Bally Sports Detroit returns to XFinity/Comcast…on a premium tier

The Detroit News’s Tony Paul reports that the Detroit Tigers will be on XFinity/Comcast again–as will the Detroit Red Wings this fall, presuming that Bally Sports Detroit still exists at that time:

Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of the Bally Sports regional sports networks, and Comcast, the parent company of cable giant Xfinity, announced they have reached a deal to reinstate the 15 RSNs, including Bally Sports Detroit, starting Thursday.

The deal ends a three-month stalemate, after the RSNs were booted from Xfinity’s offerings May 1.

Under the new deal, however, the RSNs only will be available on Xfinity’s “Ultimate TV” package, or an upper tier. That was Xfinity’s drawn line in the sand when negotiations originally broke down, with company officials arguing it was unfair for a hefty monthly carriage fee to be passed down to all basic-cable customers, the majority of whom don’t watch the RSNs.

Xfinity announced Monday it would offer its basic-cable subscribers access to the “Ultimate TV” package for three months at no additional cost.

“We appreciate Diamond Sports working with us to reach a solution that returns the Bally Sports RSNs to our Ultimate TV customers in a way that reflects the changing video marketplace for local sports,” Greg Rigdon, president of content acquisition for Comcast, said in a statement late Monday afternoon.

“We look forward to making these networks available on Aug. 1, so customers can enjoy watching their favorite teams again.”

Continued (paywall); here’s more from the Free Press’s Andrew Birkle:

Continue reading Bally Sports Detroit returns to XFinity/Comcast…on a premium tier

Tweet of note: Yzerman, Draper attend Lions camp

From WXYZ’s Jeanna Trotman:

Happy heavenly birthday, Ted Lindsay

Via Spector’s Hockey’s Lyle Richardson on Twitter, Vintage Hockey Showcase notes that today is a “terribly” important day:

Ted is also terribly missed. He was a Red Wings legend, he helped establish the NHLPA…

And his charitable work helping autism research and treatment was and remains first-class through the Ted Lindsay Foundation.

On occasion, the Red Wings’ reputation still draws players to Detroit

The Red Wings’ reputation as a popular team over the past three decades–despite their difficult times of late–has afforded the team a pair of free agent signings who are fans of the team while growing up.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses Vladimir Tarasenko and Erik Gustafsson’s status as Wings fans this morning:

Growing up in Yaroslavl, Russia, they were the childhood heroes of Detroit Red Wings forward Vladimir Tarasenko. The Russian Five were iconic in his view.

“I think this is Detroit as a team,” [Vladimir] Tarasenko explained. “It’s one of the most famous, if not the most famous team in the world. Like, when you talk about how to give it a history and no offense to other teams, but we grew up in Russia. A lot of people follow Detroit because of the Russian Five.

“When I had my first PlayStation. I was playing for Detroit too, with my friend. So, yeah, this was the team all the kids in my neighborhood where I grow up, when we talk about hockey.”

In Scandinavia, a similar scenario was playing out inside the childhood home of Detroit defenseman Erik Gustafsson in Nynashamn, Sweden. He also worshipped at the altar of the Red Wings, but his iconic hero was a different winged wheel legend.

“The history of this club, my favorite defenseman growing up was Nicklas Lidstrom,” Gustafsson said. “It’s obviously a great organization.”

Continued; the Red Wings may find themselves amidst a substantial playoff drought, but the team’s still got fans around the world (they are definitely still huge in Sweden, for example);

We can only hope that the team reclaims its position as one of the NHL’s powerhouse franchises over the next half-decade.

Red Wings finish 6th in The Athletic’s ‘salary cap era’ franchise rankings

The Athletic’s Sean Gentille and Michael Russo ranked the NHL’s 32 franchises by their performances during the salary cap era, and the Red Wings, not surprisingly, are riding the coattails of their Stanley Cup win in 2008:

6 (tie). Detroit Red Wings

Total: 27 points
2023: 6th (tie), 27 points

The Wings came within a tiebreaker of ending their playoff drought and breaking a tie with the Ducks — but instead it’s now at eight seasons and counting. The fact that they’re here at all is a testament to how good they were for the first decade of the Cap Era. It’s fair to wonder whether general manager Steve Yzerman is building a true contender around Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Co., but he’s finally assembled a group that’s capable of playing meaningful hockey. Is a roster without any glaring holes enough? It might be time to find out.

Total playoff years: 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09SCF, 08SC, 07CF, 06

Playoff-only years: 8 | Conference finals: 1 | Cup finals: 1 | Cup wins: 1

Continued (paywall);

This is a lot higher than I thought the Wings would finish given their play over the past eight seasons, but some good news is welcome, even if it comes with the customary dig at both Yzerman and the Wings’ personnel (or lack thereof).

A pair of good reports about Max Plante at the WJSS

The World Junior Summer Showcase is taking place this week at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, and it’s taking place in the summer for a simple reason.

Most of the participants for the U.S. teams (USA White and USA Blue) are NCAA-committed athletes, so they can’t take part in a normal fall training camp as they’d be in school in September or October…

And in terms of the European players for Team Sweden and Team Finland, those players also have team commitments to leagues which usually start regular-season play in September as well, so, for both parties, there’s no other time to really “warm up” for the World Junior Championship.

As such, I’m pretty damn gloomy that our transportation issues persist here at TMR, preventing me from attending the WJSS at the only time of year when you can really interact with the players close to home base.

There’s some good news regarding Red Wings prospect and 2024 draft pick Max Plante, though, as Plante’s apparently doing something that the almost pure play-maker hasn’t done with authority as of yet in his young career.

According to Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis and FloHockey’s Chris Peters, Plante is finding his shot. He scored a goal for Team USA Blue today:

Per Ellis:

#14 Max Plante, LW (Detroit Red Wings): I wanted Plante to shoot the puck so much more than he did last year, so it felt good to see him score on his first shot of the game. He also nabbed an assist in a great first game against U-20 competition. I was higher on Plante than many others last year because of how well he passes the puck, but I’m glad we saw him get a few dangerous chances of his own, too.

And Peters:

Max Plante, LW (DET): Plante is being given some really good looks with this team, playing on USA Blue’s first power play unit with Hagens, Leonard, Perreault and Buium. He is a very smart player who makes good decisions with the puck and has some creativity. There’s also a good work ethic there and he showed off his speed at various points. I think he made a positive impression with the maturity of his game. 

Plante, who’s going to play for the University of Minnesota-Duluth this upcoming season, is never going to be huge at 5’11” and 176 pounds, and he’s never going to be a natural goal-scorer…

But, as a player who posts massive assist totals (he posted 46 assists among his 61 points with the U.S. Under-18 team this past season), it’s good to hear that he’s being placed in a position to succeed by coach David Carle.

Three things: No news too small

There are times that you forget that no bit of news is “too small” during the summertime for Red Wings fans.

So:

  1. I had seen the Tweet that Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins forward Elmer Soderblom hit a hole-in-one the other day, but I passed on it. The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood did not:

Soderblom’s had a rough couple of seasons in Grand Rapids, battling an assortment of injuries, but he just turned 23, he posted 29 points in 61 games last season, and his size remains an intriguing intangible that he needs to utilize more regularly if he is to reestablish himself as a Red Wings prospect;

2. And, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes, you ought to keep your eye on the EliteProspects “transfers” page on the homepage, because you’ll see some familiar faces changing places all summer long:

Oscar Plandowski, a 2021 unsigned Detroit draft pick (155th), will play hockey at the University of New Brunswick next season. The school has won the past two Canadian university national titles. Also, former Red Wings player Tomas Jurco is switching teams in the KHL. He left Avangard Omsk as a free agent to sign with Kunlun Red Stars. He had 16 points in 21 games last season for Omsk.

It’s good to see Plandowski further his career and academic aspirations. His mom, Jill Plandowski, is a premier power skating coach;

I’m kind of cringe-y about players who are still choosing to take the money they can make in the KHL, but I guess it’s their choice. Grand Rapids Griffins alumnus Danny O’Reagan signed with the Kunlun Red Star today as well;

3. Finally, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen followed up Bob Duff’s current “All-Michigan Team” with an all-time All-Michigan Red Wings Team, and I’m going to spotlight one of my favorite short-time Wings from Allen’s subscriber-only article in former Wing and former Wings director of pro scouting Mark Howe:

Mark Howe (Detroit, 1992-95): Gordie Howe’s son didn’t play for Detroit until the final three seasons of his career. But he was a Hall of Famer, and fans knew of his ability long before he played here. He played for the Detroit Junior Red Wings and was always around the rink when Howe played here.

At the now-defunct Olympia, Mark played floor hockey outside the Red Wings dressing room while waiting for his father to sign autographs after games.

Mark Howe felt like a Red Wings hometown hero even before he actually played here. After retiring as a player, he worked for many years as a Detroit professional scout.

I’d argue that Mark Howe, who played his best NHL years as a Philadelphia Flyer (as such, he lives in the Philadelphia area), may have been one of the more underrated NHL’ers of all time. His smooth-skating style and puck-handling were just so damn elegant that, even in his later years, you could see that Howe was something special in his own right.

Update: Make that four things: According to Hockey-News.info, Red Wings prospect Marco Kasper has taken an invite from HC Innsbruck to attend the team’s training camp, which begins on August 7th. Kasper’s father, Peter, was asked if he’d allow his son to participate, and Marco is apparently going to sign some autographs and take some fan photos after practice.

Update #2: Also:

Sunday morning round-up: on Raymond and Seider, an All-Michigan Team and big Erik Gustafsson

Of brief Red Wings-related note early this Sunday morning:

  1. We both know that GM Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings’ management team want to get restricted free agents Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider re-signed to significant contracts by the start of training camp this September, if not the start of the 2024-2025 regular season in early October at the latest.

I really enjoyed an article written by the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood on Saturday night. Eargood accurately estimates the start of training camp (Thursday, September 19th is probably the date), he explains how restricted free agents can hold out until 5 PM on December 1st as a final re-sign or sit-out-the-season deadline, and then he discusses the status of Detroit’s other restricted free agent, Jonatan Berggren:

As of publication, a Sept. 19 [training camp] start date leaves 54 days for the Red Wings to sign their restricted free agents. Again, that’s a whole lot of time left to get a deal done, and general manager Steve Yzerman will probably use a lot of it given he isn’t someone who negotiates with unnecessary urgency.

Training camp isn’t a hard deadline for the RFAs to sign. If there are any players who can join the team late and still be effective, its No. 1 defenseman Seider and last season’s leading scorer Raymond are probably among them. But in all likelihood, Detroit and the RFAs don’t want to tempt fate and see what that could look like.

We also know that Steve Yzerman isn’t constrained by human concepts like space and time (kidding!)…

Continue reading Sunday morning round-up: on Raymond and Seider, an All-Michigan Team and big Erik Gustafsson

Meet the Johanssons

Here’s your fun fact(s) of the day on a late-July Saturday (no, I don’t think that this will be a daily thing, but let’s try it out for sh*ts and giggles’ sake):

Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson plays a stay-at-home, defensively responsible game as a shut-down defenseman, but he’s not alone in his family at pursuing his craft.

This morning, HockeySverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist notes that all three Johansson brothers have been drafted by NHL teams, and that all three play defense.

Victor, 18, was drafted 120th overall by Toronto in this past June’s NHL draft, and he’s playing for Leksands IF’s J20 team as an 18-year-old.

Anton, 20, was drafted 105th overall by the Red Wings in 2022, and he just played in his first full season for Leksands IF of the SHL, posting 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points in 46 games (and 4 points in 7 playoff games).

Anton also played at the World Junior Championship, going scoreless in 7 games played, and he played in 14 games overall for the Swedish Under-20 team last season.

The Red Wings have a wealth of defensemen in their developmental system (mostly Swedish ones, too), but I’m fairly certain that Anton will be signed to a contract in the next year or two, having watched Anton play. He’s a right-shooting defender who stands at 6’4″ and 195 pounds, and he’s still growing into his big body, but he’s got a bit of an edge to him.

Sweden’s defender Anton Johansson and USA’s defender Lane Hutson clash during the final ice hockey match between USA and Sweden of the IIHF World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden on January 5, 2024. (Photo by Adam Ihse/TT / various sources / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by ADAM IHSE/TT/TT News Agency/TT NYHETSBYRÅN/AFP via Getty Images)

Older brother Simon, 25, was drafted 148th overall by the Minnesota Wild back in 2018. He plays for the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s played two seasons in North America after maturing in Djurgardens IF’s system. He’s probably the most offensively talented of the three Johansson brothers, having posted 21 points in 71 games for Iowa last season.

Both Victor and Anton have to deal with the slings and arrows of trash talk sometimes, because their dad is Thomas Johansson, a former professional hockey player who is now the GM of Leksands IF. He’s going into his seventh season as the SHL team’s general manager…And dad was a defenseman, too, playing for Stockholm-based Djurgardens IF for most of his playing career.