The Free Press’s Helene St. James continues her examination of the Red Wings’ recent draft selections this morning, discussing the team’s 2014 draft, which included Dylan Larkin, Dominic Turgeon and Axel Holmstrom:
F Dylan Larkin
Drafted: 15th.
Draft year doings: 17 goals, 9 assists for 26 points in 26 games with the U.S. National U18 team.
Draft day scouting report: Terrific two-way player and excellent skater.
Post-draft doings: 15 goals, 32 assists for 47 points in 35 games with Michigan in 2014-15. Selected Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year. Turned pro and debuted with the Grand Rapids Griffins on May 24, during the AHL Western Conference final, recording three goals among five points in six playoff games.
1. Fox Sports Detroit’s “The Roar Detroit” offered an open letter to Bristol, Connecticut, the home of ESPN, regarding their assertion that Las Vegas is “the new Hockeytown”:
66 – Number of games Holmstrom played for the Griffins during his rookie campaign.
7 – Holmstrom scored seven goals, which was third best among Griffins rookies. Filip Hronek led Grand Rapids rookies with 11 goals and Dominik Shine was second with eight tallies.
26 – Total number of points Holmstrom accumulated for the season, ranking him second in rookie scoring behind Hronek’s 39 points. His point total was also 10th best on the Griffins.
Regner continues, and Griffins coach Todd Nelson notes that Holmstrom’s knee injuries and surgeries prior to his AHL debut probably set the two-way center back…
The Red Wings have posted Arthur J. Regner’s latest Red and White Authority podcast to iTunes, and Art speaks with Red Wings director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright about the draft:
Tyler Wright the #RedWings director of amateur scouting joins us on Episode 60 of the Red & White Authority to discuss Detroit’s current prospects and the #RedWings draft philosophy.
When Denmark was announced as the host of the 2018 IIHF World Championship back in May of 2014, Frans Nielsen couldn’t believe it.
“There is no way I ever thought this was possible growing up,” said Nielsen, the first Dane to be drafted into and subsequently play in the NHL. “They were in the C Group when I was growing up. We’ve come a long way and it’s incredible to be a part of. I think we’re all very proud of where we are today.”
Nielsen was eight years old when Denmark advanced to the B Pool, 16 when they advanced to Division I and 18 when they made it to the top division.
He was on that historic team and has been on six more world championship teams since then, but none more special than this one in his hometown of Herning.
“Growing up about five minutes from the rink we’re playing the world championship in…it’s pretty surreal,” the 34-year-old explained. “I did not expect that would ever happen when I was a kid. First, that I’d be playing in the world championship, but also that we’d be hosting it. Never did I ever think that was possible.
“We didn’t have any NHL players when I was growing up. Our heroes were in Sweden. You knew about the NHL so I guess you always dreamed about playing there, but really it was Sweden because you just didn’t think you’d be good enough for the NHL. So Sweden was the realistic goal back then. It wasn’t until I got drafted that I thought I might have a shot at the NHL.”
Both teams spent the first half of the opening period feeling each other out while getting some scoring opportunities. At times, Team USA seemed a bit tentative but at the midway point of the first, they would get their legs under them.
Cam Atkinson hit the crossbar two and half minutes into the game. Later, Charlie McAvoy cut backdoor to the net, taking an Alec Martinez pass but could not uncork a shot.
The Czech Republic went on a power play when Alec Martinez was called for tripping in the offensive zone. The Czechs moved the puck around but kept to low percentage chances. Team USA would have their own opportunity down a man. Thanks to work by Derek Ryan in the neutral zone to force a turnover, Dylan Larkin transitioned to offence and getting in for a shot that Pavel Francouz saved.
Just as penalty ended, Patrick Kane took the puck from his own zone, raced up the ice on the right wing into the Czech zone sending a shot far side that beat Francouz at 10:36. As he has done the entire tournament, Kane provided the offensive spark that his team needed. It was the captain’s seventh goal of the tournament and his first scored at even strength. All six of his previous goals were scored on the power play. Derek Ryan added an assist.
Team USA struck again at 12:19 when Johnny Gaudreau brought the puck into the Czech zone, curled at the blue line then handing off to Nick Bonino. Bonino spotted Cam Atkinson, who accepted a pass in front all alone with time to make a move.
Patrick Kane snapped a tie at 6:58 of the third period Thursday with his second goal of the game to lift the United States to a 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the World Championship in Herning, Denmark.
The U.S. advances to Saturday’s semifinals, when it will face of the winner of today’s game between Sweden and Latvia (2:15 p.m.). The Americans improved to 5-2-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L).
Kane skated the puck into the offensive zone and got by Detroit Red Wings defense prospect Filip Hronek, who stumbled, before firing a low shot past goaltender Pavel Francouz. Kane has eight goals and 11 assists in eight games.
Red Wings center Dylan Larkin had no points, three shots on goal and an even plus-minus rating in 21:05. Detroit defenseman Nick Jensen had no points, no shots and an even rating in 11:43.
Hronek had one assist for the Czech Republic, while registering two shots and a minus-2 rating in 19:19. Fellow Detroit defense prospect Libor Sulak had no points, two shots and a plus-1 rating in 21:11. The Czechs finished the tournament at 3-4-0-1.
On January 21st, the international hockey community was rocked by the news of Jim Johannson’s sudden death.
Officially, he was USA Hockey’s assistant executive director in charge the various responsibilities associated with international competitions and was in charge of selecting teams for most of those events including the past ten world championships at the U18, U20 and men’s levels and was even the general manager for Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Unofficially, he was the heart and soul of USA Hockey.
As Team USA faces Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the 2018 IIHF World Championship on Thursday in Denmark, the players, coaches and staff of USA Hockey are doing their best to honor the man known as JJ by all who knew him with USA’s first gold medal at this tournament since 1933.
“Every one of us has some sort of a relationship with JJ and the impact he’s had on each of our careers and our lives has been significant whether it was playing for a world junior team or at the NTDP or the USHL or going to festivals or simply growing up as an American hockey player,” said Jeff Blashill, head coach of the Detroit Red Wings and Team USA. “JJ pushed the envelope for USA Hockey and he allowed for USA Hockey to reach greater heights.”
The Athletic’s Craig Custance spoke with Red Wings/Team USA coach Jeff Blashill and Wings director of player recruitment/Czech team GM Jiri Fischer about the impressions made by Dylan Larkin and Filip Hronek (respectively) at the World Championship.
According to Custance, Hronek has continued to take steps forward at the Worlds:
Defenseman Filip Hronek, one of the Red Wings’ three top prospects, has emerged as an important player for the Czechs, a team that features another Detroit prospect on defense in Libor Sulak. Fischer, as the Red Wings’ director of player evaluation, talks often to team management, but after Grand Rapids was eliminated from the AHL playoffs, he called Ken Holland and Ryan Martin to get formal permission to add Hronek to the Czech national team.
He was added with modest expectations. Hronek joined the Czech Republic as a No. 7 defenseman but has quickly moved up the depth chart, where he now runs a power play that features Pastrnak and Krejci.
He’s averaging over 15 minutes per game in his first experience with the men’s national team and has impressed Fischer with his willingness to try and make plays as a young defenseman.
“The coaches are really getting to know him as a player and as the games went on, he performed and gained more ice time,” Fischer said. “Now, he’s running one of the power plays. We’re heading into the quarterfinals. He’s played with no fear of making plays. That’s the big thing for any young player, especially young defensemen really, for the first time, getting time with star players.”
Is Athanasiou being moved a real consideration or is that just heresay? He improved point total even after sitting out and he didn’t have time to develop much chemistry last year. Is it really worth it to move on from him?
HSJ: Andreas Athanasiou intrigues with his ability to accelerate and find ways to score, but he has limited trade value at this time. He had 16 goals and 17 assists for 33 points in 71 games in 2017-18. He began the season holding out only to settle for a lesser contract than he could have had mid-summer. He had a .46 points-per-game average in 2017-18, compared to .45 PPG in 2016-17, even though he averaged 1 minute 51 seconds more in playing time per game. He went spans for 15 games and 13 games without scoring a goal, and that shouldn’t happen with someone so skilled.
It was a pretty damming indictment when, at locker clean-out day on April 10, head coach Jeff Blashill spoke about what he’d said to Athanasiou at their year-end meeting: “My message to AA was as a coach you have to know what you’re getting every single shift and the growth in him is going to be to learn to work and compete every shift. If I’m guessing whether or not he’s going to work and compete, it’s hard to keep putting him out there because I don’t know what I’m getting. So that consistency level and work ethic and compete is going to be critical for AA.”
Now, learning to be consistent is a common theme among young players who have a skill level that allowed them to dominate at lower levels of hockey, only to find out how much harder it is to stand out regularly in the NHL. Athanasiou has the potential to be a big part of the rebuild, either as an in-house scorer or trade bait, but first he’ll have to put up better numbers.
