The Malik Report

Red Wings prospect Libor Sulak is playing for the Czech Republic (alongside fellow defenseman Filip Hronek) at the World Championship, and Julie Robenhymer, writing for DetroitRedWings.com, penned a profile of Sulak:

“There is nothing better than to represent on your national team. It is the top, the best,” Sulak said. “But after my season ended in Finland, I went to North America and I was injured and only played two games. So, I was happy to get the call and have the chance to play some more and continue to get better.”

Sulak made his first appearance on the Czech national team at last year’s world championship, playing in two games and earning an assist. Soon after, he signed a two-year entry level contract with the Detroit Red Wings.

This season, he left his home country for the first time to play in Finland for the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish Elite League where the 24-year-old earned nine goals and 23 assists for 32 points in 42 games – good enough for top two in the league in points per game by a defenseman and top five in the league in ice time, all while leading his team in plus-minus.

When his season was over in Finland, Sulak joined the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins for their playoff run to gain some experience on the smaller ice in North America.

Due to a groin injury and then a puck to the mouth that required 16 stitches to repair, he only played two games, but earned an assist in each.

Jiri Fischer, the Red Wings’ director of player evaluation, is also the general manager of the Czech national team at the world championship. He said Sulak has had a tough season but is growing through the challenges.

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James makes an interesting argument, suggesting that the Red Wings have “held onto their picks” since 2013, and as such, essentially began the rebuilding process during the Bertuzzi-and-Mantha draft:

In 2013, the Detroit Red Wings began a change in direction.

After trading away first-round picks in three of the previous five seasons, Wings general manager Ken Holland held onto his first selection in the NHL entry draft. The Wings had qualified for the playoffs for a 22nd consecutive season that spring, but a side effect of that success was a farm system low on talent. A need to replenish was in order.

The draft has continued to grow in emphasis for the Wings, to the point they made 11 picks in 2017 and hold 11 picks again, including four in the top 36, in 2018.

Here is the first in a five-part series looking back at how Wings draft selections have panned out. In this edition: The class of 2013.

As St. James notes, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi and Mattias Janmark, who plays for Dallas, were the Wings’ swings-and-hits of the 2013 draft, with David Pope still a question mark…

But the fact that the Red Wings dumped Janmark and Calle Jarnkrok in separate trades in 2015, to acquire Erik Cole and David Legwand, still sticks in my craw. I would argue that the Wings didn’t “begin the rebuild” until after that trade was made.

At the World Championship in Denmark, Frans Nielsen had a goal and an assist, finishing at +1 in 22:00 played as Norway defeated Korea 3-1.

Here are the game’s highlights:

NHL.com’s Aaron Vickers spoke with Red Wings forward and Danish World Championship participant Frans Nielsen regarding the “home-ice advantage” the Danes are enjoying in Nielsen’s hometown of Herning:

A decade ago, Detroit Red Wings center Frans Nielsen couldn’t have imagined standing on the blue line of a sheet of ice in his hometown singing “Der Er Et Yndigt Land,” Denmark’s national anthem, with nearly 11,000 hockey fans.

Even five years ago, he admits, would have been a bit of a stretch.

“Not a few years back, no,” Nielsen said after singing alongside 10,800 fellow Danes to celebrate a 3-0 victory against Norway on Friday. “It’s been exciting. It’s been fun. The whole city has backed us up here. It’s been incredible.

“All we’ve hoped for.”

Nielsen, the first player from Denmark to play in the NHL, truly has home ice advantage. His home country is hosting the 2018 IIHF World Championship, and he’s playing in his hometown of Herning.

“It’s been a joy,” said Nielsen, who has 423 points (152 goals, 271 assists) in 764 NHL games during 12 seasons in the NHL, 10 with the New York Islanders and the past two Red Wings. “We’re having fun every day right now, working hard. It’s been great.”

Continued

Red Wings goaltending coach Jeff Salajko settled down in Columbus, Ohio when his playing career was over, and even though Salajko works with goalies in Detroit and Grand Rapids, he’s chosen to commute from a Columbus-area home over the past couple of seasons.

As such, this Tweet from The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline should not come as a surprise:

In addition to @monstershockey goaltending coach Manny Legace, put @CanadiensMTL Stephane Waite and @DetroitRedWings Jeff Salajko on list of candidates to replace goaltending coach Ian Clark with #CBJ.

Salajko is a former Columbus Chill player and a Columbus resident.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) May 12, 2018

I would expect Salajko to jump at the chance to coach goaltenders closer to home.

The Athletic’s Craig Custance spoke with Wings coach Jeff Blashill and forward Dylan Larkin, among others, regarding the potential displayed by Team USA defenseman Quinn Hughes, who’s expected to be drafted within the first half-dozen players selected at this year’s draft. Custance also speaks with TSN analyst Ray Ferraro and a scout regarding Hughes’ “ability to wheel”:

“He’s done a good job of learning the things that he’s gotten away with at the college level that he’s not going to get away with here,” Blashill told The Athletic. “That’s going to be the most important thing for his development — learning. Can he learn to think a step ahead of the puck before he gets the puck? That’s the biggest thing.”

Blashill has seen signs that Hughes can. He stressed to Hughes that he needed to be in position to attack right away with the puck on the power play. Against Denmark, the Americans scored a power-play goal because Hughes listened.

“For me, that said, ‘Here’s a young guy who can get better,’” Blashill said. “As long as he has the capacity to do that, he’s going to have a bright future.”

Hughes arrived in Denmark with skating as his calling card, but his passing is the skill that has impressed those around him. He’s shown an ability and willingness to hit guys up the ice to spring breakaways, with the necessary zip to his pass.

Continued (paywall)…

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson regarding the highly likely changes to the Walleye roster as the organization “trends younger”:

“My initial thoughts from talking to the guys is that we will not have a lot of guys returning,” head coach Dan Watson said. “It will be the biggest turnover we’ve had since 2014-15 when we only kept two players from that 2013-14 team. Some of the older guys will not dress in a Walleye uniform again.”

Change is inevitable in the ECHL, a Double-A league where roster turnover is common. The league also has a rule that allows teams to keep just four veterans — players who have played in more than 260 professional games — on the roster.

So such names as Shane Berschbach, A.J. Jenks, Alden Hirschfeld, and Kyle Bonis that will be inextricably linked to the establishment of a winning culture at the Huntington Center may soon be gone. Some may retire, others will opt to make more money playing in Europe.

“It’s too fresh. We met [for exit meetings] 12 hours after we lost,” Watson said. “So that’s still weighing on guys’ minds. It’s too early to tell which guys will go other places because of the seasons they had here. That’s just natural. There will be guys that will want to get into the working world because of their degrees.”

Monroe continues, outlining the roster’s probable changes…

At the World Championship in Denmark, Gustav Nyquist scored a goal, finishing at +1 with 3 shots in 18:01 played during Sweden’s 4-3 OT victory over Slovakia.

IIHF.com’s Andy Potts recapped the game:

TSN’s Scott Cullen penned an “Off-Season Game Plan” for the Detroit Red Wings, and I am tremendously impressed with the fact that Cullen acknowledges the current managerial regime’s reticence to tank-and-rebuild:

As an aside, when I do these Off-Season Game Plans, I try to come up with a plan that seems reasonable and consistent for the current management and that means their established tendencies should be part of the consideration. Thus, even if I might think that the long-term plan for the Red Wings should be focused on a long-term rebuild, I’m skeptical that Red Wings GM Ken Holland would venture down that path.

So, if the Red Wings aren’t necessarily going to strip this thing down to the studs, maybe they will accelerate their rebuilding plan by using some of their draft pick currency to acquire premier talent. This isn’t a roster that just needs some tweaking, but if the Wings can acquire high-end talent that could be a cornerstone piece then that might be worth it.

Cullen continues, and he throws an Oliver Ekman-Larsson-sized curveball into the mix.

Of prospect-related playoff note:

In the Ontario Hockey League championship series, Kaden Fulcher stopped 30 of 34 shots as his Hamilton Bulldogs out-gunned the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 6-4.

Hamilton leads the best-of-7 series 3 games to 2; Jordan Sambrook had an assist but finished at -2 with 2 shots for Sault Ste. Marie.

Hamilton now returns home for a potentially championship-clinching Sunday.