Video: Chris Johnston updates Moritz Seider’s contract negotiations in TSN’s ‘Insider Trading’

TSN’s Gino Reda spoke with Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston for the first episode of Insider Trading of the new season, and Johnston addressed Moritz Seider’s situation:

From the TSN.ca transcript:

GENO REDA: It’s the season debut of Insider Trading. They are the Insiders, Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston. Gentlemen, NHL training camps are opening up across league this week, and there are some big name restricted free agents still waiting for contracts. One of the biggest names out there right now, C.J., is Jeremy Swayman. At last word, Swayman and the Bruins were miles apart on a new deal. Any updates on that front?

CHRIS JOHNSTON: Well, what I can tell you as of early Tuesday evening, anyways, it was described as ‘status-quo’ in these talks, and I think the timestamp is important because this is an hour-by-hour situation with the camp opening in Boston on Wednesday. Obviously a lot of urgency trying to get the No. 1 goaltender of the Bruins signed, and really, this goes back a long time. They’ve been working at this file for quite some time trying to find an agreement on, what I think, has been focused on a long-term deal. You have to wonder if they can’t quite get there, if they can’t bridge that gap, maybe they find something a little shorter to get to a solution here. But certainly, this is a big one around the league.

Another situation worth monitoring is in Detroit, where Moritz Seider, the defenceman for the Red Wings, remains unsigned as well. The talks there had been focused on an eight-year contract, the maximum allowable, just as his teammate Lucas Raymond signed. But it sounds like now it’s going to be something a little shorter, and the reason for that is the Red Wings have been reluctant to pay anyone more than the $8.7 million per year that captain Dylan Larkin gets. I think one way to maybe get Seider into the mid-eights, or somewhere below that number is to do a six or seven-year deal, and so look for that as they look to get him signed and in camp here as soon as possible.

A bit of praise for Carter Gylander’s Prospect Games performance

It’s difficult to make any career-spanning predictions as to how the Red Wings’ prospects who participated in the Prospect Games might pan out. They only played in two games over the course of two days, against their peers (age-wise), for the most part.

That being said, there were some conclusions to be made about some of the players who participated in the various rookie camps throughout the NHL this past weekend, and Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis tabs Red Wings goaltender Carter Gylander as one of his “Top 15 standouts” from the NHL’s various rookie tournaments:

Carter Gylander, G (Detroit Red Wings)

The Red Wings already have two high-end goalie prospects in Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine. Now, Gylander is off to an excellent start to his pro career after capping off a four-year run at Colgate University. He made 33 saves over a game and a half to register a .967 save percentage – marking one of the best stat lines of any goalie this weekend. It wasn’t a big sample size, but he still looked steady, using his 6-foot-5 frame to cover so much of the net. I like how well he tracks the puck through traffic and he’s got the athleticism to make up for plays when he can’t rely on pure size to make a save.

Continued; Gylander is just plain old steady.

At 23 years of age, he’s not a “young prospect,” and he’s going to face an uphill battle as the Red Wings’ goaltending situation in Grand Rapids already includes two goaltenders in Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell–and the situation in Toledo is no less crowded, with Gage Alexander and Griffins-contracted Jan Bednar vying for crease time–but those who’ve seen Gylander play know that his patience both in and out of the crease may very well pay off.

Middle-of-the-road in goal (for now)

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro just posted an article which discusses the “long-term outlook in goal” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and he ranks the Red Wings in the middle tier out of 5 (i.e. “tier 3”) for their combination of present quality of goaltending and future prospects:

Detroit Red Wings 

Projected starter: Cam Talbot 

Future watch: Trey Augustine, Sebastian Cossa

The Red Wings are going into training camp with three goalies, and all of them have big question marks. Ville Husso missed almost all of last season with injury, Alex Lyon has yet to prove he’s more than a reliable backup, and Talbot is starting to slow down with age. The good news is that Detroit has perhaps the best tandem of the future with Cossa and Augustine, who I expect to be taking over Detroit’s crease in a couple seasons. 

Continued (paywall); there’s no doubt that the Red Wings are hoping that redundancy takes root in terms of the team’s goaltending situation resolving itself over the course of training camp and the exhibition season, but Cossa and Augustine definitely hold much promise down the line.

Tweet of note: Raymond’s not too shabby

The Red Wings just Tweeted out this “more to come” post about Lucas Raymond’s status among the Red Wings’ 21-and-under players:

Afternoon news: more comments from Steve Yzerman and Lucas Raymond’s press conferences

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and recently re-signed forward Lucas Raymond both spoke with the media this morning, and this early afternoon produced a wealth of articles which reacted to the comments made in the morning.

Here’s a second crop thereof, starting with the Free Press’s Helene St. James, who discusses Raymond’s re-signing:

The Swedish forward, deftly plucked with the fourth selection in the 2020 draft by general manager Steve Yzerman, has a few details to deal with now that he’s been brought into the fold with an eight-year, $64.6 million deal: Namely, he needs to get to Detroit, his work visa needs to be renewed, and then he needs to get to training camp, which begins Thursday in Traverse City. This will be a whirlwind of a week, but it puts to an offseason to end that had grown increasingly tense as negotiations for the restricted free agent went the distance.

“It’s a special feeling, for sure,” Raymond said Tuesday. “Very excited. You go around, you look at your phone a lot. A lot of screen time. You spend a lot of time on the phone, and to be able to move on from that, I feel like that’s a huge relief.”

The massive contract, second among Red Wings forwards only to captain Dylan Larkin’s $8.7 million annual contract, reflects the value Raymond added especially down the stretch last season, as the Wings chased a playoff spot all the way till Game 82. Raymond had 21 points the last 18 games, and wrapped things up with a six-game point streak (six goals, five assists).

“He certainly took his game to another level, production-wise,” Yzerman said. “We didn’t base everything on the last 20 games, but it certainly has an impact. But I felt throughout the season he continued to get better. There was a significant growth from Year 2 to Year 3. He had a very good offseason last year and came in and played really well and took off down the stretch. We were not shocked by that. We were very pleased with the way he finished the season and showed that he has the ability to play at a higher level, and he did that in all aspects.

“I expect him to be one of our top players again, I expect his game to continue to grow this year. But yeah, it helped his case a lot – I think he had 13 goals the last 20 games. He really helped his cause and we were thrilled to see him play that well. 

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood asked Raymond whether being part of the contract negotiations was difficult for him…

Continue reading Afternoon news: more comments from Steve Yzerman and Lucas Raymond’s press conferences

As of Tuesday, the Wings’ only injuries consist of Ondrej Becher and Shai Buium

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted an article which discusses the Red Wings’ injuries going into training camp–which, as it turns out, involve players who participated in this past weekend’s Prospect Games vs. Dallas:

Youngsters Ondrej Becher (80th, 2024) and Shai Buium (36th, 2021) are the only players listed as injured heading into the start of Detroit Red Wings’ training camp on Thursday.

“Becher has a sprained ankle that he did prior to coming to Detroit,” Detroit GM Steve Yzerman said. “I think skating on his own, so he’ll be out for a little while.”

Buium, projected to be a regular in Grand Rapids this season, was injured blocking a shot in Game 2 of Red Wings’ prospect series against the Dallas Stars.

“He’s kind of day to day,” Yzerman said. “We’re doing some more tests at this stage. It doesn’t look like it’s anything serious, and hopefully it’s not. But still, he potentially might miss a few days.”

Allen also included this comment from assistant director of player development Dan Cleary regarding Buium:

“At the end of the day I watched how he played quite a bit,” Cleary said. “Obviously a very successful career in Denver. He can certainly run a power play. He’s smart — makes his good hockey sense work for him. He’s got a good little feel. He can find the middle of the ice well. And he certainly knows what he’s got to work on. But he’s gotten stronger, he’s gotten quicker, he’s in better shape, but the pro game’s tough. American League is a tough league. It’s hard. So it’s gonna be growing (pains) for sure.

Mid-day news: Quotes and quips from Yzerman and Raymond’s press conferences

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

  1. NHL.com has updated its Lucas Raymond re-signing story with quotes from both Steve Yzerman and Raymond’s mid-morning press conferences, via NHL.com’s Tracey Myers:

“Obviously very happy we got it done ahead of training camp,” Raymond said Tuesday. “Of course, you always want it to get done as quickly as possible but that’s the way it goes.

“I felt a huge difference coming into last year, just the way you see the game, the way you handle yourself off ice. And I mean that on ice as well. There are obviously areas I want to keep growing in, keep developing, taking bigger strides, taking more responsibility and getting higher expectations on myself. For sure, that’s the goal. I’m still 22, so hopefully I have a lot of development to still do.”

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman pointed to Raymond’s strong finish to last season, when he had 21 points (14 goals, seven assists) in Detroit’s last 18 games, and completed his campaign with 11 points (six goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.

“Well, he certainly down the stretch took his game to another level production-wise,” Yzerman said Tuesday. “We didn’t base everything on the last 20 games, but it certainly has an impact. But I felt throughout the season he continued to get better. There was a significant growth from year two to year three. Actually, year two was pretty good (45 points; 17 goals, 28 assists in 74 games), production was down a little bit, but it was a good year for him and a learning season.

“He grinded it out, had a very good offseason last year and came in and played really well and then took off down the stretch. We were not shocked by that. We were obviously very pleased how he finished the season and showed he has the ability to play at a higher level and he did that in all aspects.

“You can never guarantee how production goes, but I expect him to be one of our top players again. I expect his game to continue to grow this year. Last year helped his case a lot. … we were thrilled to see him play that well.”

Continued, with this quip about the Moritz Seider contract negotiations:

Continue reading Mid-day news: Quotes and quips from Yzerman and Raymond’s press conferences

Is Ben Chiarot the Red Wings’ ‘worst contract?’

I don’t think that Ben Chiarot is a “bad” defenseman–I think he’s actually gotten better over the course of his tenure with the Red Wings. That being said, I’m not certain whether he’s the ideal partner for Moritz Seider on the Red Wings’ first defensive pairing, and Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz seems to agree in deeming Chiarot to be the Red Wings’ “worst contract”;

Detroit Red Wings: Ben Chiarot

Chiarot is the type of defenseman who has an intense hold on the NHL’s general managers. He got traded for big returns and then signed a four-year, $19 million contract in Detroit a couple of years ago.

There was a time when he was a pretty capable defender, but those days are gone. Now he tends to get too many minutes in too many big roles. In Detroit, he has spent way too much time on the team’s top pairing next to Moritz Seider over the past two seasons, a partnership that only limited one of the team’s best young players. This signing was a big miss by general manager Steve Yzerman.

Continued; again, he’s not an ideal defenseman by any means, but I don’t think that he’s been awful…And the Andrew Copp deal seems worse to me, honestly.