The Athletic’s Craig Custance offers suggestions to rectify the Wings’ front office brain drain

Last night, the Detroit News’s John Niyo noted that Ken Holland’s most interesting comment during locker room clean-out day involved an acknowledgment of the “brain drain” in the Wings’ front office, and his desire to add to a depleted brain trust.

Today, The Athletic’s Craig Custance offers suggestions as to who the Wings might want to add to complement Holland, Ryan Martin and Kris Draper:

One NHL source also pointed out on Tuesday that Holland has to be careful not to bring in someone angling for his job.

“You have to bring in somebody you like and trust,” said the Western Conference executive. “You have to be a little bit careful there. Most guys won’t do it, but if you have a guy who has any inkling they can take the job, you can get in trouble in a hurry.”

But if the point is to gain fresh perspective, the Red Wings also have to be careful not to bring in an old friend who will just reinforce current beliefs. It’s a fine line.

It’s early in the process, so any candidate names would just be speculation. There are options on the open market, though, if that’s a direction the Red Wings want to go.

The upcoming draft is the biggest in Holland’s tenure, so it would be wise to bring in an executive with draft experience. Former Sabres GM Tim Murray built his reputation through a strong drafting record with the Senators and Ducks. He was also a Red Wings scout for one year early in his career. His skill set would certainly complement those already in the Red Wings front office. He’s fiery, aggressive and eager to implement new technologies in player evaluation, among other attributes.

Custance continues (paywall)…

Wings post, “Thank You, Fans” video

The Red Wings posted a 1:40 video thanking fans for their passion and patronage during the 2017-18 season:

Update: Here’s the Twitter version:

 

Mantha, Blashill’s relationship changed this season

CBS Detroit’s Will Burtchfield took note of Anthony Mantha’s locker room clean-out day comments as pertaining to Mantha’s communication with coach Jeff Blashill:

Blashill’s dissatisfaction nagged at [Mantha]. It wasn’t so much dispiriting as it was perplexing. Oftentimes, Mantha didn’t understand the root of his coach’s frustration. He didn’t understand where he had gone wrong. Finally, midway through this season, Mantha sought answers.

“The one thing he said to me was, ‘Can you show me? Can you show me what you’re talking about?'” Blashill recalled. “And I said, ‘Absolutely.'”

Prior to a late-January game in New Jersey, Blashill pulled Mantha aside and showed him two sets of clips. The first consisted of Mantha’s 10 best shifts of the season, the second consisted of his 10 worst. Mantha immediately saw the difference.

“We compared those, and I mean, there’s a big difference when I’m actually competing and when I’m not,” Mantha said. “That’s a learning thing that I did this year.”

During that same conversation, one that Blashill deemed a “heart-to-heart,” the coach and the player discussed motivational tactics.

“We were talking about how to get me going in a game when it’s not going (well),” Mantha said. “Obviously I’m not the kind of player you just start yelling at, so he changed his approach there. Calling me out in the media, that’s another technique he tried. We could say it worked, could say it didn’t work.”

Burtchfield continues…

Two ‘thoughts’ and a Joe film teaser

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman posted two Red Wings-related “thoughts” in his 31 Thoughts column:

17. Detroit seems confident Henrik Zetterberg is coming back for 2018-19, although he’s been careful to point out it depends on his back. For the third straight year, he played 82 games, but, as one teammate said, “You have no idea what he goes through to play.” I think there were some who thought this was it. He is 40 points shy of 1,000. That’s a worthwhile target.

18. Red Wings GM Ken Holland announced Tuesday that Jeff Blashill will be back next season. I really liked something the coach said to Daren Millard before a late-season game against Ottawa. Daren asked how hard it must be to get up for those games.

“Every time you play a National Hockey League game, it’s special,” Blashill replied. “Every one of our guys, when their careers are over, will want to come back and play one more game, even in the situation that we are in being out of the playoffs. This isn’t perfect but it’s a National Hockey League game.”

Friedman continues…

2. If you missed it, the NHL will premiere a film about Joe Louis Arena at the Freep Film Festival, and the Red Wings have both posted a teaser and have a link to the ticket page for the festival:

Update: Ken Holland and Daniel Cleary earn a couple of paragraphs’ worth of comments in a Sportsnet article about “How to Build a Perennial Contender,” and Gare Joyce’s article is very solid.

Griffins coach Todd Nelson appears on ESPN 96.1 FM

Grand Rapids Griffins coach Todd Nelson appeared on ESPN 96.1 FM on Tuesday, speaking with “Big Drew and Jim” regarding this week’s Griffins games (at Texas tonight, at San Antonio on Thursday and at home vs. Cleveland), the return of Jared Coreau, Nelson’s desire to fold in some players that haven’t have played of late and while still attempting to win the Central Division:

Listen to “Todd Nelson – Grand Rapids Griffins Head Coach (4/10/18)” on Spreaker.

A bit about player-tracking technology

In mid-July, this story would be a welcome beacon of Wings talk in what’s usually the quietest portion of the summer, but for now, this story is something of an outlier:

According to the Associated Press’s Larry Lage, the NHL is already testing technologies which track players’ skating and shooting speeds, lengths, trajectories, etc., and there is some significant debate on the league-wide, team-by-team and player-by-player levels as to whether making such data public would be a good thing or a bad thing:

Even in the Detroit Red Wings’ dressing room, there wasn’t a consensus.

“If you track players and show how fast you’re skating, I think fans will be able to appreciate it and it will look cool on TV,” Red Wings center Dylan Larkin said .

Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg provided another perspective.

“I’m not a big fan of that because eventually that will be used as a disadvantage for players,” Zetterberg said. “Even though they say it won’t be, it will be in contracts and it will be used against players in all different areas with management and coaching issues.”

[NHL deputy commissioner Bill] Daly insisted he doesn’t buy that argument.

“Our experience with enhanced statistics is entirely the opposite,” Daly said. “Players and agents have historically and virtually without exception been able to use enhanced statistics and analytics to their individual benefit. That’s just a fact.”

Lage continues…what do you think about the concept of making this data publicly available, and/or promoting it as part of a game’s statistical and broadcast package?

 

Prospect playoff round-up: Rasmussen 1G, 3A for Tri-City in wild win; Cholowski scores for struggling Winterhawks

In playoff action, in the OHL, Givani Smith finished at -1 on 5 shots as his Kitchener Rangers lost 4-1 to the Sarnia Sting.

Sarnia leads the teams’ second-round series 2 games to 1;

In the WHL, Dennis Cholowski continued his scoring surge, but his Portland Winterhawks are trending in the wrong direction. Cholowski scored a goal on 4 shots, but finished at -3 in Portland’s 6-2 loss to Everett.

Everett now leads the teams’ second-round series 2 games to 1, and Cholowski has posted 5 goals and 2 assists for 7 points in 10 games played, but he’s also -7;

Finally, Michael Rasmussen continues to impress. In a wild game, the Tri-City Americans won 6-5 over the Victoria Royals, and Rasmussen’s empty-net goal ended up being the game-winner as Tri-City nearly blew 5-0 and 6-4 leads en route to their victory.

Rasmussen also registered 3 assists and a +4 on 6 shots, going 2-for-2 on faceoffs (he hasn’t taken many faceoffs since his wrist surgery, but boy, has he scored); if you’re keeping score at home, Rasmussen now has 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points (and a +13) in 7 games played.

The wrist surgery hampered Rasmussen’s regular-season output significantly (31 goals and 28 assists for 59 points in 47 games played), but the incredibly-serious Rasmussen been lights-out since he returned.

Fellow Wings prospect Lane Zablocki had a goal and an assist for Victoria, finishing even on 2 shots and going 7-for-13 in the faceoff circle.

Rasmussen’s Americans now lead their second-round series 3 2 games to 0.

 

 

Albom recalls the Russian Five on morning of film’s premiere

The Russian Five film will premiere at the Free Press Film Festival tonight at the Filmore Detroit, and this morning, the Free Press’s Mitch Albom pays tribute to the real thing:

I was lucky enough to be there when they all joined the Red Wings — and mad professor Scotty Bowman had the idea of playing them all at the same time.

In truth, there had been a “Russian Five” unit before, in Russia, actually, in the 1980s, with Fetisov and Larionov part of the group. They played together on Soviet national teams as well as for CSKA Moscow.

Then the NHL widened its doors for Russian players. And one by one, these men made the pilgrimage from one corner of the world to the next. It wasn’t easy. They waited years, or they defected. One, Konstantinov, even faked like he was dying to get out of his Soviet obligations.

But once assembled, their collected greatness was an inevitability. And it happened in Detroit uniforms. When Bowman sent those five over the boards together — on Oct. 27, 1995, in the Calgary Saddledome, during the 10th game of the season and just a few days after Larionov had joined the team — thunder clapped, the history books flung open, and a new chapter in NHL history was penned.

The Wings won that game, 3-0. The Russian unit scored two of thee goals. More importantly, Bowman was rewarded for his trust in the savvy leadership of the older Larionov and Fetisov, blended with the youthful mix of speed, finesse and muscle that Fedorov, Kozlov and Konstantinov represented.

“It was just beautiful to watch,” Jim Devellano, then the Wings’ GM, told Keith Gave in his fine book on the subject, “The Russian Five: A story of espionage, defection, bribery and courage.” “Every pass was tape to tape. They knew where everybody else was. They showed us the pride of the Russians.”

Albom continues, and the Russian 5, in person? They made Zetterberg and Datsyuk’s chemistry look second-rate.

Krupa, Niyo weigh in on the “state of the rebuild”

The Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa and John Niyo have weighed in on the comments made during locker room clean-out day, and Krupa focused on the “state of the rebuild,” which Krupa suggests is plain old stuck–at least in fans’ eyes…

Not all fans are convinced. They might well have tolerated 50 losses in regulation this season better than the Red Wings’ 39 losses, if they could have perceived a clearer path forward.

If the Wings had played younger players more, Joe Hicketts, Dominic Turgeon and Evgeny Svechnikov, and introduced Filip Hronek to the lineup later in the season, when they finally brought up Hicketts and quickly won three games, the rebuild would be farther along.

And if more losses had resulted, the Wings would have improved their odds of drafting Rasmus Dahlin, the most desired player in the draft, touted as a supremely talented puck-moving defenseman likely to have an immediate impact in the NHL.

Instead, in a season in which few, other than the Red Wings, thought they could possibly qualify for the playoffs, they both missed the post-season and failed to hasten rebuilding.

It is the way many rebuilds are accomplished in the NHL.

The Red Wings two great rivals from their recent Stanley Cup years, the Avalanche and the Devils, both made the playoffs this season. Although they started rebuilding sooner because they stopped winning Stanley Cups earlier, some critical moments of judgment allowed them to seize the opportunity to get worse so they could get better.

The Wings are late to those decisions. Holland sounds like he is ready, now.

Krupa continues at length, and Niyo offers a wrinkle in the theory by suggesting that ownership could lend Mr. Holland a hand:

And if ownership is as serious about this rebuild as it claims to be about the family’s other pro sports franchise, there’s no time like the present to show it. The Tigers have made a big to-do about upgrading their scouting and player development operations, investing millions in an analytics department and so on. But with the Wings, even at this critical juncture, it still feels like it’s less action and more talk.

“We’re discussing every day how we can be better,” Holland said.

That discussion includes Ilitch, who took part in the team’s midseason scouting summit in Las Vegas back in January and also spent time with Holland and his staff watching some of this year’s top draft prospects at the Five Nations Tournament in Plymouth in February. But where all that talk leads remains to be seen.

The team added Bryan Campbell as its director of statistical analysis and hockey administration a few years ago, but the Wings still lag behind others on the analytics front. Holland did say Tuesday he has tasked assistant video coach Jeff Weintraub with an analytics project involving the top 10 players in this year’s draft. (“We haven’t done that before,” he said.)

They’ve embraced new ideas in other areas, too, with Shawn Horcoff, the team’s director of player development, incorporating the Power Edge Pro system used by the Nashville Predators, among others, into the preseason training regimen at the AHL and NHL level.

“So we’re trying to do things a little bit differently,” Holland said.

Frankly, they have no choice if they want to make this work. The days of unearthing European gems others don’t see are long gone, and the big-market payroll advantage is no more.

“Forget anything that happened before 2005,” Holland said. “That was a different world.”

Niyo also continues, and