The Malik Report

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

24th ANNUAL GRIFFINS YOUTH FOUNDATION GOLF CLASSIC MOVED TO OCT. 1

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday announced that the 24th annual Griffins Youth Foundation Golf Classic presented by Meijer has been moved to Monday, Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. at Egypt Valley Country Club.

The date change was made to allow Griffins players to participate as a whole in the outing for the first time ever, joined by coaches and support staff, and to serve as a lead-in to the 2018-19 regular season.

Continue reading Grand Rapids Griffins’ Youth Foundation Golf Classic rescheduled for October 1st

MLive’s Scott DeCamp offers details regarding the Red Wings’ annual Street Hockey Summer Tour, which will take place at local Meijer locations in July and August:

Each stop on tour will feature two sessions: One for ages 7-9 and one for ages 10-12. The 7-9 age group will start at 10 a.m. at each stop, and the 10-12 age group will begin at 1 p.m.

Parents/guardians must register their children online in advance of each tour stop at www.detroitredwings.com/streethockey.

Here is the Red Wings Street Hockey Summer Tour schedule and the respective Meijer locations:

• July 16 in Muskegon: 700 W. Norton Ave.
• July 18 in Grand Rapids: 315 Wilson Ave. NW
• July 20 in Battle Creek: 2191 Columbia Ave.
• July 24 in Novi: 49900 Grand River Ave.
• July 26 in Warren: 25225 Schoenherr Rd.
• July 31 in Chesterfield: 27255 23 Mile Rd.
• Aug. 6 in Monroe: 1700 N. Telegraph Rd.
• Aug. 8 in Detroit: 1301 W. Eight Mile Rd.

Each participant will receive a free T-shirt, along with merchandise and prizes, courtesy of Meijer and the Red Wings. Additionally, there will be water and snack breaks for the participants during each clinic.

Registrations are on a first-come, first-served basis, and each stop on the tour is limited to 120 children (60 participants from ages 7-9; 60 participants from ages 10-12).

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill was on the NHL Tonight last night, and he addressed the Wings’ coaching and personnel moves over the course of a 9-minute phone interview:

 

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a video profiling defenseman Trevor Hamilton:

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a profile of fellow Wings prospect Alec Regula:

Regula described himself as a two-way defenseman. He produced seven goals and 18 assists in 67 games in his first OHL season.

“I think I can contribute offensively, but I really pride myself on my defense,” the right-shooting Regula said. “I got a good stick and good gaps. I think I got a lot to work on. I think I’m kind of a project for the Wings. I need to get my footwork going and I got to get a lot stronger, better endurance, all these things are what it takes to move to the next level.”

A pro career became a realistic goal for him following his lone season with the USHL Chicago Steel that was capped by a Clark Cup championship in 2016-17.

In London, he was paired with Evan Bouchard, a player the Red Wings might have selected at No. 6 if Filip Zadina weren’t available. Bouchard went 10^th overall to the Edmonton Oilers.

“Every single night we were facing the other team’s top line and that’s something that helped me a lot,” Regula said.

Khan continues…

3. On Twitter:

Tag that friend you’re always waiting on…. #LGRW @meijer pic.twitter.com/04txtzZzGx

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2018

The Joy of Six (Seasons) ?? pic.twitter.com/wHwEbv3MBB

— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) July 12, 2018

 

According to the Grand Rapids Press’s Scott DeCamp, Red Wings forward Luke Witkowski will be taking part in a youth hockey camp next week in Holland, MI:

Witkowski will be among current and former pro hockey players who will be working the Great Lakes Hockey Camp July 16-20 at Griff’s IceHouse West in Holland.

Former Grand Rapids Griffins player Jared Nightingale, who played at Michigan State, will be the host of the camp.

The camp is for boys and girls ages 7-17. It will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

The camp will include two on-ice sessions with off-ice games and training, as well as video and discussion each day.

Cost is $480 per camper. The goalie fee is $100. To reserve a spot, go to the Great Lakes Hockey website at https://www.glakeshockey.com/holland. If you have questions, email glakeshockey@gmail.com.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner provides a profile of Red Wings prospect Lane Zablocki this morning, discussing Zablocki’s “numbers” from his 2017-18 season. Zablocki, who was traded twice during the 2017-18 season, needs to “find a home” to truly establish himself as a gritty forward with some offensive pop:

Quotable: “One of the pleasant surprises for me was I actually didn’t know before he came in how versatile he is as a forward. To give you an example, we started him on his strong side wing. We learned quickly he can play his off-side wing as well, more of a shooting winger, but in the playoffs when we had a few injuries at the center position he actually played center for us and did that very well. He’s strong in the face-off circle, he’s strong physically generally, which helps him be good down low and he’s very competitive, he’s really hard to play against. We were able to manufacture a center we didn’t know we had.

So that’s a real positive as a coach when you have a player you can move around at all three positions (who) can play anywhere on the ice and can have an impact offensively and defensively. It’s a real opportunity for him to grow (next season) and to demonstrate to Detroit what he can do, not just what he can do now, but what he could become, which is obviously such an important part of the evaluation from the pro team – ‘what will this player be in a few years?’ So with that speed and physicality that he brings, the versatility at all three positions and he’s also really good around the net and that’s obviously a big part of Detroit’s success in the past with people like (Tomas) Holmstrom as an example.

And with a person like Lane potentially a candidate for that type of role, whether it be junior, American League or NHL, I think that’s really exciting for Detroit.” – Dan Price, Victoria Royals head coach

Regner continues at length…

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. In the “Funny Ha” vein, the Wings posted a video in which prospects David Pope and Jack Adams took the “best friends’ challenge”:

2. And ESPN’s Chris Peters attempted to find present-day comparable players for the NHL’s top draft picks:

Filip Zadina, RW, Detroit Red Wings

2018 draft: No. 6 overall draft pick
Top comparison: Filip Forsberg

Filip Zadina is probably one of the more skilled players in the draft, which makes him both exciting and a little difficult to compare. He plays a style very much his own and showed many different sides of himself throughout his draft season. You can see how he pulled different things from different players. Most of all, however, he is a goal scorer.

Continue reading Two Things: On ‘best friends’ and Filip Zadina’s modern comparables

The C&G Newspapers’ Timothy Ponzer penned a profile of Red Wings draft pick and Cranbrook-Kingswood graduate Alec Regula. It turns out that Regula, who is the son of the former Red Wings’ dentist, is already relatively familiar with some of his future teammates:

From June 26 to June 30, Regula participated in Detroit’s development camp, practicing and scrimmaging with the team’s top picks and prospects at the Belfor Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena.

“You see the type of pace at this level, and it makes you work that much harder,” Regula said. “You can see the quality prospects and how you have to work and improve to make it.”

Additionally, Regula has been working out at 2SP Sports Performance in Madison Heights. He credited the facility’s strength and conditioning coach Joe Neal and the opportunity to play with potential future teammates as major aspects of his development.

“I started really working hard there this summer. Guys like Justin Abdelkader, Jimmy Howard, Gustav Nyquist, Danny DeKeyser and Luke Witkowski all skate there,” Regula said. “They knew I was preparing for the draft, and it was great to see their work ethic up close. (Neal) has helped me take a lot of steps with my body.”

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins re-signed Toledo Walleye goaltender Pat Nagle to a 2-way AHL-ECHL contract this afternoon:

GRIFFINS RE-SIGN GOALTENDER PAT NAGLE

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Thursday re-signed goaltender Pat Nagle to a one-year contract.

A native of Bloomfield, Mich., Nagle enjoyed the best campaign of his seven-year pro career in 2017-18, his first as a member of the Toledo Walleye, the Griffins’ ECHL affiliate. His league-high 37 wins (37-6-4) set a Toledo mark and tied for the third-most in ECHL history, falling just one shy of the record.

Nagle led the Walleye to a Central Division title and the second-best record (50-17-3-2, 105 pts.) in the ECHL last season while placing among the circuit’s leaders with 50 goalie games played (1st), three shutouts (T4th), a career-best 0.924 save percentage (5th) and a 2.23 goals against average (6th) that tied his personal-best set the previous season.

Along the way to earning All-ECHL Second Team honors, he participated in his first ECHL All-Star Game and was named the league’s Goalie of the Month for both November (7-1-1) and February (8-0-0). In the midst of his landmark season, Nagle posted a 10-game winning streak (Jan. 27-March 2) as part of his franchise-record 17-game point run (15-0-2 from Jan. 24-March 18).

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound netminder capped off three standout seasons (2014-17) with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets by tallying a 15-3-4 record, a 2.23 GAA and a 0.916 save percentage in 25 appearances during the 2016-17 campaign. If he had played enough minutes to qualify, Nagle would have placed third in the league in GAA and eighth in save percentage that year.

Nagle has appeared in 272 ECHL games since 2011-12 with Florida, Idaho, Fort Wayne and Toledo, amassing a 160-65-28 record, a 2.54 GAA, a 0.914 save percentage and 13 shutouts. As a rookie with Florida, he helped the Everblades capture the Kelly Cup in 2012.

Nagle logged two games with the Griffins in 2014-15 and picked up a win while showing a 0.78 GAA and a 0.971 save percentage. The 30-year-old has competed in seven career AHL games since 2012-13 between Grand Rapids, Syracuse, Rochester and Utica, going 1-4-0 with a 3.23 GAA and a 0.900 save percentage.

Prior to turning pro, Nagle played four seasons at Ferris State University (CCHA) from 2007-11 and ranks among the school’s all-time leaders with 45 wins (3rd), a 2.32 GAA (3rd) and a 0.916 save percentage (T2nd). As a senior in 2010-11, he was named a CCHA First-Team All-Star after posting a 2.02 GAA and a 0.923 save percentage.

The Athletic’s Craig Custance wrote an article discussing Dylan Larkin’s contract negotiations with the Red Wings, and it appears that the Red Wings will have to work some salary cap magic to maximize both Larkin’s yield and the team’s ability to balance its books:

The salary cap is a complicated thing and in order to completely maximize the Johan Franzen long-term injured reserve option, the Red Wings would want to get as close to $78.745 million as possible (their adjusted cap number because of bonuses) before putting him on long-term injured reserve. Then they could exceed the cap by Franzen’s salary.

“Basically wherever you are before you activate LTI, they take a snapshot of your cap picture and you get the player you’re putting on to LTI’s cap room and that’s it,” said an Eastern Conference capologist. “You want to get as close to [the cap] as possible.”

With the Red Wings currently at $76.67 million (according to CapFriendly.com), that would leave them with just about $2 million to sign Larkin to get that ideal snapshot before putting Franzen on LTI. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. Even when you factor in the Franzen salary ($3.945 million) that’s still just getting into the range of what it’s likely going to take to get Larkin signed to anything beyond a bridge deal.

“I have them really jammed up unless they know someone is going,” said the cap expert.

As explored earlier this week, their jammed up depth chart along with this cap situation points to a winger trade being very advantageous for the Red Wings. Moving Gustav Nyquist ($4.75 million) would make a Larkin deal fit in nicely before using any LTIR. Athansiou’s $3 million would give breathing room, too.

Custance continues (paywall)…