The Malik Report

My Waffle House Hot Takes regarding the 2020 NHL Draft involve: (1) lot of complaining about the draft lottery being stupid (I don’t believe that the NHL should reward mediocre teams with a 50% chance of earning a top 3 draft pick at the expense of teams that really need help); and (2) the belief that the Red Wings should use their 4th overall pick to snag the player with the highest developmental ceiling, regardless of whom that player might be.

If I were to “show my hand,” I’d suggest that the Wings take Erie Otters defenseman Jamie Drysdale on October 9th and run for the hills, but one never knows what GM Steve Yzerman or director of amateur scouting Kris Draper are thinking.

That being said, there’s been a lot of buzz about the Wings snagging Ottawa 67’s center Marco Rossi, Frolunda Indians winger Lucas Raymond, and, more and more regularly, the Wings are tied to Saginaw Spirit forward Cole Perfetti over Drysdale thanks to the “local ties” (see: Draper and company have probably seen a lot of Perfetti as he’s in the Wings’ backyard, and both Chris Osgood and Jimmy Devellano have ownership stakes in the Spirit) and the Wings’ build-up-the-middle philosophy.

Chris Peters posted a mock draft for ESPN+ this morning, and he’s on the Perfetti train:

Continue reading ESPN’s Peters suggests that Wings should go for the Perfetti fit in the 2020 draft

The Detroit Red Wings’ salary cap situation looks pretty good heading into the 2020-2021 season. Per CapFriendly and PuckPedia, the Wings have somewhere between $32 and $34 million in cap space (under what will be a $81.5 million “flat cap” for the next two seasons) after having re-signed Robby Fabbri to a 2-year, $5.9 million contract.

The Wings have two more big priorities on the restricted free agent market: Tyler Bertuzzi will be looking for a big raise over his $1.4 million salary this past season thanks to a 21-goal, 48-point 2019-2020 campaign, and Anthony Mantha posted 38 points in a 43-game, injury-abbreviated season, so he’ll be looking for more than his $3.3 million salary this past season as well.

In terms of the team’s unrestricted free agents:

Continue reading Restricted free agent questions for the Wings: to qualify or not qualify?

The blog is back, up and running again, and there’s good news on the fundraising front: Day 1 of TMR, Take 3 produced $244 in funding, or just over half the $426 I need to cover the bills for this year’s Bluehost server bill, Jetpack’s web bill and Dlvr.it’s Twitter service.

I still need help, however, so if you can lend a hand, please head over to https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport or Giftly.com (using my email address, rtxg@yahoo.com). I’ll also utilize other fundraising sources if that would make your part of the process easier and simpler.

Thank you for your time and your readership.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press have installed paywalls, offering would-be subscribers a $3-a-month rate for the first three months of a subscription that increases to $9.99 per month.

For the past two weeks, the News has posted lengthy hockey articles. Last week, Mark Falkner profiled agent Dan Milstein, and, this week, Red Wings beat writer Ted Kulfan engages in a lengthy Q and A session with Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending coach (and former Red Wing) Manny Legace.

Legace accompanied the Blue Jackets into the Toronto “Bubble” for round robin and playoff play, and he spoke with Kulfan regarding his experiences in Toronto:

“I wish I was still there,” said Legace, alluding to his team being eliminated.

“I’m glad I was a part of it. It was actually really, really cool, because how often do you see eight teams walking around a hotel, a hotel that’s closed down for just NHL teams, and your meeting rooms are right across the hall from the New York Rangers, and you have the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto (Maple Leafs) downstairs. It was just real cool. It was amazing.”

For Legace, a hockey lifer who enjoys and appreciates every facet of the game, the entire bubble experience brought Legace back to when he was a youngster playing hockey.

“It reminded me of back when I was a kid,” Legace said. “Every hallway was set up with pingpong tables, so the guys are out in the hallways hanging out — you couldn’t go into anyone’s room — they’re hanging out and playing games in the hallways.

“It was a like big tournament, like the Quebec pee-wee tournament. You stay in the hotel, with everybody in the hallways, and it was just amazing to experience.

“The NHL has really done a great job with this.”

Kulfan continues (paywall)…

If you missed it, the Red Wings lost their [edit: one-time video and then assistant coach /end edit] on Friday, as Adam Nightingale was named a co-head-coach of the United States National Team Development Program (NTDP) in Plymouth. USA Hockey posted a press release regarding their hires:

Dan Muse (Canton, Mass.) and Adam Nightingale (Cheyboygan, Mich.) have been named the 14th and 15th head coaches in USA Hockey National Team Development Program history, it was announced today by USA Hockey. 

Muse brings 15 years of coaching experience to the NTDP and was an assistant coach for the Nashville Predators for the past three seasons. Nightingale has spent the last three years with the Detroit Red Wings, serving most recently as an assistant coach for the 2019-20 campaign. 

“We are very excited to bring in two coaches of this caliber,” said Scott Monaghan, senior director of operations for the NTDP. “Both Dan and Adam have great experience and success as head coaches working with the developmental age levels and have progressed to working at the highest level on NHL benches. We are fortunate to have these two leading the development of our young men at the NTDP.” 

The press release continues, highlighting Muse and Nightingale’s respective career achievements. USA Hockey also posted a 30-minute Zoom call in which Muse, Nightingale, and new USA Hockey goaltending coach David Lassonde introduced themselves to the media:

Yesterday, the Red Wings made their fifth loan of a player and/or prospect to a European team, with Filip Hronek being officially loaned to Mountfield Hradec Kralove of the Czech Extraliga.

Hronek joins Moritz Seider (Adler Mannheim, DEL), Filip Zadina (Ocelari Trinec, Czech Extraliga), Gustav Lindstrom (Almtuna IS, Swedish Allsvenskan) and Mattias Brome (Orebro, Swedish Hockey League) as the Wings’ players likely to play European hockey games before the Red Wings theoretically open camp in mid-November (Coronavirus recovery strategy willing).

MLive’s Ansar Khan, the Free Press’s Helene St. James and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan discussed the player loans on Friday, and I wanted to address some aspects of the Wings’ decision to allow said players to play in Europe.

Continue reading Talking about the Wings’ European-loaned players

The last two times, it was easier to come back.

In 2018, mom got very sick, but she got better, and when she recovered, I returned from a blogging hiatus.

In 2019, mom got really sick, but she eventually got better, and when she recovered, I returned from a blogging hiatus.

Last summer, after mom got better, I covered the draft, I went to the summer development camp, I went on vacation, came back, and went to the prospect tournament and main training camp.

I came back, and mom got very sick again, and I let you know that I would be off for a bit, again.

My mom didn’t get better. Five days after I returned home from training camp, she died.

I didn’t come back.

Continue reading As the blog’s bill comes due, I still want to believe

Hello everybody. I hope that 2020 finds you in better shape than 2019 left you in, or at least that you are managing decently.

It’s time for a little update as to where I’ve been, and why I’ve been silent some three-and-a-half months after my mother’s passing.

At the present moment, the aunt and I still have a couple of estate-related issues to deal with, but the progress has been slow-going due to the simple fact that I’m dealing with a partner who is both 77 and faces multiple autoimmune issues.

Along those lines, after the better part of a year-long battle, Aunt Annie has been approved for Medicaid, and that decision is of interest to TMR.

As a result thereof, we’re now in the process of getting me compensated for being Aunt Annie’s full-time caregiver. Being able to pay some of the household freight ==> being able to dedicate at least part-time focus to the blog.

I still may have to get a part-time job to help support the household, but being able to find a position that affords me screen time instead of grocery-bagging time (not that there’s anything wrong with that) behooves you and me both.

Long story long, right now, my living and work situations are up in the air, and it’s going to take another month-to-six-weeks (hopefully) to get things sorted out with Adult Services and the State of Michigan.

When there’s some sort of certainty as to what’s going on, I sure miss covering the Wings, Griffins and prospects, I sure miss the work, and I sure miss talking with all of you.

The last four months have been spent working hard to resolve mom’s estate, to help Aunt Annie get healthier, and to navigate grief and loss, all while dealing with financial strain.

I hope that at least partially resolving the last part of that equation will afford me the privilege to work for you again.

To everybody who has wondered where I’ve been over the past month:

As my aunt and I adjust to a world without the third member of our band, we’ve been spending our days attempting to resolve the legal details of my mother’s estate.

Mom’s been cremated, memorialized, and the little box of my mom’s ashes sits atop the refrigerator in the kitchen.

Regrettably, she left a complicated tangle of medical and financial bills unresolved, minus an estate or a will.

As a result, the aunt and I have engaged in the slow and laborious business that is calling and contacting her various physicians, insurers and creditors, determining who needs copies of her death certificate, and then faxing or mailing out the documents necessary to resolve mom’s obligations.

It’s tedious, tiring work, and some four weeks after my mom passed away, we’re simply not finished with the process of resolving the estate.

My hope is that I’ll only be sidelined for another 2-3 weeks, but I really can’t predict how long it will take for the aunt and me to chop the paperwork down to a manageable level.

I miss covering hockey, I miss interacting with Wings fans, and I hope that I’ll be able to resume blogging soon, but I simply don’t have a firm timeline as to when the estate resolution process will be complete.

My aunt and I are doing our best to work together as we adjust to life without mom.

I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can get back to the “new normal” routine of my daily life.

Thank you for your time, readership and support.

Everybody,

I want to thank everyone who sent messages of support through the blog, Twitter, Facebook, email…I still haven’t been able to get what was said/sent as the first couple of days after someone dies are busy, but my aunt and I are incredibly grateful for everyone who’s reached out.

Some of the next couple of days will be catching up, but the last few days have been incredibly busy, so please don’t be upset if you haven’t gotten an immediate reply.

In addition to handling the funerary details (mom will be cremated, in Taylor of all places), the aunt and I have been navigating a sea of phone calls made to doctors/insurance/financial companies/etc., and the clean-up company came to clean the mom’s room where she passed, and…

48 hours ago, mom died. 72 hours ago, she was very alive and very sick. A week ago, I was coming home from Traverse City. And now mom’s room is barren of personal details and cleaned down to the sub-floor. Both my aunt and I have had long cries realizing the finality of the fact that mom isn’t just going to come home or sneak out of her room in the night. She managed to wander off while we weren’t looking one last time.

We also take great solace in the belief that my mother and my father are reunited. My dad died in 1992 at only 44 years of age, and they spent 27 years apart. My mother and father really adored each other in love and friendship, and I would like to believe that they are no longer apart.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get back to blogging yet. We’re still navigating the maze that is placing a loved one’s affairs in order, never mind grieving the loss of a mother and sister. I can’t really say how long things will take because we have so many pathways to navigate.

Because mom is being cremated, we’re going to have a small memorial and eventually send her off the pier in Grand Marais, but those are long-term plans. Right now it’s about getting her affairs in order. That’s a gargantuan task for such a small little lady.

I can only say that I miss hockey and I miss interacting with you in a hockey-covering capacity, and again, I am incredibly grateful for your support during an incredibly difficult time–and losing a parent for the second time is just as hard as the first time, that’s for sure.