After all the radio silence over the past couple of months, I still feel guilty when I’m out of touch for a while. It took over an hour to get home from Little Caesars Arena as South Lyon is a bit of a haul, and if you are interested, there’s more Wings news available this evening:
Among the Red Wings YouTube channel’s offerings is this clip of director of player development Shawn Horcoff addressing first-day topics:
The Hockey News’s Ken Campbell reports that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman, bade farewell to long-time scout Glenn Merkosky in a puzzling manner.
In one of his first acts as Detroit Red Wings GM, Steve Yzerman fired longtime pro scout Glenn Merkosky, who was with the Wings for two Stanley Cups, and replaced him with Chris Yzerman, Steve’s brother who had been scouting for him with the Lightning. Discuss amongst yourselves.— Ken Campbell (@THNKenCampbell) June 25, 2019
I don’t think that the move was completely self-serving, but it is certainly curious.
Expect the Red Wings to make more front office moves (the team has already added Pat Verbeek as an assistant GM) as executives and scouts’ contracts expire on July 1st. Yzerman is not going to make wholesale changes for the sake of change, but there will be front office moves.
FYI: For what it’s worth, Chris Yzerman has always stayed in the Ottawa area, so he’s probably going to serve as the Ottawa/Quebec area scout…
And I have some skin in the game as Merkosky follows me on Twitter, and is a very nice man. I have to believe that given all that he’s done for the team over his years as an amateur scout, he was not let loose out of spite.
The Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo feels that center Joe Veleno may be something of a “forgotten man” among the Red Wings’ prospect corps. Caputo suggests that Veleno is in fact integral to the Red Wings imminent future:
Defense is an obvious need for the Red Wings, but so is center. Dylan
Larkin is a No.1 center. That’s obvious. But who is the No.2 in the
future?
And most legitimate Stanley Cup contenders essentially feature a 1 and 1-A at center. Strength down the middle is every bit as vital as defense.
The classic examples: The Red Wings most recent Stanley Cup title teams with Yzerman and Sergei Federov, followed by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.
The Red Wings opened their annual developmental camp Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena. Going through a litany of drills with other prospects, it’s clear Veleno is far more advanced most of the others.
He was supposed to be selected the middle of the first round in 2018, but dropped to 30th where the Red Wings grabbed him with a selection they acquired by trading Tomas Tatar to Las Vegas.
The choice did not have the hype of flashy winger Filip Zadina dropping to the Red Wings at sixth overall in the same draft. Veleno hasn’t seen extensive time in the NHL like recent other recent Red Wings’ first-rounders Zadina, Michael Rasmussen and Dennis Cholowski.
But he is just as important to the Red Wings’ future given the lack of potential high-end centers in their prospect pipe line.
Both the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted articles regarding the comments made by Wings first round draft pick Moritz Seider today.
“It was so much fun at the draft, now it’s kind of calm,” Seider said after his first workout at LCA. “It’s getting better. It’s fun to be here. It was pretty cool to spend another day with my family (back in Vancouver) and now come to Detroit. It was such a nice welcome here. Everyone is excited, so me too.”
Seider enjoyed walking into LCA.
“Amazing,” Seider said of his emotions. “When you walk into the building, it’s all brand new. It’s been real exciting so far.”
Seider expects discussions with the Wings’ front office at some point, regarding whether he’ll remain in Germany next season, or begin his pro career in North America. Seider received an unexpected phone call upon being drafted Friday.
“Dylan Larkin called,” Seider said of the Wings’ young star. “I was so excited, I didn’t know what to say. It was just real cool.”
Seider can use this week to get a feel for what it is like to play on the smaller ice sheet used in North America. The Wings can use the week to teach about him about nutrition and get him immersed in how they want players to work out.
Seider will be back for training camp in September. He could end up returning to Germany, he could play in Grand Rapids – or he could be on the opening night roster.
“I can’t answer that right now,” Seider said. “We have to sit down for a couple meetings and figure out what is best for yourself, where you can play the most. I don’t know yet.”
Shawn Horcoff, the team’s director of player development, called Seider “a big kid who can skate well. Especially for a guy like that, that hasn’t really skated in a month, coming off the draft, it’s a tough stretch. He had a good day today.”
Red Wings prospect Joe Veleno spoke with the media after taking part in the first day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp today, and Veleno discussed the challenges involved in “turning pro” this year, regardless of whether he plays for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, the Red Wings, or both teams. 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burtchfield took note of Veleno’s comments:
“It’s one of the biggest challenges coming from juniors, managing how to create time and space on the ice for yourself and how to make plays at a higher pace,” he said. “That’s one thing I’m definitely going to have to work on this summer and get used to for next year. … Guys are bigger, stronger, quicker, so you have to be ready for that.”
In all likelihood, Veleno will start the season with Grand Rapids in the AHL. It will allow him to adjust to the pro game away from the pressures of the NHL. If he acquits himself well, he could be summoned to Detroit.
He acknowledged Tuesday that he has some growing to do on the defensive side of the puck, a process he began in earnest last season. He said he started to play more of a 200-foot game and clean up “the little things that are going to translate well in the pros.”
Veleno held up well in training camp last year, then tallied a couple assists in three preseason games. His speed and vision appeared to play at the next level. As he enters a legitimate tryout this year, that experience should help.
“It gave me a lot of confidence. I saw that I was able to play with some of the older guys who had already turned pro and I was able to keep up with them,” Veleno said. “Already then it gave me an idea of where I’m at and how I can prepare myself for next year.”
After the second session of the day at the Red Wings’ summer development camp, director of player development Shawn Horcoff spoke with the media.
Horcoff didn’t know whether Filip Zadina (hamstring, probably out for the week) or Taro Hirose (day-to-day injury) were going to take part in the on-ice activities after missing Monday’s session, but he did address the Wings’ decision to draft Moritz Seider and Antti Tuomisto in the first and second rounds of the 2019 draft, he emphasized the concept that the summer development camp is not an evaluation camp, but instead, an instruction camp, and Horcoff weighed in regarding several of the Wings’ prospects over the course of a 5-and-a-half-minute interview:
Once Horcoff was through, the media corps spoke with a trio of “quiet guys.”
Antti Tuomisto, the Red Wings’ 35th overall pick, spoke softly about his strengths as an offensive defenseman, his friendship with fellow Assat Pori forward Otto Kivenmaki and Red Wings signee Oliwer Kaski, and Tuomisto shared that he’s headed to college after one more year with Assat, suggesting that an NCAA playing experience combined with an NCAA education were too good to pass up:
Otto Kivenmaki then spoke with the media, stating that he’d gained nearly 20 pounds, and that he was up to about 155 from a draft weight somewhere in the 130’s. Kivenmaki is 5’8″ and listed at 154 pounds, and the 2018 draft pick spoke of the challenges and advantages available to “small forwards” like himself:
Finally, 2019 draft pick and defenseman Gustav Berglund spoke with the media, discussing his admiration for the Red Wings of the 2008 Cup era, his appreciation of Nicklas Lidstrom and Erik Karlsson’s offensive prowess, and his belief that he needs to improve defensively after a point-per-game performance with the Frolunda Indians’ under-18 team:
A native of Hodonin, Czechoslovakia, Nedomansky defected to Canada through Switzerland in 1974, joining the World Hockey Association’s Toronto Toros.
After four seasons in the WHA, Nedomansky, a centre, made the jump to the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings in 1977.
Nedomansky would go on to play 421 NHL games over six seasons with the Red Wings, Blues and Rangers, scoring 122 goals and 156 assists.
He represented Czechoslovakia on a number of occasions internationally, including two Winter Olympics.
A goalie in his playing days, Rutherford played 457 games over 13 seasons with the Red Wings, Penguins, Leafs and Los Angeles Kings, but the native of Beeton, Ont.’s greatest success came in the front office.
Running the front office of the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes for two decades, Rutherford took the team to a Stanley Cup Final in 2002 before ultimately falling to the Wings, but would win the Cup four years later over the Edmonton Oilers in 2006.
Leaving the Hurricanes in 2014, Rutherford would join the Pens as GM that same year and won back-to-back Cups in 2016 and 2017.
1. He was DEL Rookie of the Year: Seider played 29 games with Adler Mannheim, of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), this season. The DEL is Germany’s top professional ice hockey league. He only had 6 points through those 29 games, but was logging heavier minutes and ended up playing 14 playoff games.
2. He’s already won a pro championship: Seider tallied 5 assists in those 14 playoff games, helping Adler Mannheim win the DEL championship.
3. He led German defenseman at WC: Germany surprised the world this spring at the World Championship, earning a 5-2 record and a trip to the tournament quarterfinals. Seider led the German defensive group with 2 goals in 5 games played.
Of audio-related note from the first day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp:
Jonatan Berggren, a 2018 draft pick, will be testing a recently-healed lower back on Wednesday morning, and Berggren spoke with the media corps regarding his injury and the healing process:
Center Joe Veleno conducted a lengthy interview, discussing his last season in Major Junior hockey, the process that is “turning pro” at either the AHL or NHL level, and his discussion regarding showing leadership at this summer’s development camp:
First-round draft pick Moritz Seider also spoke with the media, mostly discussing his draft experience and his hope that playing in Germany with Adler Mannheim will help prepare him for North American pro hockey:
The All-Star break/bye week falls Jan. 23-30. The Wings close out the season April 4 at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Their exhibition season starts Sept. 17 with hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena. The teams meet again the next night at United Center. Other home games fall September 20 against the New York Islanders, Sept. 22 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Sept. 27 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Road games have the Wings at the Islanders on Sept. 23, at Pittsburgh on Sept. 25, and the finale, Sept. 28 at Toronto. The schedule also features a game against the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues Sept. 26 in Calumet (ticket information for that event has yet to be released).
