This is pretty cool:
Grateful to have had the opportunity to produce this video of @DetroitRedWings prospect Evgeny Svechnikov about his journey to the @NHL. A fantastic young player and even better man. @griffinshockey @AnsarKhanMLive @petewallner
https://t.co/ZxLlNPbtiy— Eli Zink (@EliZink) March 8, 2018
From the Red Wings:
The #RedWings today recalled RW Evgeny Svechnikov from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
Details: https://t.co/W4QfAB0cKS pic.twitter.com/6n8oMbmP1f
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 8, 2018
And the Grand Rapids Griffins:
UPDATE: @DetroitRedWings recall Evgeny Svechnikov from the #Griffins & reassign Dylan Sadowy to the #Griffins from the @ToledoWalleye. https://t.co/Pvyyn6raSV pic.twitter.com/VcNdBURW1Y
— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) March 8, 2018
Here’s the press release:
Continue reading Red Wings use roster emergency recall to bring Evgeny Svechnikov up
In the KHL, Alexander Kadeikin registered an assist on the OT winner as Lokomotiv Yaroslavl won 3-2 in overtime over Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod, sweeping the teams’ first-round playoff series. Kadeikin finished at +1 with 1 shot in 15:37 played;
In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Malte Setkov took a penalty while playing on the 3rd defensive pairing in IK Pantern’s 4-1 loss to Sodertalje SK.
This was the last day of the Allsvenskan regular season, and IK Pantern qualified for the Allsvenskan playoffs;
The Detroit Red Wings play a rare March home game against the Vegas Golden Knights this evening (7:30 PM EST on FSD/ATT Sportsnet/97.1 FM; tonight is “NHL Green Night” at LCA), and the Wings may be catching the 42-19-and-5 Golden Knights at an opportune time.
Vegas has lost 4 of its past 5 games (1-3-and-1), including a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
Neither the Golden Knights nor the Red Wings practiced on Tuesday, so there is some question as to whether Reilly Smith will be in the lineup this evening, and that’s a big concern for the Golden Knights, as the Las Vegas Sun’s Jesse Granger noted:
From MLive’s Ansar Khan…
The Detroit Red Wings will get their first look this season at forward Evgeny Svechnikov on Thursday, when he’s expected to be in the lineup against the Vegas Golden Knights at Little Caesars Arena (7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).
The Red Wings will recall Svechnikov, their top pick in the 2015 draft (19th overall) from the Grand Rapids Griffins on Thursday.
Frans Nielsen suffered a concussion Tuesday on a hit from Boston Bruins center David Backes, who on Wednesday was suspended three games by the NHL for interference.
Svechnikov, 21, struggled earlier this season, his second in the AHL, but has played better the past 25 games, with four goals and 12 assists. Overall, he has seven goals and 15 assists in 52 games, along with 56 penalty minutes and a minus-4 rating.
And the Free Press’s Helene St. James:
An injury to Detroit Red Wings forward Frans Nielsen spells opportunity for prospect Evgeny Svechnikov.
Svechnikov will play Thursday when the Wings host the Vegas Golden Knights at Little Caesars Arena. Nielsen will miss that game and Friday’s at Columbus after sustaining an upper-body injury Tuesday when he was hit by Boston’s David Backes in a 6-5 overtime loss at TD Garden.
The NHL department of player safety announced a three-game suspension for Backes Wednesday afternoon.
Nielsen was slow to get up and underwent concussion protocol testing during first intermission. He will be reassessed Monday. He is one of the Wings’ most versatile forwards, averaging around 16 minutes per game and playing both special teams.
Even if Nielsen is able to play Monday at San Jose — or later in the California-Colorado trip — Svechnikov will be staying past Nielsen’s return.
The Wings are eager to get a look at their 2015 first-round pick, who has rallied from a challenging first half with the Grand Rapids Griffins to reach seven goals and 15 assists in 52 games.
From the NHL, a little belatedly:
Bruins’ Backes Suspended Three Games for Interference
NEW YORK (March 7, 2018) – Boston Bruins forward David Backes has been suspended for three games, without pay, for interference against Detroit Red Wings forward Frans Nielsen during NHL Game No. 1020 in Boston on Tuesday, March 6, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
The incident occurred at 19:44 of the first period. Backes was assessed a minor penalty for roughing.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Backes will forfeit $96,774.18. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
From the University of Nebraska-Omaha:
Omaha senior forward David Pope is one of six players named to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference First Team All-Conference.
It is the first all-conference honor for Pope who was the only Maverick recognized for either the first, second or honorable mention teams.
Pope is having a career season with 20 goals and 20 assists for 40 points in 33 games. He ranks fourth in the conference in scoring for all games played. He finished the season with 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points in 23 conference games which also put him fourth in the NCHC.
The native of Edmonton, Alberta leads the NCHC with 12 power play goals, a number that ties him for first in the nation. He also has amassed a conference-best 21 power play points. Pope was named the NCHC’s Offensive Player of the Week following a five-point weekend in a split at Notre Dame.
Pope became the fifth Maverick in as many years to score 20 goals in a season when he tallied against North Dakota on Feb. 16. He’s also the 15th player to reach 40 or more points in a season in school history.
The Mavericks begin the NCHC Playoffs with a best-of-three quarterfinal series at North Dakota on March 9.
This is a strange one…While setting up tomorrow’s Red Wings-Vegas Golden Knights game, MLive’s Ansar Khan offers a fair bit of criticism toward the Red Wings’ coaching, management and scouts:
Vegas is set up to succeed for years. The Red Wings are just beginning what could be a long and painful process. It’s due to several factors, including poor drafting, lack of trades, bad contracts and player regression under coach Jeff Blashill.
Detroit’s success resulted in no pick higher than 19th from 1992 to 2013. The Red Wings traded six first-round picks from 1997 to 2004 for established players (Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek, Robert Lang).
None of their top picks from 2005 to 2011 remain on their roster (Jakub Kindl, Cory Emmerton, Brendan Smith, Tom McCollum, Landon Ferraro, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Jurco).
Their ability to land a high-impact defenseman anywhere in the draft since 2000 (Niklas Kronwall) has hurt
Drafting and trading are more important in today’s NHL due to a decline in the free-agent market caused by more teams locking up players to long-term deals.
General manager Ken Holland hasn’t made an impactful player for player trade in some time. No player on the current roster was acquired through trade.
The Red Wings have several big contracts (money and term) that would be difficult to move: Justin Abdelkader (five more years at a $4.25 million cap hit), Danny DeKeyser (four years at $5 million), Frans Nielsen (four years at $5.25 million) and Darren Helm (three years at $3.85 million).
Is there hope? Definitely, as the Red Wings have finally begun to hit on some prospects worth their salt in the draft, and the Wings are flush with picks for the next couple of drafts, with high-level prospects on the way…
But in the interim, the Red Wings may be mediocre for another year or three, as Khan suggests:
A core of talented, young forwards and a bevy of picks provides hope for the future, but it could be a while before the Red Wings get to where the Golden Knights are.
The Red Wings’ inability to trade Mike Green, Xavier Ouellet and (apparently) Nick Jensen has negatively affected the team’s log-jam of prospects in Grand Rapids, as The Athletic’s Craig Custance notes:
Griffins coach Todd Nelson has been playing seven defensemen, similar to Jon Cooper in Tampa, which may be a good way to win games. It’s not a great way to develop young defensemen.
“Last game we played six, which is nice for the D,” [Joe] Hicketts said. “You also don’t want to see guys getting sat. But it allows you to get in a groove and you’re playing with the same guy consistently. You’re not getting shortchanged on special-teams stuff. Obviously, six D is a lot better.”
And, because Nelson is trying to get in the playoffs, when he’s sitting a player, it’s likely going to be a younger player who is still adapting to the league. In this case, it was 20-year-old Vili Saarijarvi taking a seat.
Again, not ideal for player development. Saarijarvi is the Red Wings’ third-best defensive prospect. He needs to be playing.
Custance continues at length (paywall), and he suggests that the Red Wings will have to use their 3rd of 4 post-trade deadline call-ups on Evgeny Svechnikov, assuming that Frans Nielsen is injured.
Griffinshockey.com’s Mark Newman posted an article regarding the “springboard” that the AHL’s playoff MVP trophy, the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy, can provide for players looking to stick in the NHL:
There are many paths to the NHL, but most players pass through the AHL on their way to the world’s foremost hockey league. In fact, 88 percent of all NHL players last season were graduates of the AHL.
One sure ticket to the NHL – or as close as one can get to a golden pass – is the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy, the award given annually to the Most Valuable Player of the Calder Cup Playoffs (and named in honor of the man who had the longest tenure of any AHL executive in history, 28 years).
First awarded in 1984, the Butterfield Trophy is no guarantee of NHL stardom, but the list of past winners is peppered with a number of solid NHL performers, including Olaf Kolzig, Derek Armstrong and Dixon Ward, among others.
Two of the past five winners are current Red Wings. Tomas Tatar was the MVP of the 2013 playoffs when he helped the Griffins win their first Calder Cup by tallying 16 goals in 24 games. Tyler Bertuzzi won the postseason MVP honors last spring when he had 19 points (9-10-19) in 19 games to power Grand Rapids to its second Cup.
Although both players can cite the playoffs as their stepping stone to the NHL, their experiences were actually quite different.
