for reading the play,” Watson said. “He will be counted on to play big minutes and be one of our go-to guys.”

Monroe also summarizes the Walleye’s roster situation:

The Walleye have now signed 16 players so far this offseason: eight forwards, seven defensemen, and one goalie.

Second-year goaltender Trevor Gorsuch remains the only netminder signed this offseason. Although veteran Pat Nagle signed with Grand Rapids and could see more time with the Walleye this season.

The forward group is led by veterans Shane Berschbach and Kyle Bonis. Brett Boeing also returns. Brandon Hawkins, Keeghan Howdeshell, Conlan Keenan, and Luke Sandler are the other forwards.

The defensemen that have signed this offseason are Butrus Ghafari, Ryker Killins, Ryan Lowney, Chris McKay, Gordi Myer, Kevin Spinozzi, and Connor Walters.

The team has signed six rookies: Myer, Killins, Howdeshell, Kennan, Walters, and Ghafari.

ESPN’s Chris Peters compiled a list of 5 2020-draft eligible prospects and 5 previously-drafted prospects for whom he tends to “root for” (as much as he’s able to do so), and he listed one Red Wings prospect in a story for ESPN+…

Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings: When evaluating Seider for his draft season, I saw him only on film. He still popped but not in a way that made me believe he’d be the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft. Then I got to see him live at the World Juniors and again in the AHL, and it was revelatory. His performance at the World Juniors on a shallow German team where he had to play seemingly every other shift was dominant. He had only a few even-strength goals against the entire tournament and could change the dynamic of the game when he was on the ice. It was one of the more impressive showings I’ve seen from a young prospect in all the years I’ve followed the World Juniors.

But even beyond his excellent playing ability, how can you not like him as a person? Seider showed up to the combine in a polo shirt, fashionable jeans and what he termed as “really nice” tennis shoes, despite the fact most players wear suits to the event. He didn’t know any better, and I don’t even think he cared. He’s so comfortable with himself, and that’s true on the ice, too. That will carry him far.

And Peters is also a fan of a prospect often linked to the Red Wings at this fall’s upcoming draft:

Cole Perfetti, C, Saginaw (OHL)

My current rank: No. 5

There’s a good chance Perfetti is going in the top five of this draft, so he’s no sleeper. This just comes down to the enjoyment I get watching him play. His creativity and vision are off the charts, and he processes the game at such a high level, especially offensively. There are definitely concerns about pace and skating, but I’m not as concerned due to his elite hockey sense.

Perfetti is a legitimate shot-pass threat in the offensive zone, which forces teams to respect both, making him more difficult to defend. He takes the plays that are given to him, which I think is an especially assuring trait in his game. He’s not always looking to pass, and he’s not always looking to shoot. There are some players who can’t get past that problem, and Perfetti has no issue there.

He was ninth in the OHL with 244 shots on goal, and I think he could have even shot more, but he made everyone around him better by just making the right plays instead of the plays he preferred. That — plus a high-end release and some exceptional puckhandling ability — makes him a really fun player to watch.

Continued (paywall)…

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin examined the goaltending situations of each and every one of the NHL’s 16 Eastern Conference teams yesterday afternoon, and Larkin suggested that the Red Wings must make an upgrade at the position to be a more competitive team:

DETROIT RED WINGS: More tanking, or a push for a real No. 1 goalie?

A tandem of veterans Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Bernier has, ahem, been just right for what the Wings have wanted to do. Per naturalstattrick.com, this past season, among 54 goalies who played at least 1,000 minutes at 5-on-5, Bernier ranked 27th in goals saved above average per 60, while Howard graded out dead last. Howard departs as a UFA and could probably use a fresh start after being shelled on the worst NHL team of the past two decades, so GM Steve Yzerman needs to bring in a partner for Bernier, especially since the Wings have no top-tier netminding prospect who is knocking on the door of NHL duty. Filip Larsson spent most of this past season in the ECHL, while Keith Petruzzelli hasn’t turned pro yet.

Would the Wings take a run at a higher-end UFA like Braden Holtby? I strongly doubt it. This team is still in scorched-earth rebuild mode and is better off adding a wily vet who can split time with Bernier on a short-term pact. That could mean signing a stopgap like Cam Talbot. It could also mean acquiring a starter on an expiring deal – such as Frederik Andersen, who could be a flippable piece at next season’s trade deadline should he have a rebound season.

Larkin continues; the Wings’ goaltending situation frustrates me, because the team has half-a-dozen goaltending prospects who have long-term NHL potential, but absolutely none of them are ready to compete for an NHL job

I don’t see the Wings overpaying for a Fredrik Andersen via trade when the free agent marketplace has a glut of goaltenders, but it will be interesting to see which goalie the Wings’ braintrust feels will best complement Jonathan Bernier for the next season or two.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines checking line center Christoffer Ehn’s 2019-2020 season “By the Numbers” this morning.

The 24-year-old restricted free agent forward isn’t a big offensive contributor, but he’s one of my favorite bottom-six players because he works damn hard and maximizes his 6’3,” 195-pound frame to play a quietly efficient game. His aplomb as a third-and-fourth-line center afforded the Wings the ability to trade Jacob de la Rose for Robby Fabbri, and Ehn is still improving his game as he hits his mid-20’s.

Here’s Wakiji’s take on Ehn’s significant statistics from the 2019-2020 season

100 – On Feb. 1, Ehn played in his 100th career NHL game in a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Little Caesars Arena, the same game in which Valtteri Filppula reached 1,000 games. Ehn finished the season with 114.

2 – In his 54 games, Ehn recorded two goals and two assists. The first goal came Dec. 10 in a 5-1 loss at Winnipeg. Ehn’s goal at 7:39 of the second period tied the game at the time, 1-1. Ehn also scored in the final game of the season, a 5-2 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Ehn scored at 15:26 of the second, which tied the game at the time, 2-2. Ehn also had two penalty minutes.

36 – Ehn recorded 36 shots over the course of the season, 13 fewer than he had in the 2018-19 season. Larkin led the team with 223 shots.

10:25 – Ehn averaged 10:25 of ice time, just 12 seconds less than he averaged the previous season.

18 – Known more as a defensive player, Ehn had 18 blocked shots during the season. Defenseman Patrik Nemeth led the team with 92 blocks. Glendening led all forwards with 68 blocks.

Players like Ehn (who will probably be re-signed for around $1.25 million) and Kevin Bieksa (who the Wings extended this past February) aren’t “sexy” players by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s okay: every NHL team needs a strong supporting cast, and “bit players” can help determine whether a team wins or loses close games based upon consistent work ethic and leadership.

The Red Wings rather desperately need to add another top-four defenseman, top-six forward (preferably a center) and a back-up goalie heading into 2020-2021, but I’m not nearly as worried about the “back end” of the roster with players like Ehn and Biega in the mix.

The Red Wings and every other NHL team have made mistakes in terms of assessing the most talented players available at the NHL draft. The Wings whiffed big time by picking Joe Murphy 1st overall in 1986; picking Keith Primeau over Jaromir Jagr or Martin Brodeur in 1990 still stings.

Drafting in the NHL is not an exact science, and every team swings and misses in every draft, so it’s not surprising that the Wings have made some mistakes over the years.

The Red Wings’ post-2008 Stanley Cup years, however, were marred by drafting a generation’s worth of highly-picked goalies and defensemen who never developed into top-end NHL talent, yielding a still-thin blueline and a goaltending pipeline populated with goalies taking the long developmental road toward NHL employment. If even one or two of the Wings’ defensive or goaltending-related picks had turned into more than Brendan Smith or Tom McCollum, we wouldn’t be talking about such a “thin” rebuilding team.

Yesterday afternoon, the Free Press’s Helene St. James weighed in regarding the Wings’ biggest “whiffs” over the past three seasons, noting that Detroit never planned on drafting Quinn Hughes in 2018, nor Brock Boeser in 2015, picking Filip Zadina and Evgeny Svechnikov, respectively:

Boeser and Hughes are surrounded by more talent, but even so, both have shown they are stars — especially Hughes, who is excelling in the more difficult position. There was a point in the series against the St. Louis Blues where Oskar Sundqvist knocked Hughes down and Hughes still managed to keep control of the puck and get it to a teammate, setting up a sequence that led to a goal.

Zadina looks like he will develop into a good player, but Hughes already has established his value. Imagine what having Hughes, Moritz Seider and Filip Hronek on the back end would do for the Wings’ rebuild. That’s three defensemen who all excel at getting the puck to the forwards — a facet of the game in which the Wings sorely were limited this season.

We’d all look like geniuses drafting in hindsight. If 2018 were redone, Hughes would probably be a top-three pick (the Wings weren’t going to take him even if Zadina had not been available — they had their sights on defenseman Evan Bouchard). The better Zadina plays, the less passing on Hughes will ding the Wings. The fact Boeser has demonstrated he’s a top-six forward and Svechnikov has yet to show he belongs in the NHL is going to be harder to forget.

St. James continues; the fact that the Wings never even considered drafting Hughes due to concerns over his size speaks to the baffling obsession with picking “bigger and stronger” players during the late Ken Holland-and-Tyler Wright regime, but shit happens, and you have to do the best with the players you pick.

We’ll be talking more about the draft over the course of the next couple of weeks!

Last week, we examined unrestricted free agent-to-be Torey Krug’s comments made to the Boston media as part of his end-of-the-season Zoom call, and it seems relatively apparent that Krug will at least strongly consider testing the unrestricted free agent marketplace in early October. I’m not a fan of the Krug-to-Detroit narrative, but many media types seem to believe that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman will manage to sway Krug to sign with the rebuilding Wings.

This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan weighs in on the possibility of a Krug-to-Detroit scenario via answering a reader question, and Khan does believe that the Wings will make an attempt to bring the Livonia native “home.” However…

Would it be the right move? Yes. Long-term contracts often become an albatross for teams in the final couple of seasons, but that’s the cost of doing business. The Red Wings need to add some talent, in addition to developing their own, to make significant strides.

But would Krug want to leave a Stanley Cup contender, the top team in the league during the regular season, for a club that figures to struggle for at least a couple more years, even if it is his hometown team?

The Bruins do not want to lose Krug and have the cap space to sign him.

My guess is Krug remains in Boston, forcing the Red Wings to pursue one or two second- or third-tier free-agent defensemen, or perhaps use some of their draft picks to trade for one.

Khan continues; I wouldn’t be surprised to see Krug leave the Bruins (they have to utilize their CapFriendly-estimated $15.5 million in cap space to re-sign restricted free agents Jake DeBrusk and Matt Grzelcyk, as well as several unrestricted free agents in Krug, possibly Zdeno Chara and/or Kevan Miller and/or Joakim Nordstrom), but I just don’t see him coming to Detroit.

That being said, one never knows what free agency will bring, and I’ve seen stranger free agent “fits” happen for sentimentality’s sake.

Here’s some pertinent NHL offseason event information from The Athletic’s Corey Pronman and TSN’s Frank Seravalli:

Believe the 2020 NHL Draft will be moved up to October 6 and 7, from the original tentative dates of October 9 and 10.— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) September 8, 2020

Adjust your calendars: #NHLDraft scheduled for Oct. 6-7, #FreeAgentFrenzy scheduled for Oct. 9.— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 8, 2020

Beginning of free agency (Oct. 9) fell on the same day as Day 1 of the draft, so one or the other had to be moved. As @coreypronman said, Oct. 6 and 7 it is. Evening of the 6th, during the day on the 7th. Free agency on the 9th. https://t.co/Rg1a2P3VNF— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) September 8, 2020