Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels and color commentator Mickey Redmond appeared on WDIV’s Sports Final Edition on Sunday night, speaking with Jamie Edmonds for seven-and-a-half minutes. WDIV posted a clip of the interview this morning, and while it’s not embeddable, it’s worth your time…
And if you don’t already know, the main topic was the Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond, which will be taking place on Saturday, September 7th at the MotorCity Casino.
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan is examining the Red Wings’ positional depth over the course of a 3-part series of articles, and Kulfan kicks things off with an evaluation of the team’s goaltending position:
With the Red Wings expected to be sellers at the deadline again in the 2019-20 season, and [Jimmy] Howard on a one-year contract, there’s likely a ton of rumors about Howard’s future again.
Howard’s situation will go a long way in determining how the goaltending position will look going forward.
Howard and Jonathan Bernier held the position last season and will do so again beginning in October.
Prospect Filip Larsson will begin his professional career in Grand Rapids, with veteran Calvin Pickard backing Larsson.
Signing Pickard in free agency and establishing some depth in the goaltending position – and a bridge between Howard/Bernier and Larsson – was one of general manager Steve Yzerman’s goals.
The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin penned a column discussing the “Stanley Cup Windows” of the Atlantic Division’s teams, and as you might expect, the Red Wings’ “window” hasn’t opened yet:
REBUILDERS: Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators
The Wings and Senators know who they are at this point. New Detroit GM Steve Yzerman played things conservatively this off-season. He likely knows he’s hamstrung by the collection of ugly leftover veteran contracts he inherited and didn’t make the mistake of believing his team is ready to contend yet. Detroit has begun doing something it never got to do during its 25-year playoff streak: hoard high-end prospects. Recent first-rounders Filip Zadina, Joe Veleno and Moritz Seider will eventually elevate the team’s talent level to support leader Dylan Larkin and project Michael Rasmussen but, aside from Zadina, won’t be making an NHL impact this season. Detroit remains years away from contention.
The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek chose to engage in a thought experiment this past week, contracting the NHL from a 32-league team to a 12-team league, and the results thereof would be positive for the Red Wings, as Max Bultman noted:
Based off the question “what if the NHL never expanded beyond 12 teams?” we at The Athletic conducted a “contraction draft” to condense the teams’ talent pools and show what the average roster would look like — how absurd the talent concentration would be, but also what would be lost by keeping the league small. Each team got to protect four active players to preserve its essence, but, as will be no surprise to Red Wings’ fans, that left me at a bit of a disadvantage as their pseudo-GM. Toronto protected four superstars. My last spot was down to Filip Hronek — a rookie who hasn’t even played a full season — and Tyler Bertuzzi, a great player for the current Red Wings, and a prime example of how much of the game would be lost if the league was still so small …but one who ultimately didn’t end up drafted in our simulation.
I kept Hronek for two reasons: one, I didn’t want to protect just forwards; and two, the ultimate assessment of our teams was to be done via simulation. I was hoping Hronek’s combination of production and youth could give him a slight boost in the analytics models.
And when it came time to make some picks, my draft strategy followed a similar set of goals. I consulted with friend of The Athletic (and Analytics Knower) Prashanth Iyer before the draft and decided to prioritize elite forwards early on, load up on defense in the middle rounds and then try and find some late-round gems to fill out the bottom six. I couldn’t have been happier when, after drafting MacKinnon second overall, I got Taylor Hall and Matthew Tkachuk at the next turn. Combining them with Dylan Larkin, that gave me four borderline elite forwards to build around, with keeper Anthony Mantha and middle-round sleeper Viktor Arvidsson filling out the top six.
Bultman continues (paywall)
DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines Mike Green’s 2018-2019 season today, discussing both Green’s significant statistics and the illness that cut his season short:
39 — It was not Green’s healthiest season of his career. He missed a team-high 39 games, including the first nine games of the season and the last 17 games of the season because of a virus.
5 — The veteran defenseman scored five goals, tied with rookie Filip Hronek and Danny DeKeyser for second among team blueliners. Rookie Dennis Cholowski was first with seven. Dylan Larkin was first on the team in goals with 32.
21 — In just 43 games, Green recorded 21 assists, second among Wings defensemen. Niklas Kronwall was first with 24 assists. Larkin was the overall assist leader with 41.
MLive’s Ansar Khan examines Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha’s 2019-2020 season outlook this morning:
2019-20 outlook: The Red Wings are excited about the way Mantha finished the season and his continued strong play at the World Championship. He surely would have reached 30 goals and possibly 60 points if he hadn’t essentially missed a quarter of the season between his injury and the time needed to get back into the flow.
Mantha has found a comfort level and new level of consistency playing on a line with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, a unit that surely will stay intact to start the season.
The club is encouraging Mantha to use his ‘elite’ wrist shot more often and he was rewarded for developing a quicker release. Used in a net-front capacity in the past (even strength and power play), Mantha is more effective away from the net, where he can utilize his shot more, especially near the half-wall on the power play.
Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader appeared on WOOD TV’s Sports OT on Sunday night, speaking with Larry Figurski regarding the campaign to come:
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman was in the Czech Republic recently to take in the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, and he spoke with iSport.cz’s Jiri Vitek for an exclusive interview…That happens to be blocked behind a paywall.
If anybody has a subscription, I’d be much obliged to pay your month’s subscription for a gander at the full translation of the interview…
But in the interim, here’s a rough translation of what’s not stuck behind the paywall:
Yzerman Exclusive: I liked Hronek at the World Championship, and we have talent in Detroit
As a forward, Steve Yzerman won three Stanley Cups with Detroit, collecting a number of individual trophies. Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman, after eight seasons as the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning, returned home to rebuild Hockeytown into a similar position. “We must be patient,” says Detroit’s neew boss to iSport Premium during an interview at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.
In Detroit, two Czech youngsters, Filip Hronek and Filip Zadina, are also fighting for jobs. “I saw Hronek at the World Championship, and I liked him very much,” said the former forward who played in 1,514 NHL games and posted 1,755 points (692 + 1063). He spoke to iSport Premum during the prestigious youth tournament.
Did you focus on specific players, or did you watch the game and wait to see which youngsters would interest you?
“It was the first event for us to see the 2002-born players waiting to be drafted next year. For us it’s an opportunity to see them playing in games and responding to each situation.
When drafting, then, do you personally participate in the selection of players?
“It’s more listening to the chief of scouting and scouts.”
After nine years, you’re back in Detroit. How has the team changed?
“There are, of course, many new players. I left in 2010, and they’d gone to the Stanley Cup Final twice in the previous three seasons. Now the team is undergoing rebuilding, and this is different. We’re also playing in a new arena, and other people are taking care of us than those who did previously.”
You’re composing a new team, just as you did in 1983 when you came to Detroit as an 18-year-old.
“It’s true. But at the same time, the team was mostly old and experienced players then, and we have a lot of talented players at our disposal.”
The interview continues, but that’s as far as I can go for now…
DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner speaks with Red Wings broadcaster and Hockey Hall of Famer Larry Murphy on the latest episode of the “Red and White Authority” podcast:
.@FOXSportsDet analyst and former #RedWing, Larry Murphy is our guest to discuss his Hall of Fame career and preview the upcoming season.
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 12, 2019
Listen/subscribe: https://t.co/FlOzV7hB5Z pic.twitter.com/2URtVg0uKC
