Ben Chiarot’s ‘Scotland’s Yard Road Hockey Classic’ took place today in Kitchener, Ontario

Per the CTV News’s Hannah Schmidt, Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot and his wife, Jacqueline, established the “Scotland’s Yard Road Hockey Classic” in 2021 to benefit the Grand River Hospital Foundation in Kitchener. The annual event was held today:

Excitement and energy filled the air Saturday as the third annual Scotland’s Yard Road Hockey Classic made its much anticipated return to Kitchener.

This year’s event promised to be a star-studded spectacle, drawing players from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and National Hockey League (NHL) as well as Olympic athletes.

The tournament allowed players of all ages to hit the pavement alongside top-tier talent like the Detroit Red Wing’s Ben Chiarot, Tanner Pearson from the Montreal Canadiens, former Florida Panther and Boston Bruin Gregory Campbell, New Jersey Devil Nathan Bastian, the Winnipeg Jets’ Logan Stanley, former Winnipeg Jet Bryan Little, Professional Women’s Hockey League player Loren Gabel, former Nashville Predator Nick Spaling and former Nashville Predator and New York Ranger Kevin Klein.

“We were told that there’s over 200 families right now currently going through a cancer journey and then traveling back and forth to get treatment,” said attendee Brian Santos.

…

As of 1:30 p.m. Saturday, more than $200,000 dollars had been raised for the hospital.

“Every little bit helps. They’re raising money for such a good cause,” Stanley said.

“We’re trying to raise $50 million in ten years, so the more people that know about it, the more people to consider it, the better it is,” Santos said.

Continued with video; there’s also an online auction which has a signed Steve Yzerman jersey, Ben Chiarot stick, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider-signed items, and more (including a Ray Bourque-signed jersey).

The auction ends tomorrow night at 6 PM, and the prices are quite reasonable.

‘Take meme out’

This is a “beef post,” because I have some issues with these kinds of popular Tweets/X posts:

Honestly, I don’t get it. You’ve got four of the best young defensemen in the NHL and four of the best young forwards in the NHL, and you want me to bag on “the other guys.”

On the blueline, Jake Sanderson’s a speedy puck-handler who runs Ottawa’s power play, Owen Power is, for lack of a better term, developing into a very powerful all-round defenseman, Noah Dobson is becoming an incredibly versatile contributor for the Islanders’ blueline, and Moritz Seider’s the charismatic all-round defender that Red Wings fans love because he can blow up players with big hits, block shots, rifle shots through goaltenders and make seeing-eye passes, all while displaying remarkable durability and poise.

In the case of the forwards, you’ve got a true “power center” in Quinton Byfield, a late-developer who’s become a gritty sniper in Lafreniere, perhaps one of the best play-makers in the world in Tim Stuetzle, and I’m biased about Lucas Raymond’s tremendous multi-tool arsenal of shooting, passing, skating and even forechecking skills. Raymond’s not as big as Byfield, as net-front-driving as Lafreniere, or as intuitive a playmaker as Stuetzle, but I’d rather have Raymond over all of ’em.

But that’s just my opinion, man, and I’m not about to bag on some of the best young players in the world because they’re not on “my team.”

The “start-bench-cut” memes and “one has to go” posts get a lot of engagement on Twitter/X because people love to argue with each other, but I believe that it’s a bad strategy to diminish what the NHL and its partners like Sportsnet should be selling 100% of to their fan bases and casual fans alike.

These are great young players. Don’t meme ’em to death.

A little gab about the Red Wings’ to-do list: Re-signing Berggren, Raymond and Seider

The Red Wings’ management has three final tasks to complete over the course of the summer–presuming that the team doesn’t buy anyone out this upcoming week (thanks to Joe Veleno filing for arbitration and coming to a 2-year, $4.55 million contract agreement with the team on Friday), or make a trade for that shut-down, right-side defenseman that the team needs to spell Moritz Seider.

Now taking advantage of the team’s salary cap space to do one or the other of those optional tasks (buying somebody out or making a trade for a shut-down d-man) would be ideal, but it’s not necessary, nor is it likely that the team’s going to really address its overloaded but slightly undermanned defense.

Right now, it’s about re-signing the team’s three restricted free agents in Jonatan Berggren, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, and utilizing most of the team’s $17.648 million in cap space (per PuckPedia) in order to ensure that Raymond and Seider are locked up long-term.

Continue reading A little gab about the Red Wings’ to-do list: Re-signing Berggren, Raymond and Seider

Friedman: Daniel Sprong signs with Vancouver for 1 year, $975,000

Well, I guess Daniel Sprong wanted to take his talents across the continent…

Another discounted deal for Sprong, with the “prove it” element remaining in his contract. I don’t think that he was staying in Detroit if the Wings paid him twice that amount for twice as many years.

Credit to Rick Dhaliwal for first reporting this possibility yesterday.

Press release: Red Wings officially re-sign Joe Veleno to 2-year contract

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS RE-SIGN JOE VELENO TO TWO-YEAR CONTRACT

  … 2018 First-Round Pick Has Played in 232 Games with Detroit …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today re-signed center Joe Veleno to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $2.275 million.

Veleno, 24, skated in 80 games with the Red Wings during the 2023-24 season and set career highs in goals (12), assists (16), points (28), power play goals (3), shots (86) and shooting percentage (14.0). The 6-foot-1, 201-pound forward spent the entire 2022-23 campaign in Detroit, recording 20 points (9-11-20) and 30 penalty minutes in 81 games. Selected by the Red Wings in the first round (30th overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Veleno has totaled 64 points (30-34-64) and 81 penalty minutes in 232 NHL games since 2020-21. He also collected 36 points (18-18-36) and 26 penalty minutes in 69 games with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins from 2019-22. Additionally, Veleno began the 2020-21 season with the Malmo Redhawks in the Swedish Hockey League, notching 20 points (11-9-20) and 20 penalty minutes in 46 games before returning to North America following the conclusion of the SHL season.

Continue reading Press release: Red Wings officially re-sign Joe Veleno to 2-year contract

Tweets of note: it’s Pavel Datsyuk’s birthday!

The Red Wings have wished Pavel Datsyuk a happy birthday, and they’ve shared a highlight clip of Datsyuk goals as well:

Czarnik heads to Switzerland

Unrestricted free agent center Austin Czarnik, who’s played for the Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins for the past two seasons, is heading to Switzerland. He’s going to play for SC Bern of the National Liga.

The 31-year-old was a reliable call-up and scorer in Grand Rapids despite his 5’9,” 170-pound size, but the 31-year-old’s probably going to make more money in Switzerland than he would have in the AHL.

Red Wings Alums to play in South Bend, Indiana tonight

South Bend, Indiana TV station ABC 57’s Tim Mosier reports that the Red Wings’ Alumni will be playing in South Bend tonight:

As part of the annual charity hockey tournament put on by Pucks for Autism, former Detroit Red Wings players will be playing a game at Notre Dame’s Compton Family Ice Arena Saturday night, with proceeds from the event going to the local Camp Millhouse.

The puck is set to drop on Saturday, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets are $10 online and can also be purchased at the door.

Coach Lalonde’s facing a ticking clock

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen weighs in on the “State of the Red Wings” in terms of who faces the most pressure to perform over the course of the 2024-2025 season, and the buck stops with the coach:

General manager Steve Yzerman has said everyone has to work harder to improve the team’s overall defensive coverage, and made it clear that included the coaching staff. Lalonde guided the Red Wings to an 11-point improvement. They fell one point short of the playoffs.

However, they were as sloppy defensively as they were in his first season with Detroit. The Red Wings gave up just two fewer goals. They ranked 25th in goals-against and 26th in surrendering shots on goals.

It doesn’t seem as if Lalonde will be judged solely on whether the Red Wings end their playoff drought.  However, Yzerman made it clear he is looking for a higher level of proficiency in defensive work. Lalonde will be accountable for that objective.

This is exactly what Yzerman said: “It’s incumbent upon our coaching staff to instill or improve, continue to work on, whether it’s a different system or getting better in how we play and improving our players in the system.”

He wants to see the Red Wings play a stingier caliber of hockey. There was no “or else.” But when you are an NHL coach, “or else” is always implied. Eleven NHL coaches were fired this past season.

Continued; Allen suggests that Alex DeBrincat, Vladimir Tarasenko and the Red Wings’ quartet of goaltenders all must perform up to or beyond expectations this upcoming campaign.

As for Lalonde, there’s no doubt that a coach of a non-playoff team who’s working on an expiring contract = a replaceable entity. And he, Bob Boughner and Stephane Julien definitely need to both sort out the team’s defensive issues and get the special teams performing better. It’s going to be about results this upcoming season.