The Malik Report

Red Wings prospect Reilly Webb projects as a hulking stay-at-home defenseman, and the 6’3″ defenseman with a massive wingspan is profiled today by DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji, who examines Webb’s “numbers“:

164 — The Wings took Webb in the sixth round of the 2017 draft, 164th overall.

2 — Webb has played with two other Wings prospects this season. When he was in Hamilton, goaltender Kaden Fulcher was a teammate. Fulcher signed with the Wings as a free agent on Oct. 3, 2017. After his trade to Saginaw, Webb played with Brady Gilmour, who was taken in the same draft as Webb, but in the seventh round, 193rd overall.

Quotable: “I actually coached him in Hamilton, too, so I’ve known him a number of years now. I think he progressed extremely well. He didn’t have a great start to the season, being injured. Coming in, he developed into a great shutdown defenseman for us. He has to stay healthy – that’s the truth – and continue to play with an edge in his game and take a bigger role with our club and be the leader that we believe he can be.” — Troy Smith, Saginaw Spirit head coach

Wakiji continues…

The Athletic’s Joe Smith spoke with Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman and several other hockey luminaries regarding Yzerman’s background with Russian players in Detroit as it applies to his construction of the Bolts:

 

It should come as little surprise that some of the Lightning’s cornerstones are Russians, with All-Star winger Kucherov and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Last summer, Yzerman traded former No. 3 pick Jonathan Drouin for another Russian, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. If the Lightning advance from this Eastern Conference final against the Capitals and win the Stanley Cup, it’ll be largely due to their impact.

Yzerman saw past the perceptions, the misconceptions. He understood the people. He appreciated the talent.

“I learned the players from (Russia), they come from a very different culture than we do,” Yzerman told The Athletic. “How situations are handled are different. How they were treated are different. Right or wrong.

“But one thing playing with them, they were good guys, very successful athletes, very intelligent and strong-willed athletes. It wasn’t just Russians. On that team, we had players from all backgrounds. And it came down to good hockey players, good people. That’s the most important thing.”

Continued (paywall)…

Frans Nielsen’s hometown Danes didn’t advance to the Quarterfinals at the World Championship, but the tournament, held in Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark, has given Danish hockey a boost.

The Associated Press’s Karl Janicek spoke with Nielsen and his teammates regarding the effects of the World Chapionship upon the game they’re trying to promote:

Danish hockey is on the rise, even though the Danish hockey team has been knocked out of the world championships.

The national team’s early elimination at its first world championships on home ice can hardly overshadow the boost the tournament has given the sport in the country.

“I hope it spreads awareness of hockey in Denmark for a lot of families and hopefully they’ll try to get their kids to play hockey,” Columbus Blue Jackets forward Oliver Bjorkstrand said. “Hopefully it gets more hockey kids involved and more media attention on hockey, of course. It’s something we’re hoping for at this tournament.”

…

MLive’s Ansar Khan previews the World Championship Quarterfinals, which will take place on Thursday morning and afternoon:

The United States, with Dylan Larkin and Nick Jensen, faces the Czech Republic, with Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak in Herning, Denmark (10:15 a.m. ET, NHL Network).

Larkin has three goals, five assists, a plus-4 rating and 18 shots on goal in seven games. He is averaging 19:48 in ice time, which leads U.S. forwards.

Jensen has one goal and three assists, along with a plus-2 rating and eight shots on goal. He is averaging 15:57 in ice time.

The U.S. (4-2-0-1, W-OTW-OTL-L), coached the Red Wings’ Jeff Blashill, won its first six games before losing 6-2 to Group B winner Finland on Tuesday. The Americans’ run in this event last year ended with a 2-0 quarterfinal loss to Finland. The Czechs are 3-3-0-1.

Sulak has one goal and two assists, along with a team-leading 20 shots on goal and plus-1 rating in 17:37 of ice time per game. Hronek has one goal and one assist, along with 12 shots on goal and a plus-1 rating while averaging 15:27.

Continued; Gustav Nyquist and Sweden will battle Latvia at 2:15 PM on Thursday as well.

Update: Team USA’s website posted a practice update ahead of tomorrow’s Quarterfinal match-up against the Czech Republic, which takes place at 10:15 AM (on the NHL Network):

 

The NHL draft offers a rare opportunity to pursue an avenue of discussion that one simply can’t regarding free agents or trades–there is no “tampering,” so you can openly ask a player what they’d think about going to team X.

It’s no secret that the scuttlebutt around the Red Wings suggests that the team is leaning toward drafting London Knights defenseman Evan Bouchard 6th overall in Dallas next month, and so, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took that idea to a we-can-actually-have-this-conversation conclusion;

Kulfan spoke with Bouchard about possibly being drafted by the Red Wings, he spoke with TSN’s Craig Button about Bouchard’s “fit” with the Wings, and Kulfan and fellow scribe John Niyo made Bouchard the focus of a pre-draft podcast, also bringing in NTDP players Oliver Wahlstrom, Joel Farabee and Mattias Samuelsson for interviews. It’s all very clever and very well-done.

Here’s what Bouchard had to say to Kulfan in text form:

“It would be very exciting to become a Red Wing,” said Bouchard, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-shot defenseman who had a familiarity with the Wings’ former rink. “I’ve been to a few games at Joe Louis Arena. When I was younger I was able to skate on it (on the ice). It was obviously special.”

Bouchard is generally considered a lock to be a top-10 selection in June’s draft — something that was no sure thing entering the season.

But in 67 games this season Bouchard had 25 goals and 62 assists, while averaging over 25 minutes per game.

In his third season of junior hockey Bouchard took advantage of a bigger role given to him by the coaching staff and thrived, going from a possible late-first round selection to being a lottery pick.

A committed, sweat-drenched summer working and preparing for this past season helped, too.

“I knew it was a big year for me,” Bouchard said. “I worked hard to get where I am now, and the confidence building into the third year, when guys (on London left for the NHL) there was a leadership role for me. The coaches and teammates supported me, and it helped me having the team we had and the teammates I had.”

Kulfan continues, speaking with Craig Button about Bouchard’s profile before wrapping things up with Bouchard…

And in audio/video form, Kulfan and Niyo speak about the draft for 45 minutes, starting with Bouchard and Button, and then moving on to the trio of U.S. NTDP program prospects:

Again, I’m impressed with both the effort and ingenuity involved in asking the probably-favored pick whether he’d like to come to Detroit and profiling him in-person. Smart stuff.

 

The ECHL released its 2018-19 season schedule today, and the Toledo Walleye’s schedule is available for view.

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe offers some highlights thereof:

The Toledo Walleye will open their 10th season with five consecutive road games.

Toledo will begin the 2018-19 season at Greenville on Oct. 12-13, then have single games at Indy, Cincinnati, and Fort Wayne before hosting the rival Komets for the home opener Oct. 27.

Toledo plays just one home game in October but has 10 in March.

The Walleye will play Fort Wayne 11 times, with six games at the Huntington Center and five at Memorial Coliseum. The Komets knocked the Walleye out of the playoffs in six games in the Central Division final series earlier this month.

Toledo once again will be a member of the Central Division with the Komets. The bulk of the team’s games will come against Fort Wayne and fellow division foes Kalamazoo (12 games), Cincinnati (9), Indy (8), and Wheeling (8).

The Walleye also will play Brampton nine times.

Monroe continues…

The Grand Rapids Griffins have announced the details of their annual Griffins Youth Foundation golf classic, to be held on August 27th of this year:

Continue reading Grand Rapids Griffins to host Youth Foundation golf classic on August 27th

At the World Championship in Denmark:

Gustav Nyquist had an assist, finishing even with 2 shots in 14:11 played during Sweden’s 3-1 win over Russia at the World Championship…

 

And Denmark bowed out as hosts of the World Championship, losing 1-0 to Latvia. Frans Nielsen finished at -1 with 2 shots in 19:36 played.

Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Sweden won Group A and will play Latvia on Thursday at 2:15 PM;

Team USA will play the Czech Republic at 10:15 AM;

At the World Championship in Demark:

Team USA had a rough day, and it cost them a first-round bye in the World Championship’s playoff format.

Dylan Larkin finished at -3 with 2 shots in 20:33 played, and Nick Jensen finished at -1 in 10:58 played as Team USA lost 6-3 to Finland.

Here’s Team USA’s website’s recap:

Patrick Kane (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Derek Ryan (Spokane, Wash.) both scored but the 2018 U.S. Men’s National Team fell to Finland, 6-2, in its final preliminary round game of the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship. With a goal and an assist tonight, Kane has now set U.S. records for both points (17) and assists (11) in a single Men’s World Championship.

“I thought we came out and played good hockey at the start of the game before a few bounces didn’t go our way and that was the real difference,” said Jeff Blashill, head coach of the 2018 U.S. Men’s National Team. “We’ve said from the start that we want to learn and improve every game, and you can’t do that without facing some adversity. It’s important for us to learn from this and build as we turn our attention to Thursday and facing a real good Czech team.”

The United States (4-2-0-1/W-OTW-OTL-L), which finished second in Group B play, will meet the Czech Republic in Thursday’s (May 17) quarterfinals at a time yet to be determined. The game will be televised live on NHL Network.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan also filed a recap…

“We came out and played good hockey at the start of the game before a few bounces didn’t go our way and that was the real difference,” Blashill told reporters afterward. “We’ve said from the start that we want to learn and improve every game, and you can’t do that without facing some adversity.”

Team USA finished second in Group B play and will face the Czech Republic (6-1-0, 3 shootout victories) Thursday in a quarterfinal game at a time to be determined (it will be televised live by NHL Network).

“It’s important for us to learn from this and build as we turn our attention to Thursday and facing a real good Czech team,” Blashill said.

As did the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

USA’s Detroit Red Wings will appear in the quarterfinals of the World Championship, though the final tuneup was something of a dud.

The squad fell, 6-2, to Finland on Tuesday, losing for the first time in seven round-robin games at the tournament in Herning and Copenhagen, Denmark. That comes after the Jeff Blashill-coached team began the event with a victory over fellow Group B member Canada.

The Finns secured first place in Group B, while the U.S. will finish second. That pits the U.S. against the Czech Republic on Thursday. The Czechs feature a pair of Wings defense prospects in Libor Sulak and Filip Hronek.

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a recap, too, and the IIHF’s website posted a highlight clip…

 While Team USA’s website posted a post-game clip:

The Free Press’s Allie Gross spoke with the manager of the asset management company that’s taking Joe Louis Arena apart, discussing the company’s sale of seats and everything else that is and/or isn’t nailed down inside the Joe:

Miedema, an asset management company hired to decommission the arena, anticipates that it will net the city $1 million with the sale of the seats.  While the arena has 20,066 seats, not every chair is sellable.

“We’re essentially selling armchairs, not seats,” said Brennen Lubbers, operations Manager for Miedema, explaining that if everyone bought “pairs” of seats there would be a 20% loss. Because people are buying in an assortment of groupings, it’s something of a logistical puzzle figuring out how to deconstruct the arena. Especially with some individuals requesting specific seats.

Lubbers is liquidating the rink’s assets:

After the sale of the seats — of which Lubbers estimates that they will ultimately sell 14,000 — his company will move on to selling compressors, boilers, the HVAC unit, signs and the scoreboard.

A few items left in the building are marked with the Red Wings logo. Miedema hopes to be able to sell these, but they would need to get Olympia Development’s permission first.

Mike Ilitch purchased the Red Wings in 1982 from Bruce Norris, so while the city owns the stadium — built in the 1970s to stop Norris from moving the team to Pontiac — Olympia owns the logo.

According to Lubbers, Olympia “cannibalized” the building when it left, cutting out anything it could sell or repurpose, including a Red Wings logo in the carpet of the locker room. What is left belongs to the city and is up to Miedema to monetize.

“Anything that can be sold for the city, we will sell for the city,” he said.

Continued, and the Free Press posted a gallery of seat-buying fans….