Mrazek-to-Philly talk from Philly, Detroit

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The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi broke down the trade market which presents the Philadelphia Flyers opportunities to at least temporarily replace the injured Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth…

Brian Elliott had abdominal surgery and isn’t expected to return until mid-March — and there are no guarantees he will be sharp when/if he gets back.

Neuvirth went down with an injury Sunday, and Hextall has yet to give any specifics or a timetable for his return. Even if Neuvirth can return shortly, his injury-prone nature makes it difficult for the Flyers to count on him for a long stretch.

Hence, Hextall is exploring the trade market. He is reluctant to trade one of the two first-round picks he has in June, and that is understandable. But all other picks should be in play because with the right addition, this could be a fun ride this spring.

Think of it this way: Where would the Eagles have been if both of their top quarterbacks had gone down with a season-ending injury? Would the inexperienced  Nate Sudfeld have taken them to the promised land?

Carchidi lists seven potential goaltenders as possible replacements, including two Wings netminders:

Petr Mrazek, Detroit. Hextall has reportedly had talks with the Red Wings about the 25-year-old Mrazek (2.89 GAA, .910 save percentage), who will be a restricted free agent after the season.  The Detroit Free Press said the Flyers turned down acquiring Mrazek for a third-round pick, but that was before Neuvirth’s latest injury. Hextall may circle back.

…

Jimmy Howard, Detroit. The 33-year-old veteran would bring a wealth of experience. He has a 2.83 GAA and .910 save percentage, but he has another year left on his contract ($5.3 million cap hit), so that makes him a longshot. He has a limited no-trade clause.

Carchidi continues…

And MLive’s Ansar Khan also weighs in on the possibility of Mrazek being traded to Philadelphia:

Mrazek has been playing well since mid-January and he’s in the final year of his contract at $4 million. If the Flyers acquired him and didn’t want to keep him beyond this season, they could forego making him a qualifying offer (at $4 million), making him an unrestricted free agent.

The Flyers had no interest in Mrazek last week, when the Red Wings asked for a third-round pick. Detroit also offered them Jimmy Howard, but the Flyers surely didn’t want to part with a high pick (the Red Wings want more for Howard, a first- or a second-round pick). And they wouldn’t want Howard around next season as an expensive backup ($5.3 million cap hit), when Elliott ($2.75 million) and Neuvirth ($2.5 million) are still on the books for one more season.

The Red Wings and Flyers remain in contact.

For now, the Flyers have rookie Alex Lyon, who has four games of NHL experience. They need help in net, and Mrazek would appear to be a good fit.

Mrazek, since Jan. 14, is 5-2-2, with a 2.01 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and two shutouts.

The Flyers have other options. In addition to Mrazek, Philly.com lists Antti Raanta of Arizona, Aaron Dell of San Jose, Robin Lehner (who is injured) and Chad Johnson of Buffalo and Calvin Pickard of Toronto as possibilities.

 

Monday notes from Kulfan: On the sked ahead, Mantha hitting 20 and trade talk

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Among the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan’s off-day notes:

The Red Wings were off Monday after the back-to-back games, and having played three games in four days.

They have another rugged stretch coming up, with four games in the next six days — and Sunday’s game in New York against the Rangers beginning a stretch of 10 of 11 games away from Little Caesars Arena.

Kulfan also spoke with Anthony Mantha and Jeff Blashill regarding Mantha hitting the 20-goal mark:

“Obviously it feels good,” said Mantha, trying to make the best of the situation. “I don’t want to stop here, that’s for sure. I would rather get the two points (in the standings) than that 20th (goal).”

…

Blashill, a few times, has compared Mantha to Toronto power forward James van Riemsdyk, who also happened to score a net-front goal, his 24th goal this season, in Sunday’s game.

After Sunday’s game, Blashill again felt Mantha would do well to watch van Riemsdyk and pattern some of the way the Toronto forward plays.

“It’s a good step,” Blashill said of Mantha reaching 20 goals. “One of the big things, and I’ll talk to him about it, is he (Mantha) has scored lots of goals standing in front of the goalie, and when you learn to embrace that as a player, I don’t think it was a natural thing for him, they (the Leafs) got a guy in van Riemsdyk who consistently scores around 30 because he’s real good in front of the net.

“Anthony is hopefully seeing that just by being in front of the net you can increase your goal totals a ton. It’s good reinforcement of what net presence and that spot on the power play means.”

Kulfan continues, discussing trade rumors…

St. James speaks with KH regarding the Wings’ deadline philosophy

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The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings GM Ken Holland to help gauge the Wings’ trade deadline plans:

“I’m looking to the future,” general manager Ken Holland said Monday. “I’m working the phones to see what’s out there that makes sense for us.”

The Wings are rebuilding, and want to acquire early-round draft picks and higher-end prospects. Mike Green is expected to be moved, as there is interest in the offensive defenseman. He hurt his neck Thursday at Tampa, but is expected to play Tuesday when the Wings host Nashville.

Goaltender Petr Mrazek is on the market. The Wings had conversations with Philadelphia about Mrazek in mid-February, and are talking again this week since the Flyers lost goaltender Michal Neuvirth on Sunday (on top of being without No. 1 Brian Elliott for about five weeks).

Mrazek has had a turbulent season (8-7-3 in 22 games with a 2.89 goals-against average and .910 save percentage) but he has played better of late (2.01 goals-against average and .939 save percentage his past two games). He also appeals because he’s a pending restricted free agent.

Forward Gustav Nyquist could appeal to a team that needs scoring (such as Nashville). Nyquist has one year left on a contract with a $4.75 million cap hit. Both Green and Nyquist would have to approve a move, as they have no-trade clauses.

FYI:

The Wings could make more moves around the June draft. They aren’t likely to make any signings other than possibly someone inexpensive, like Thomas Vanek.

St. James continues…

Fantasy hockey talk: Is it time to take a flyer on Filip Hronek?

ESPN’s Sean Allen penned an article discussing fantasy hockey players to pick up after the trade deadline, and Allen suggests that poolies may want to take a look at a superbly-performing Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman, should the Wings trade both Mike Green and Trevor Daley:

Filip Hronek, D, Detroit Red Wings

With Mike Green on the block and Trevor Daley also coveted for locker room presence by playoff teams, the Red Wings’ blue line could be getting thin next week. While Niklas Kronwall is playing plenty of power-play time, too, he’s not ideal in that role. In the meantime, the Red Wings have a 20-year-old Czech defenseman in the AHL who has been honing his North American game for the better part of two seasons. He finished fourth in the OHL in scoring last season and is second among rookie AHL blueliners this season. No matter what happens, the Red Wings will still have a potent forward group on the power play after the deadline and there will be an opportunity for Hronek to make a splash if he gets the call.

Allen continues, and here’s what he says about Petr Mrazek:

Petr Mrazek, G, Detroit Red Wings (up 22 spots to No. 174)

Whether he’s tending twine for the Wings, Flyers or someone else next week, Mrazek has some of his swagger back. Even accounting for that ugly seven-goal blowout against the Islanders on Feb. 9, Mrazek is seventh in the NHL for GAA and save percentage since Jan. 1 (at least 10 starts). He should be on fantasy rosters ahead of a potential move to a contender, but should even pay dividends if he stays with Detroit.

Interactive Tweets of note

Of interactive note on Twitter:

 

State of the blog: On the logo contest, website design, ‘crowdfunding’ and audience-building

Of website-related note:

  1. We are still holding a logo design contest, and as I’m still “building an audience” (to say the least), I’m not putting a deadline on the contest. I’ve got all of one entry after four days, so whenever you feel like trying to post a 500×100 pixel “banner” logo and a 150×150 “watermark,” give ‘er a go–when there are enough entries to vote upon (5-ish? 10-ish?), we’ll hold a vote.

The prize is $50 and a cut of merchandise sales, and yes, the goal is to produce merchandise that’s worth wearing…as well as to capture “the spirit” of TMR.

Entries can be posted in the comments section via your own upload or sent to me at rtxg@yahoo.com, and you can always reach me on Twitter or Facebook as well.

2. Website design will follow the logo/theme contest. I have had two people step forward to discuss possibly designing the website, and I don’t want to leave them in a lurch, but I will admit that if you’re familiar with WordPress or are willing to work for a reasonable rate, I will consider all comers. Again, my email is rtxg@yahoo.com, etc etc.

3. Regarding fundraising, I’m still pushing http://www.patreon.com/themalikreport as the main “crowdfunding” source, but if you’re not cool with Patreon (yes, they do take a cut of the $), you can always go with http://paypal.me/TheMalikReport.

Crowdfunding is basically a euphemism for, “I post content and you pledge $ to support the work,” and the reason I ask for monthly pledges instead of a lump sum is to provide a monthly income (Ideally a monthly income I can live off of, so that I can 1. continue working and 2. reinvest as much $ as possible in the website and YOU)…but however you want to structure the crowdfunding, if you’re kindly considering doing so, is fine.

I will keep my pledge to both keep content free and keep content commercial-free for as long as I possibly can, but as they say, “Freedom isn’t free,” so while I hate to do it, I have to ask for your support to keep doing this. Honest-to-Pete, as little as $1 a month makes a big difference.

4. Finally, the biggest favor I can ask of you is to spread the word that TMR is up and running and that this place is a decent spot for Wings news. The truth of the audience-building matter is that what I expected happened–most of the KK TMR people stayed with KK, which is fine, and most of you are either people who follow on Twitter/Facebook, or you’re new readers. Most of the people who read this blog will consist of Twitter/FB people who’ve already followed me for a while and/or new readers, and I need your help to build a new audience and build a new community of readers.

The unspoken goal of all of this stuff is to build the community of readers and supporters who enjoy/find meaning in/interact with what they’re reading and writing (in the case of Red Wings fans, tolerating, coping with, withstanding, grieving over, etc.) with some sort of sense of, “We’re in this together”-ness. I know that sounds campy, but community-building is the underlying goal of the blog.

Jared Coreau named the AHL’s Player of the Week

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

JARED COREAU NAMED CCM/AHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The American Hockey League announced today that Grand Rapids Griffins goaltender Jared Coreau has been selected as the CCM/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 18, 2018.

Coreau led the Griffins to consecutive road shutouts of the Western Conference-leading Manitoba Moose last week, stopping all 66 shots he faced.

Grand Rapids brought a nine-game points streak (7-0-0-2) into a two-game series against Manitoba at Bell MTS Place, and Coreau helped the Griffins maintain their winning ways with 28 saves in a 1-0 victory over the Moose on Thursday night. Coreau came back on Saturday with his second consecutive shutout, making a season-high 38 stops in a 5-0 win to improve to 5-1-0 (1.41 GAA, 0.955 save percentage) in seven appearances against Manitoba this season. Coreau became the first Griffins goaltender to record a shutout in back-to-back starts since Petr Mrazek on Feb. 27-28, 2015, and his 13 career shutouts place third in franchise history.

Since Dec. 22, the 6-foot-6 netminder sports a 13-2-3 record along with a 1.92 goals against average and a 0.933 save percentage in 18 appearances, as the Griffins have gone from being five games under 0.500 (10-15-1-3) to 10 games over 0.500 (28-18-1-6) in a span of 24 games.

Coreau, the first Griffin this season to garner Player of the Week accolades, collects his third career honor from the AHL, as he was named Player of the Week on Feb. 1, 2015, and Goaltender of the Month in December 2015.

The 26-year-old Coreau ranks among the AHL’s goaltending leaders this season with 20 wins (T3rd), a 2.47 GAA (13th), a 0.916 save percentage (T13th) and 2092:11 minutes (3rd).

A fifth-year pro from Perth, Ontario, Coreau started all 19 games of last spring’s Calder Cup championship run, showing a 15-4 record, a 2.84 GAA and a 0.909 save percentage. In 146 career AHL games all with Grand Rapids, Coreau has an 84-48-10 record to go along with a 2.42 GAA and a 0.919 save percentage. He became the 158th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL when he debuted with the Red Wings on Dec. 3, 2016 at Pittsburgh. In his first taste of NHL action last season, Coreau posted a 5-4-3 mark, a 3.46 GAA, a 0.887 save percentage and two shutouts in 14 appearances.

In recognition of being named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week, Coreau will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Griffins home game.

The Griffins have points in 11 straight games (9-0-0-2) and will host the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to begin a six-game homestand.

Griffins highlight Dominic Turgeon’s first hat trick

Dominic Turgeon scored his first professional hat trick in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 5-0 win over the Manitoba Moose this past Saturday, and the Griffins posted a highlight clip spotlighting Turgeon’s natural hat trick:

 

Zettergood, Zetterbag, Zetterfatigued

Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg hit a milestone marker last night…

But Zetterberg was not happy after last night’s loss to Toronto, as the Free Press’s George Sipple noted:

“It’s hard to figure it out right now why they won,” Zetterberg said. “They scored three. We scored two. But we had enough chances to win. They probably felt the same. Thought Petr (Mrazek) was really good in net.

“It’s frustrating for us as a team when we played a good game in Nashville and then we don’t get anything out of this one, when we played pretty good. But (there’s) a lot of things behind that.”

Asked what that meant, Zetterberg refused to say anything more: “No, no…. Thank you.”

Zetterberg, 37, is one of two players on the Wings to reach the 40-point plateau this season. Zetterberg has eight goals and 32 assists in 58 games.

You can hear Zetterberg make that last remark at the end of Fox Sports Detroit’s clip of “Z’s” post-game remarks:

I believe that Zetterberg’s simply getting worn out by having to answer the same questions over and over again, but that’s just me.

 

Custance on ‘where things stand’ in terms of the Red Wings and the deadline

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From The Athletic’s Craig Custance:

Setting the Red Wings’ deadline trades over/under: 2.5

There are a lot of irons in the fire for GM Ken Holland but varying degrees of heat. He doesn’t seem especially motivated to move anyone with term on their contract who he believes can keep the team competitive during the rebuild. The Red Wings have a lot of those players, which we’ll get at in a second.

So let’s start with the low-hanging fruit. Barring an injury, and it’s not believed his current upper-body injury is serious, Mike Green will get traded. There’s one. The Philadelphia Flyers goalie situation ups the likelihood that Petr Mrazek gets dealt, with TSN’s Darren Dreger first reporting that there are ongoing discussions between the Red Wings and Flyers on that front. There has been interest in both Red Wings goalies, with Detroit more eager to move Mrazek than starter Jimmy Howard. That gets you to two trades. Then it becomes about trading a player with term on his contract, which brings us to our next area of analysis.

Continued (paywall)

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