Talking about Shai Buium’s fantasy hockey value

EP Rinkside’s Victor Nuno discusses Fantasy Hockey “real life vs. fantasy value” for several prospects today, including Red Wings prospect and University of Denver junior Shai Buium:

Shai Buium, LHD – Detroit Red Wings: It’s easy to understand the appeal of Shai Buium. He’s a 6-foot-3, extremely mobile defender. The Detroit Red Wings took him in the second round in 2021 where he put up over a half point-per-game in the USHL. In his past two seasons at the University of Denver, he has been an important part of a really good NCAA team. The Pioneers won the NCAA title in 2021-22 and Buium played nearly 20 minutes a night for them, dominating the Corsi For battle.

Buium sure seems like he will be an NHLer, adding to an already stacked blue line for the Red Wings, but I don’t think he will be so valuable in fantasy. Looking at his Hockey Prospecting, it would be a statistical anomaly if he scored over 0.45 points per game in his career. Additionally, the Red Wings blueline is quickly filling up with offensive players – further blocking his path to those minutes. 

This might be a good player to move off of your fantasy team for someone with more upside.

Continued; Buium is probably going to become a strong two-way, middle-pair defender if he does in fact make the NHL.

Here are Teams Red and White for the Red vs. White Game today at 12 PM EDT

The Red Wings will hold their Red vs. White Game today at 12 PM EDT, and here are the rosters for the respective teams:

Prospect round-up: In absentia

The Red Wings’ prospects remain in Traverse City for the most part, so three games were played in Major Junior hockey which did not involve Wings prospects…as of yet:

In the OHL, Tnias Mathurin’s North Bay Battalion lost 4-1 to Ottawa;

Andrew Gibson’s Soo Greyhounds won 5-4 over the Saginaw Spirit;

And in the WHL, Nate Danielson’s Brandon Wheat Kings won 9-4 over Moose Jaw. I have a feeling that Danielson will stick around for an exhibition game or two.

‘Selling’ the Kane rumor

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson weighs in as to whether teams should “buy” into free agency concepts, or whether they should “sell” them to other teams. Richardson believes that the Red Wings won’t even have a chance to “buy in” to Patrick Kane’s position, and I agree with him:

The top player remaining in this year’s unrestricted free-agent market, Patrick Kane continues to rehab from a June 1 hip resurfacing procedure. He’s expected to be ready to return to action in December. That’s when his agent indicated that the 34-year-old winger would sign with the team that gives him the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

Thus, it came as a surprise when the Chicago Daily Herald‘s John Dietz reported to watch for Kane to sign with the Detroit Red Wings. Someone close to Kane told Dietz that the veteran right wing wanted to follow former Chicago teammate Alex DeBrincat to Detroit, depending on whether there was mutual interest from the Wings.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted that Kane is the type of player respected by Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman. He also pointed out that the Wings, with $5.1 million in salary-cap room, could afford to sign the future Hall of Famer. While Kane isn’t the dominant player he was in his prime, Allen noted he remains a confident scorer.

Nevertheless, Allen was skeptical about a Kane-DeBrincat reunion in Detroit. The rebuilding Red Wings are coming off seven straight seasons without a playoff appearance and aren’t even close to Stanley Cup contention. Yzerman also addressed their need for more scoring by acquiring DeBrincat in July.

Continued; I don’t believe that Kane wants to do anything less than slide into a second or third-line role on a team that’s playoff-bound by the mid-point of the season.

The Athletic’s NHL previews speak ill of GM Steve Yzerman’s plans

The Athletic has been posting its 2023-2024 season team previews in order of finish, and the fact that the Red Wings are paired with the Arizona Coyotes does not bode well for Shayna Goldman and Dom Luszczyszyn’s belief in the team’s ability to compete…

Steve Yzerman put in a lot of work this offseason to clean up the Red Wings roster. It just didn’t lead to the big jump that some people might have expected. The Red Wings aren’t out of the woods yet, and it honestly doesn’t even feel like they’re that close either. Not unless a lot of things change this year — especially if the goal is building an actual Cup contender, not just a run-of-the-mill playoff team.

Those are all things that do have potential to change and if you squint hard enough it’s not difficult to see that “14 percent” chance of making the playoffs turn into 100 percent. It’s just that there are a lot of teams above Detroit in the East that don’t need as many things going unexpectedly right for them.

Maybe it all works out with young players taking much bigger steps than expected while all the new faces mesh well into the system. Maybe. From this vantage point, there are just a few too many ifs and buts to suggest this is a clear-cut playoff team. In what feels like a make-or-break year for the “Yzerplan” that’s a worrying sign.

Detroit does not have a bad team. This is the best Red Wings team in years where the playoffs are an actual possibility. But that’s a low bar to clear for a Red Wings team that still needs to prove it’s actually a good team. On paper, they look below average to start.

Continued; and Luszczyszyn wrote a separate article which pans Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s patient rebuilding methods, which are arguably in the middle of a longer rebuilding process, as an “Yzerplan” which must break through this season, or it’s a failure:

The best-case scenario is that it works: Larkin and Seider become franchise players this season, other young players progress, and a path to contention becomes immediately apparent.

That’s a successful “Yzerplan,” but it needs to work sooner rather than later because any other alternative is far more harrowing.

If Larkin isn’t “The Guy” after all and doesn’t show as much this season, then the Red Wings spent the last few years betting on a now elder-20s center to lead them to the mushy middle where their Cup chances and their ability to get a player that can actually improve those chances on Seider’s timeline are very both low. It’s a path that could lead to them repeating the same process with Seider in five years’ time.

While there’s potential for the Red Wings to break through, there’s also a chance of being completely stuck for years to come with a team that could be playoff caliber, but not good enough to realistically contend.

It may not feel like a make-or-break year four years after Yzerman took over. If the goal is Cup contention with Larkin though, then Yzerman has certainly positioned the team with what feels like a losing hand.

Continued (paywall);

  1. Dylan Larkin isn’t “old” at 27;
  2. The rebuild is not over, regardless of whether the Red Wings make the playoffs this upcoming season;
  3. Sometimes one has to be patient with a rebuilding team, and it sucks to be patient, but the reality of the situation is that Yzerman spent three years tearing down what Ken Holland left him, and now he’s spent 3 years building the nucleus of a team which will succeed down the road. That’s not a failure–that’s the reality of rebuilding in today’s NHL, especially if you don’t have draft lottery luck.

HSJ in the morning, part 2: Regarding the evolution of the Red Wings’ name

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ progression from the Detroit Cougars to the Detroit Falcons, and, eventually, the Detroit Red Wings:

On Sept. 25, 1926, a group of Detroit businessmen bought the Victoria Cougars hockey club and moved them to Detroit, setting in motion the franchise that would become the Detroit Red Wings.

The news made the front page of the Detroit Free Press’ sporting section two days later under the headline “Detroit Group gets Victoria hockey squad.” From the story: “Victoria Cougars, professional hockey champions of the world in 1924 and last season runner up for the premier hockey honors, will be moved to Detroit intact to represent this city in the National Hockey League during the 1926-27 season.

“Detroit purchased the Western Canada Legue champions from Frank Patrick, Pacific Coast magnate, for $100,000.”

The Cougars played the 1926-27 season at the Border Cities Arena in Windsor while Olympia Stadium in Detroit finished being built. The team played its first game at the building that would become known as The Old Red Barn on Nov. 22, 1927, losing 2-1 to the Ottawa Senators.

The Cougars were champions in Vancouver but losers in Detroit, prompting a competition to come up with a new name. That happened on Oct. 5, 1930. From that day’s Free Press: “Detroit’s team in the National Hockey league in the season which will open next month will not be known as the Cougars. Charles A. Hughes, president of the Detroit Hockey club, has called upon a group of newspaper men to plan a contest among the fans to decide upon a more suitable name.

Continued

Meet the doctors who treat the Red Wings in Traverse City

The Traverse City Record-Eagle’s James Cook tells the story of two doctors who volunteer their services to help the Red Wings during the prospect tournament and training camp:

There are few people with more Detroit Red Wings training camp experience in an official capacity than Dr. Michael Peters and Nathan March, D.O.

Maybe Steve Yzerman and a few others could vie for the honor.

Peters and March both have served dutifully at Centre Ice Area during the franchise’s training camp and NHL Prospect Tournament every year since 2001, aside from the years with a labor stoppage or COVID-19 cancellation.

And gratis, no less.

“This was a direct tie-in for me — the love of the game, wanting to be involved,” said Peters, whose sons have played hockey for Traverse City Central. “Also knowing the game and then being able to recognize those kinds of injuries from the hockey coaching and playing perspective. Then also having my kids go through the (hockey) system, it was a perfect fit. That’s why I love getting involved.”

The two Traverse City doctors often can’t go into detail about their work at the tournament and training camp, due to HIPPA laws and just plain old professional sports secrecy.

Continued

HSJ on the power play

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article which discusses the Red Wings’ in-progress power play this morning:

Day 3 of training camp for the Detroit Red Wings was a special-teams affair at Centre Ice Arena, where the depth added over the summer permeated especially onto the man-advantage groupings. As has been his daily discourse since camp began Thursday, coach Derek Lalonde noted it’s a “work in progress,” but at least it is a beginning.

Newcomer Jeff Petry ran the first power play unit on display Saturday, with Lucas Raymond, Robby Fabbri and J.T. Compher, plus Andrew Copp serving in the net-front role. In the second group, Moritz Seider ran a unit with Dylan Larkin, Shayne Gostisbehere and Alex DeBrincat plus David Perron serving in the net-front role. That left the likes of Rasmussen, Daniel Sprong, Jonatan Berggren and Jake Walman on units rounded out with AHL players.

“You will see many different looks,” Lalonde said Saturday. “We will probably give Shayne some looks up top running a power play. We’ll probably get Lucas on both half walls.

“There are a lot more options. We had four power play units today, all with some guys in some comfortable spots. We wanted to get Mo a day on top. I just thought he really progressed with some of his simplicity and decision-making and play on the power play. He really progressed.”

In addition to Petry (who shoots right), there are other options to run a unit.

“We feel Jake Walman, can,” Lalonde said. “Petry has done it with some success in this league already. So there’s all different kinds of looks and combinations. But these are really good problems to be working through.”

Continued