Of Red Wings defensive-related note this morning:

1. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff surmises that the Red Wings haven’t completed renovating their defensive corps this morning, suggesting that the Red Wings’ re-signing of William Lagesson and signing of Jacob Bernard-Docker don’t feel like the Wings’ final moves of the summer:
   

The Detroit brass has always preferred to carry eight blueliners on the NHL roster. If that is again the decision, it only makes sense that Lagesson will be that guy. There’s nothing to be gained from having a prospect like William Wallinder or Antti Tuomisto, and certainly not Axel Sandin Pellikka, sitting and watching. They need to be playing every night with the AHL Griffins.

That’s all assuming nothing changes within the club’s defensive personnel. As colleague Kevin Allen recently pointed out, there are a number of under-the-radar defensemen who could be had in the NHL trade market.

Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak is a big body who would add offensive upside while skating in a third pairing. The dream sequence would be the acquisition of reliable, steady veteran Ryan McDonagh from Tampa Bay. He’d be a calming presence and an ideal partner for Seider. And his first pass tends to border on the impeccable. It was Yzerman who made the original move to bring McDonagh to Tampa Bay.

Do we know if any of these moves are in the works? No.

Call it a feeling, a sense if you will. Just a nagging sensation that the Wings aren’t done yet when it comes to retooling the defense.

Continued; the Red Wings are running pretty young and lean in all three groups–at forward, on defense and in goal–and it is entirely possible, if not probable, that we’ll see the team add another forward and another defenseman to flesh out the forwards and defense…

But my gut feeling is that the Wings aren’t going to add an Oleksiak or McDonagh for them to sit and watch the 3rd pairing play. The team needs to bolster its 2nd defensive pair, and that means upgrading said pairing by a more than marginal…margin, for lack of a better word.

2. Speaking of which, MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Bernard-Docker this morning, discussing the 25-year-old righty’s desire to play as a regular on the Wings’ roster:

Continue reading Two things: On a ‘gut feeling’ and Jacob Bernard-Docker →

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen has posted a subscriber-only article about Red Wings 2024 draft pick and University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante, a 5’11,” 176-pound center who’s an elite passer and play-maker.

As Allen notes, Plante suffered from a wrist injury which required him to wear a brace and miss time over the course of last season. Nonetheless, he posted 19 assists and 28 points for UMD over the course of only 23 games last season, and the Wings believe that, with time, Plante should rise among the prospect ranks:

Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante (47th, 2024) was among the Detroit Red Wings who couldn’t skate at their development camp recently and yet Dan Cleary still talked about him like he did.

“I love Max,” the Red Wing director of player development said. “Max’s energy. Hockey sense. Max’s competitiveness his first year.”

It’s clear the Red Wing have plenty of time for Plante, the son of former NHLer Derek Plante.  Detroit Hockey Now didn’t have him in our Top 10 prospects, but we see him right outside that group. He’s a smallish winger, known more for his playmaking than scoring. He scored nine goals and finished with 28 points in 23 games as a Bulldogs freshman. The Minnesota native was undermined by injury early in the season.

“He got off to slow start. I think he only played like five games before world juniors in the season,” Cleary said. 

Continued (paywall); Plante is playing on a line with his brother, Zam, and as Allen discusses, his family is legendary in the Duluth suburb of Hermantown, Minnesota, so the 2nd round pick (47th overall) is hoping to stay healthy and display his passing acumen as a sophomore playing for his hometown team.

It should be noted that 6’5″ defenseman and Wings draft pick Brady Cleveland will join Plante in Duluth after transferring schools this past spring, so two Detroit prospects will be trying to find their stride at UMD this upcoming season.

Updated at 9:03 AM: Columbus Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov wants out of Ohio’s capital city due to a self and agent-described dispute with Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason over playing time.

The 24-year-old forward with a $2.1 million cap hit has some scoring potential, so MLive’s Ansar Khan offers reasons why the Red Wings might want to pursue the promising young forward…

–They need a forward with top-six abilities, a void they couldn’t fill through free agency.

–Chinakhov has a lot of untapped potential.

–He’s young, with one year left on his contract ($2.1 million) and as a restricted free agent in 2026 will remain under club control.

–He’s unproven, and by requesting a move, his trade value might be diminished.

And Khan’s biggest reason to not go after the 6’1,” 205-pound Chinakhov is a simple one: cost.

Continue reading Talking about targeting Chinakhov, Kuznetsov or Roslovic →

I’m not one to criticize other people’s blog posts for the sake of criticizing other people’s blog posts. Even in the middle of July, the hockey news cycle moves so fast that there’s no time to waste getting petty–and no readers’ time to waste, ever–for the sake of arguing.

In this instance, however, I’ve thought about this for almost 12 hours now, and I cannot hold my tongue here.

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye discusses the Red Wings’ goaltending situation going forward, and by going forward, I mean not only into course of the 2025-2026 season, but to what might happen to the Red Wings’ goaltending situation in the summer of 2026.

That’s a whole year from now, and in the cases of the Wings’ NHL goaltenders in John Gibson and Cam Talbot, the team’s AHL goaltenders and prospects in Sebastian Cossa and Michal Postava, and top prospect Trey Augustine, we’re talking about a long period of time.

Especially in the cases of Cossa, Postava and Augustine, the Red Wings’ young goaltenders are all facing pivotal developmental seasons, and what next year at this time brings is a difficult question to answer.

Tye is already surmising that the Red Wings’ status as having four known quantities in Gibson, Talbot, Cossa and Augustine = a crease crunch that will take a trade to alleviate next summer at this time:

Continue reading There’s little point in getting lost in ‘hypotheticals’ regarding the Red Wings’ crease →

Because the Dallas Stars are extremely close to the salary cap’s upper limit, there’s been a lot of talk about the team trading 2-time 40-goal scorer and $7.75 million man Jason Robertson in the last year of his contract.

The operative theory around the league is that the Stars can afford to lose the 25-year-old Robertson (who turns 26 tomorrow) in order to re-sign a slew of restricted free agents next summer.

I haven’t bought the theory that the Stars should split with a 4-time 30+ goal-scorer, but the rumor mill stirs at this time of year, and Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon suggests that the Red Wings are one of seven possible destinations for Robertson. That’s “late July” high:

Detroit Red Wings

Detroit has not made the playoffs since 2016 and has not won a playoff round since three years before that, in 2013. You could be packing your bags for college this summer in Michigan and basically have only the foggiest recollection of a post-season series victory for the Wings.

It sure feels like general manager Steve Yzerman is ready to jump, as he lamented the fact Detroit didn’t even get to pitch many of the players he was interested in on July 1 because they re-upped with teams before hitting free agency.

If signing UFAs isn’t a viable option to bring more scoring to the Red Wings — who finished 22^nd in the league last year with 2.87 goals per game — maybe Detroit goes the trade route again, as it did to acquire Alex DeBrincat in July 2023.

The bottom line is Detroit must find a way to push this rebuild forward and Yzerman is more than prepared to act aggressively in the name of doing so.

Continued; the operative theory is nice and all, and I could see the Red Wings making an aggressive trade this summer, but someone like Jason Robertson would cost more than DeBrincat…

And I just don’t see the operative need for Dallas to dump an asset like Robertson off for top prospects and 1st round picks simply because next summer’s rising salary cap is still going to be a tight fit with restricted free agents Thomas Harley, Mavrik Bourque, Nils Lundqvist and Arttu Hyrry to re-sign. We all know that Jim Nill is a smart man, and if he’s trading Robertson, he’s going to get an incredibly strong return.

The Red Wings want to get better, and Steve Yzerman has suggested that he’s willing to move picks and prospects if there’s a “fit” in terms of improving the team, but I just don’t buy that Dallas is desperate to move someone a year before even a rising salary cap won’t quite be enough to keep everybody, and we all know that the price would be extremely, probably prohibitively expensive.

Why not wait until the trade deadline to sort things out, and keep Robertson’s services for most of 2025-2026? Why not find a way to keep him over the course of te next 8 months? Jettisoning Robertson just doesn’t make sense for me, even to Detroit, and this feels like a late-July exercise in theoretical trade scenarios instead of a pressing need.

It’s not that I don’t see a “fit”–it’s that I don’t see any urgency by a GM who knows how to bend the salary cap into a pretzel in order to keep his players in tow. And I don’t know if I see GM SY paying the astonishingly high price that Robertson would command. GM’s always want the prime stud, but you don’t sell the barn to buy a horse.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills spoke with Red Wings defenseman Albert Johansson recently, discussing Johansson’s desire to help contribute to a Red Wings playoff push, his sense of self after becoming a full-time regular defenseman in 2024-2025, and his training routine back in Karlstad, Sweden:

“We made a push and didn’t get in, and when you’re back home and you see the [Stanley Cup Playoffs] are still going on, you want to be there,” Johansson recently told DetroitRedWings.com. “You want to play in the playoffs. With the team we have, I know all the guys in the room are very excited and want to get there. For the fans too, because it’s been a long time. It’s a hunger.”

In 2024-25, Johansson registered nine points (three goals, six assists) in 61 games. The 24-year-old defenseman was a sponge during his rookie campaign, absorbing as much as he could from his veteran teammates and gaining a strong sense of what it takes to succeed as an NHL regular.

“I know the League now,” Johansson said. “I know what I must improve. This is a big summer for me. I want to take that next step too. I’m just trying to get stronger, be in good shape, come back here and have a successful year next year.”

Johansson will have an opportunity at this year’s Training Camp to show head coach Todd McLellan and the entire coaching staff everything that he’s been working on this summer.

“Everyone wants to take that next step, get in the playoffs and play those important games,” said the former second-round pick (No. 60 overall) in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. “I’m super excited about getting back for Training Camp, seeing all the new guys and those who were there last year too. We can start working together again to reach that goal.”

Continued

NHL.com/de’s Oliver Jensen offers a list of his top 5 NHL rookies of the 2024-2025 season, and it should come as no surprise that Austrian Marco Kasper makes his list. Here’s what he has to say about Kasper–and what Moritz Seider has to say about the 21-year-old Kasper:

Marco Kasper (Detroit Red Wings)

With Marco Kasper, Austria has an absolutely exceptional talent again. Picked eighth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, he played his first season for the Red Wings last season. Over the course of 77 games, the 21-year-old center possted 19 goals and 18 assists. He made his NHL debut in the 2022–23 season, but he only played in one game at that time. After playing in the AHL in 2023-24, the top performer’s next logical step was the NHL.

His teammate Moritz Seider, who is from Germany, praised the development of Kasper in conversation with NHL.com/de: “He brings good and fresh energy to our locker room. He is a person who expects a lot of himself and he shows it. That is exactly what we need. We do not need anyone to hide or wait for others to take over the initiative. He is someone who is taking the lead in practice. That is what we need.”

DobberHockey’s Puneet Sharma offers a list of 10 players who could possibly hit the 40-goal mark over the course of the upcoming NHL season, and Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin makes his list:

6. Dylan Larkin – Detroit Red Wings

What stands out most about Larkin is that he is already doing a lot right. His shot volume is healthy at 233 SOG and his ice time is right where you want it, over 20 minutes a night with prime PP deployment. He is also the engine of Detroit’s offense, however, his 5v5 xG% has hovered around 50%, which means he is not consistently out-chancing the opposition. That said, Larkin does not need a huge leap in production, if he pushes his shot total to 260+ and maintains or slightly improves his shooting percentage, he could hit that milestone.

Continued; I don’t see Larkin hitting 40 goals unless the Red Wings upgrade their top-six forward corps, but 35 is within reach.

The Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak wrote an intriguing article this morning, attempting to discern when the Red Wings might be able to make a sustained playoff push while building from within:

I estimate that the Red Wings’ next contention window will start in 2028. That’s when they’ll have the most players in their prime and sufficient depth.

During this time, they’ll have a top six that consists of Kasper, Brandsegg-Nygard, and Lucas Raymond, plus other players who could potentially contribute high in the lineup, including Larkin, Danielson, and Dmitri Buchelnikov. It’s possible DeBrincat is still around and producing at a middle-six pace as well. Bear, too, if he moves through the ranks quickly.

The blue line is especially promising, with Seider, Edvinsson, and Sandin Pellikka fully in their prime. Cossa and Augustine should be quality NHLers at this point, too.

Continued; Wolak’s theoretical exercise is a “good read.”

I really dislike betting odds, mostly because I’m not a sports bettor–or a believer in the concept that the betting odds are the be-all-end-all predictor of a team’s performance.

That being said, it doesn’t hurt to take a peek at said odds from time to time, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen reports that the Red Wings will enter the 2025-2026 season as significant underdogs:

As of this morning, FanDuel odds of Detroit winning the Stanley Cup are +11000. That’s 110/1 in fractional terms. Only seven teams own worse odds. The Chicago Blackhawks are the biggest longshot at +50000 (500/1).

Detroit’s odds of qualifying for the playoffs are +235. That’s an implied probability of 29.85%. Only seven teams have worse odds for that bet as well.

And by the way, it sure seems like Gibson’s arrival will improve Detroit’s goaltending. But his odds of winning the Vezina Trophy are +25000 (250/1).

Apparently, FanDuel believe Swedish defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka has a reasonable chance of playing for the Red Wings this season. His odds for winning the Calder Trophy are +3100. Only 10 players have better odds.

Continued; as I suggested in the previous entry, my hopes for the Red Wings making a trade to bolster their top-six forward group and/or top-four defensive group are waning as the summer progresses.

If the Red Wings run “young and lean” this October (i.e. without making any summertime trades), fans will be treated to a set of prospects coming up from Grand Rapids to play critical roles on this year’s Red Wings team, but they’re also be watching a Detroit team that has to prove a ton of experts wrong.