Walleye, Storm players give back to community via summer hockey camps

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that numerous Northwestern Ohio-area pro players, both past and present, are lending a hand and giving back to their hockey community through summer hockey camps:

Former Toledo Storm forward Nick Parillo has continued his passion for the game by establishing a local program called Hockey Player Development.

Current Toledo Walleye forwards Alden Hirschfeld and A.J. Jenks work in the offseason with Parillo at HPD, which is based at Tam-O-Shanter in Sylvania.

“I wanted to stay with the game when I was done playing and give back,” said Parillo, who retired in 2007. “Being at the rink for 30 years, it was a comforting thing for me. It’s been very rewarding.”

Hirschfeld, a Sylvania native and Northview graduate, said he attended similar camps at Tam-O-Shanter when he was growing up.

“It’s fun. This is where I learned to play hockey starting when I was 3,” Hirschfeld said. “This is where my family is from. To be able to come out here and help teach the young kids and watch them grow and develop from year to year is pretty awesome.”

Continued

 

Custance’s UFA update includes news about the back-up search, Coreau’s future elsewhere

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Amongst The Athletic’s Craig Custance’s MANY free agency notes:

— The Red Wings have been aggressive in their pursuit of a backup goalie behind Jimmy Howard, and it appears they’re closing in on a favorite. Jonathan Bernier has moved to the top of the list in Detroit and there has been significant interest on both sides of the equation. Wherever he signs, Hutton is expected to get a three-year deal, and it would be surprising if Bernier got anything less than that. Bernier is still just 29 and has a career save percentage of .914, a shade lower than Howard’s .915. Howard is entering the final year of his contract, and a Bernier signing would give the Red Wings options moving forward if they want to deal Howard at some point or part ways with the longtime Red Wings starter. Detroit has also been told that 6-foot-6 Jared Coreau is moving on to another opportunity.

Continued (paywall)…

Update: Pierre LeBrun confirms:

 

Impressions from the second day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp ’18

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The second day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp 2018 built upon the first day’s work.

Teams Lindsay and Howe worked with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon, Wings player development director Shawn Horcoff, player development assistant and slightly banged-up instructor Daniel Cleary (Cleary took a puck to the head at the end of the Power Edge Pro skill drills) and the rest of the Wings, Griffins and Toledo Walleye’s coaching staff to layer in extra degrees of difficulty in both the team and skill development drills, and there was a dirty word uttered on the ice, at least if you were raised during the Scotty Bowman era of the Red Wings’ dynasty:

Call it a “chip pass,” call it a “flip play,” give a nun a smooch on the cheek and say a Hail Mary, by dammit, the Wings were “dumping and chasing” the puck off the side boards to isolate defensemen and let puck and player speed do the work for them on Tuesday.

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‘The Zadina run’ and summer hockey programming on Fox Sports Detroit

As the Red Wings show off Dan Mannes’ handiwork via a Filip Zadina “run”…

Fox Sports Detroit has been a steady presence at the Red Wings’ summer development camp as well. Interviews with Joe Veleno and Filip Zadina aired during last night and tonight’s Detroit Tigers telecasts…

And Kris Draper and Shawn Horcoff (special assistant to the GM and director of player development, respectively) spoke with Mickey York regarding the Wings’ draft haul and development camp:

 

The media’s (and multimedia) takes from the second day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp ’18

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Of disparate Red Wings-related note as the Red Wings and their prospects take in a Tigers game this evening:

  1. The Red Wings posted a video of development camp produced by Dan Mannes, and Dan really “knocked this one out of the park”:

2. Also in the video department, WXYZ’s Brad Galli took note of the fact that Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen are skating on the same line at development camp:

3. The Detroit News’s David Guralnick also delivered visual treats in the form of a 35-image photo gallery (the Free Press’s Kirthmon P. Dozier posted a 43-image gallery, too):

Continue reading The media’s (and multimedia) takes from the second day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp ’18 →

New Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma sits down with Cotsonika

NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika spoke with new Red Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma today, and Bylsma told Cotsonika that he’s joining his “childhood team” with tremendous enthusiasm for the tasks at hand (including reviving the Red Wings’ power play):

“As a player, I always thought or hoped at one point I would, whether it was Detroit or Grand Rapids [of the American Hockey League], finish my career playing in the red and white,” he said.

That didn’t happen. But here he is now, and the reason isn’t nostalgia or that he now lives in Ludington, an hour north of Grand Haven. It isn’t restlessness, either. He didn’t have the itch while sitting out in 2017-18 after the Sabres fired him on April 20, 2017, the way he did while sitting out in 2014-15 after the Penguins fired him on June 6, 2014.

He’s here because of the opportunity. Bylsma served as an assistant to Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill for the United States during the IIHF World Championship in Denmark. To that point they had been no more than acquaintances. But they had a lot in common — Blashill grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and played in college at Ferris State — and clicked. At the end of the five weeks, they won a bronze medal together.

“It’s important to me to have good people, the right people, to work with, and Jeff is one of those guys,” Bylsma said. “I know that from being over in the worlds with him, and I think vice versa for him. We’ve talked. We’ve coached against each other. But being in the trenches, being together on a staff, I think he’s confident I can work with him as well.”

Continued

Update: WOOD TV’s Larry Figurski spoke with Bylsma as well:

 

Afternoon audio from the 2nd day of the Wings’ summer development camp ’18: Kotkansalo, Berggren, Kivenmaki

The Red Wings’ prospects had a relatively uneventful afternoon’s worth of practicing and working on their Performance Edge Pro drills…until Daniel Cleary got beaned in the head by a slap shot with about 15 minutes left in practice. Cleary was helped off and probably got a stitch or two on the right side of his head.

The Wings’ media appearances were brief during the afternoon:

Kasper Kotkansalo, the affable Finnish defenseman from Boston University, accurately suggested that his footwork and edge work are going to be the arbiter of his professional career. The Kyle Quincey-style defenseman (the good Kyle Quincey, not the “ugh” parts) skates forward and backward well, but his edges need improving if he is to graduate to NHL-level mobility as his collegiate career continues:

Continue reading Afternoon audio from the 2nd day of the Wings’ summer development camp ’18: Kotkansalo, Berggren, Kivenmaki →

HSJ, Krupa: Givani Smith addresses racist incidents heads-on

As I noted this morning, it was hard to listen to Givani Smith retell the tale of the racism he endured during the Kitchener Rangers’ playoff run, in part because it was plain old wrong, and also because Smith is somewhat resigned to the fact that a black hockey player is going to endure what he’s had to endure.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Smith about the incidents…

Detroit Red Wings prospect Givani Smith was raised to be aware he’d encounter racism, but the abuse became too much after the April 29 Ontario Hockey League playoff game between his Kitchener Rangers and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. After his Rangers pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory, Smith, who is black, skated by the Greyhounds’ bench and extended a middle finger. Smith was suspended two games, and wound up finishing his junior career watching his Rangers lose Game 7.

“Definitely it was a tough way to go out my last year of junior,” Smith said Wednesday after Day 2 of development camp. “We had a really good playoff run — to work so hard, and the way I got suspended, it wasn’t ideal.  Throughout the whole year and at the end of the season, it all built up in me. What happened at the end of the game, I wasn’t thinking and my emotions got the best of me.”

Continue reading HSJ, Krupa: Givani Smith addresses racist incidents heads-on →

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