The Malik Report

Sportsnet’s Michael Amato posted a list of his top 250 fantasy hockey players. Here’s what he had to say about the Red Wings who made his list:

44. Dylan Larkin, DET, C: Larkin is as reliable as it gets. He’s essentially a point per game player you can count on for about 250 shots. He’ll come with upside this season as well, as perhaps the arrival of Alex DeBrincat can push Larkin closer to the 90-point threshold.

67. Alex DeBrincat, DET, RW: DeBrincat never looked quite comfortable in Ottawa and that, combined with a lower shooting percentage than his career average, resulted in a down year. There’s a good chance he and Larkin will be paired together in Detroit and that might be able to get DeBrincat back into 40-goal territory.

76. Moritz Seider, DET, D: Both Seider’s points and shots totals dropped in his sophomore season, but his hits and blocks took a nice jump. There will be more competition for Seider this season when it comes to power-play time, with Jeff Petry and Shayne Gostisbehere now in town.

186. Lucas Raymond, DET, LW: Raymond’s points and shots totals dropped significantly in his sophomore season, but he couldn’t be in a better spot to get back on track. He’ll likely be playing with Larkin and DeBrincat, and that combination should help Raymond boost his numbers back to what they looked like when he was a rookie.

222. Ville Husso, DET, G: Similar to most goalies on rebuilding teams, Husso’s value probably hinges on how much the Wings have improved. His numbers fell last year because the team in front of him wasn’t great, and that has to change to make Husso more than a spot starter off waivers.

228. David Perron, DET, LW: Even though it was a disappointing season for Perron from an offensive standpoint, he still put up 56 points. If that’s his floor with around 200 shots and 100 hits, he will still have some value.

Continued

Briefly: ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski spoke with Red Wings NHLPA Rookie Showcase participant Sebastian Cossa…Regarding the challenges inherent in stopping Connor Bedard’s slinky wrist shot:

Connor Bedard circled the ice, waiting for his cue from a hockey card photographer for Upper Deck. He skated purposefully towards an empty net and unleashed a shot.

OK, not a shot, but the shot. That quick, powerful release that’s his calling card as an NHL prospect. That skillful snipe that made him the first overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, and has positioned Bedard as the league’s latest franchise savior.

The puck rocketed off his blade and landed snugly under the crossbar. How many goals will the 18-year-old score just like that? How many goalies will be left wondering how to stop Bedard?

“Just get in front of it. Somehow,” said Sebastian Cossa, a goalie prospect for the Detroit Red Wings who attended the NHLPA Rookie Showcase in Arlington on Tuesday.

“He’s definitely got a good shot,” Cossa continued. “I played against him in junior and the world juniors. His pull-and-push is obviously pretty special. It’s not really knowing what to expect. You just got to really be on angle and take away the net from him. He’s a special player.”

Bedard was the talk of the rookie showcase.

Continued (paywall); a tidbit is better than nothing.

The Hockey News’s Jason Chen posted a fantasy hockey preview for the Detroit Red Wings this morning, and he offers some…interesting…theories:

Breakout Star

It’s hard to pick one with so many players and moving parts to the roster. But if Lucas Raymond stays with Larkin and DeBrincat plays on the opposite wing, Raymond’s being set up for a potential 30-goal season. However, Larkin and DeBrincat take a lot of shots, and you wonder if there’s enough for Raymond. Maybe it doesn’t matter because Raymond will rack up the assists instead, and he certainly has been particularly effective on the power play with 27 assists over the past two seasons. Breakout campaigns depend heavily on a player’s minutes and usage, and no other prospect is assured of top-six minutes.

Regression Candidate

I just don’t see Daniel Sprong as a reliable scorer. His 26-goal pace was really surprising and his Individual Point Percentage skewed very high for the second straight season. IPP is the percentage of goals for that player’s team while that player is on the ice that the player earned a point on, with the league average hovering around 70 percent. Sprong was at 80 percent, according to naturalstattrick.com, which hinted he was among the league’s elite in driving play and generating offense, and he is obviously not that kind of player.

It’s not unheard of for a player to move around a little bit before figuring it out – former Kraken teammate Jared McCann also suddenly scored at a much higher pace last season – but it always raises a few eyebrows when it happens out of the blue.

Sprong has averaged just 12 minutes per game in his career, by the way, and he faces a lot of competition for a top-six role. This was a low-risk signing by the Wings on a one-year deal, but it just begs the question of what exactly is the Yzerplan in its current iteration because it all feels like a shotgun approach. As far as high-upside options go, there are surer bets than Sprong.

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins issued the following press release this morning:

GAME TIME CHANGED FOR NOV. 11 AGAINST TORONTO 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The American Hockey League on Thursday announced that the start time for the Grand Rapids Griffins’ home game against the Toronto Marlies on Saturday, Nov. 11 has been changed from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Griffins will begin the 2023-24 season at Van Andel Arena on Oct. 13 against the Colorado Eagles. Fans can secure their full-season, select-season  or group ticket packages by calling (616) 774-4585 ext. 2 or visit griffinshockey.com for more information. Single-game tickets for the Griffins’ 2023-24 season will go on sale to the public on Sept. 15 through griffinshockey.com/tickets. Be sure to sign up to receive the Griffins Nation newsletters to be the first to know when tickets go on sale.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ defensive depth this morning, wondering aloud how the competition for spots on the Wings’ blueline this fall will turn out:

General manager Steve Yzerman added three veterans during the offseason in Jeff Petry, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Justin Holl. Gone from last season’s roster are Filip Hronek, Jordan Oesterle, Robert Hagg and Gustav Lindström. Returning defensemen include Moritz Seider, Jake Walman, Ben Chiarot, and Olli Määttä. Health is unpredictable, of course, but on the face of it, that is a better starting corps than the Wings have had in years.

Seider, Petry and Holl shoot right, so the Wings will have the luxury of forming three pairs consisting of right-shots and left-shots. With Seider, Walman, Petry and Gotisbehere, the Wings can also have at least one defender on each pairing who can make things happen offensively. And Määttä showed renewed signs of that side of his game last season, too.

With the exception of three games in mid-February when Walman was out of the lineup, he and Seider formed a successful partnership the second half of the season. They read off one another well, allowing each to take an active role with the puck, without compromising integrity in their own zone. Seider had a minus-13 rating when he gained Walman as a partner, then posted a plus-two in the time they played together. The logical starting point is to have those together again.

From there, it gets interesting. Chiarot, Seider’s partner the first half, had an ugly plus-minus at season’s end, bottoming out at minus-31. But he’s 6 feet 3 and 232 pounds and plays as heavy as he is. He’s got an edge to him — when Ryan Reaves was taking all manner of liberties with the Wings during a game at Minnesota in December last year, it was Chiarot who dropped his gloves to send a message on behalf of his team.

Continued (paywall)

From NHL.com’s Christopher Detwiler:

Stanley got to spend his long weekend on the lake with some old friends.

While Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez was celebrating the third Stanley Cup championship of his career on his boat in Michigan on Wednesday, he ran into former Detroit Red Wings forward Kris Draper, who won the Cup four times himself.

Before winning the Cup with the Golden Knights this past season, Martinez won the Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014. Draper won all four of his Stanley Cups with the Red Wings (1997, 1998, 2002, 2008).

The two met up on Martinez’s boat for a photo with their old friend Stanley.

That’s someone who’s worth keeping in touch with.

It's pretty cool when you are a 3x time #stanleycup champion and your party gets crashed by a 3x time #stanleycup champion @nhl@GoldenKnights @DetroitRedWings @HockeyHallFame pic.twitter.com/BCUl6cuH2D

— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) September 6, 2023

MLive’s Patrick Nothaft posted an article discussing the comments made by Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman at the West Michigan Sports Commission’s luncheon in Grand Rapids today:

Steve Yzerman captained the Detroit Red Wings to three Stanley Cup championships during his 22-year NHL playing career, but hockey’s top prize has eluded the Hall of Fame player during his 18 years as an executive.

And that’s something the Red Wings’ fifth-year general manager hopes to change in a city that he helped turn into “Hockeytown.”

Yzerman served as the keynote speaker of the West Michigan Sports Commission’s 16th Annual Luncheon Wednesday at the J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids, where he discussed his goal of winning a Stanley Cup as a general manager, some of his unforgettable on-ice accomplishments and a couple former teammates who he hopes to see in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Truthfully, for me, it would be a greater accomplishment than doing it as a player,” Yzerman said of building a Stanley Cup-winning team. “To be in this position and kind of direct the team or guide an organization can be an incredible opportunity and something I wasn’t about to pass on.”

Continued; if you missed the video post, you can watch his full speech here via WZZM 13:

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro posted an article which discusses “NHL storylines to watch” in the Atlantic Division for this upcoming season. Here’s what he has to say about the Detroit Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings – There’s been this funny tit for tat argument on social media going on between Senators and Red Wings fans in the offseason – especially after the Alex DeBrincat trade. Both are pushing they have the better team, both could make that claim, and both are missing the reality that neither will likely make the playoffs this season. 

In Detroit the plan, or Yzerplan, this season is to contend, play meaningful games, and maybe get into the playoffs – playoff hockey would be a bonus, but not a necessity. There are some additions, the Red Wings got better, but in the long run, Steve Yzerman has built his cap structure and team for an overhaul of assets in a couple years as the salary cap rises. 

If Detroit is out of the playoff picture, there could be another sell-off at the deadline, David Perron, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer, and Shayne Gostisbehere will all be pending UFAs.

Until then, this season in Detroit is about finding a way to keep things fun and interesting, while also eventually making room for some of the prospects like Simon Edvinsson, Carter Mazur, and Sebastian Cossa in the following season. 

Continued (paywall); Shapiro’s not the first person I’ve heard who suggests that the Red Wings are just buying time until the salary cap rises and more impactful free agents hit the market when Detroit’s current top prospects become NHL-ready.

The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford, Michael Russo and Peter Baugh asked 20 NHL players what their favorite “cheat food” happens to be, and Red Wings forward David Perron goes with a hometown favo(u)rite:

David Perron, Detroit

“Mine is poutine in Quebec. French fries with special poutine cheese and sauce. I go to Louis Luncheonette in Sherbrooke. It’s the same old-school place I’ve been going to my whole life, and I brought the Stanley Cup there in 2019.”

Continued (paywall); it’s a fun little offbeat story.

I can’t embed it, but WZZM 13 posted the entirety of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s 18-minute speech today at the West Michigan Sports Commission’s luncheon in Grand Rapids.

Edit: Here it is from YouTube:

Update: WZZM 13 also posted a shorter summary clip…

As did Fox 17…

Which noted the following:

“We certainly would like to make the playoffs,” Yzerman said. “Our goal isn’t just to make the playoffs our goal is to build a championship team, a team that can compete for a championship, the moves we are making along the way here aren’t necessarily designed to be ‘oh my god we have to make the playoffs this year or its playoffs or bust,’ we are trying to build a nucleus of a young team that’s going to be together for a long time that can compete in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup and we are sticking with that plan.”