‘Foggy window’

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin attempts to discern the “Stanley Cup windows” of the Eastern Conference’s teams today, and he suggests that the Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators are rebuilding teams with a “foggy window” ahead:

Detroit Red Wings: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Wings GM Steve Yzerman made his move too early in the rebuild, before he’d assembled enough true star-grade prospects, and has painted himself into a corner now. It started in summer 2022 when he signed Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot and David Perron. It continued the next summer with the big contract for J.T. Compher. All those moves made Detroit better – but only enough to push them to the playoff bubble while taking them out of the running for Draft lottery picks.

Now you have a strange hybrid operation in which the Wings have built around Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat and Moritz Seider but are supported by a brigade of modest-ceiling veterans, including Kane, Compher, Copp and new additions Vladimir Tarasenko, Erik Gustafsson and Cam Talbot. If you look at Detroit’s incoming prospects, there are plenty of good ones, from Marco Kasper to Nate Danielson up front to to Simon Edvinsson on defense to goaltenders Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine. But there is no future scoring champion in that group. Detroit became a middle of the road team a bit too early, and I’m not convinced it’s good enough to escape that tier.

Continued; I would like to see the Wings play with a younger and leaner roster, but I just don’t think that the Wings are as screwed as Larkin suggests.

I understand that the Wings have had to rebuild their prospect pool as well as their roster, and while yes, Yzerman has been too aggressive in signing veterans in 2022 and 2023, this summer’s signings were more judicious, despite the players’ ages, and I think that the Red Wings are indeed in the “mushy middle”…

But it’s up to the team to get out of it by incorporating younger players and continuing to improve the roster via trades and free agency as the team slowly builds its way back to playoff contention.

In the interim, it’s going to take the Red Wings proving a lot of people wrong, as they did in 2023-2024, to make progress in the eyes of pundits.

Talking ‘OctoPulse’ points of emphasis

The Detroit News is promoting its “OctoPulse” podcast, in which Dearborn Heights native Mike Leone discusses his rise among the coaching ranks to the coach of the AHL’s Rochester Americans this upcoming season…

And Detroit News Red Wings scribe Ted Kulfan discusses the fact that the Red Wings added older players in free agency, bringing the team’s composite age up to 28.5 years of age, which will make the Wings one of the oldest teams in the league on average.

Here’s a bit of what Kulfan has to say about the Wings’ “treading water” in free agency:

“In some ways, I do think it’s about a wash,” Kulfan said. “You have Vladimir Tarasenko replacing David Perron. You probably lose a little bit defensively but Tarasenko is capable of scoring more goals. Defensively, you wonder if that’s going to be a significant loss there, losing Shayne Gostisbehere. He really seemed to inject some life into the power play. He’s kind of a wizard with the puck. I’ve always liked Gustafsson. He’s a fine player but I’m not quite sure he’s Gostisbehere. You’ll have Edvinsson for a whole season, so that will help.

“Cam Talbot has had some good years but he’s 37 and kind of slumped the second half of last season. I’m not sure if that’s a huge upgrade over what they already have. You haven’t replaced Daniel Sprong’s 18 goals. It’s still such a competitive division. Doesn’t seem like those four teams ahead of them (Florida, Tampa Bay, Boston, Toronto) have slipped that much and Ottawa and Buffalo are nipping at their teams. If Tarasenko and Kane slump and don’t reach the levels they’re kind of expected, it’s going to be a tough road to hoe.”

Continued; I’m not too concerned about the Wings’ situation, though I do believe that they need to add a two-way, right-handed defenseman to bolster the right side of the blueline.

To me, Tarasenko’s lack of defensive prowess is worth adjusting to if he doesn’t take the kinds of ill-timed penalties that Perron did; I agree with Kulfan that the combination of Edvinsson and Gustafsson (and Johansson) will have to make up for Gostisbehere’s decision to chase a Cup with Carolina; and I’m just not worried about Talbot’s age–he’s been durable for a long time now, and if last year’s playoff run with LA was an anomaly, then he posted a near-Vezina-worthy regular season’s worth of stats, and that should help stabilize the Wings’ crease.

Sure, the Wings have some goals to make up for, and they need to tighten up defensively, but we already knew that they weren’t going to be able to keep everybody, and that they were going to have to improve their defensive game to compete in the tightly-packed Atlantic Division.

Roughly translated: It’s all about control

The Red Wings’ signing of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard to an entry-level contract doesn’t mean that they want to bring him over and have him play in the NHL; it means that the Red Wings want to have a measure of control over his playing situation in Sweden.

As such, via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Hockeysverige’s Simon Eid reports that Skelleftea AIK’s GM is a little concerned about what happens next for MBN:

Skelleftea’s answer: it means that Brandsegg-Nygard has signed an NHL contract

Being drafted in this year’s NHL draft and now signed by Detroit through a rookie contract, what does Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s new situation mean for Skelleftea [where he will play this upcoming season]?

“Now it’s Detroit, and not us, who decides, says Erik Forssell to Norran.

Overnight on Friday, the news was released by the Detroit Red Wings. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard has signed his first NHL contract with the team, only two weeks after being selected in the NHL draft. It comes as a reward after a strong season in the HockeyAllsvenskan, but at the same time, it means uncertainty for Skelleftea and sporting director Erik Forssell.

“It’s not really surprising that they chose to sign him when they chose him as the 15th player in the draft. Good for Michael and proof that he has done good things, he tells Norran.

Hoping for games in the SHL

The 18-year-old Norwegian was presented as a Skelleftea player in May, but has since been part of a few eventful weeks, where he participated in Detroit’s development camp, among other things. Whether Skelleftea will even get him back is not non entirely certain, but Forssell is positive.

“I don’t think that the contract makes that much of a difference for us, but I both believe and hope that he will play for us next season. There are the indications that we’ve received as well.”

Long story long, again, the entry-level contract gives the Red Wings control over MBN’s playing situation, and if they have to formally loan him to Skelleftea AIK, they’ll do so. For the present moment, learning to play at Sweden’s highest professional level is important for him, and is perhaps the ideal place for him to develop (alongside fellow Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka).

Update: For what it’s worth, Norway’s TV2’s Mina Finsted Berg wrote an article which ostensibly discusses Michael Bransegg-Nygard and Stian Solberg being drafted this past month in Las Vegas by Deroit and Anaheim, respectively…

But the article is really about the “Mats Zuccarello effect” upon developing Norwegian hockey players in Oslo, the capital of Norway.

Finsted Berg does mention that MBN’s father, Kjell Richard Nygard, was a legend for the Norwegian team Valerenga, playing over 400 games for the team, but that’s about all the substantive stuff on MBN’s situation.

Time for a follow-up to development camp impressions?

I’ve been a bit busy this week between covering the Red Wings’ news cycle and doing caregiving stuff, but I’ve had this idea that it might be interesting for you to read a follow-up to my development camp impressions.

I’d like to discuss the probable trajectories of the prospects we discussed last week, and I’m checking in to see whether this sounds good to you, or whether too much time has passed since development camp, and it’s time to move on to the next thing.

Please let me know, because I’d really like to dig in and write the follow-up, but this blog’s direction is about what my community wants, too.

THN on the Wings’ revamped power play

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood discusses the potential improvements in the Red Wings’ power play this morning, via a lengthy, thorough article.

Eargood discusses the Wings’ personnel changes as they apply to scoring goals on the man advantage, the potential that internal improvements may help, and he wonders aloud whether the Wings’ power play can be as good as this past year’s unit:

The Red Wings aren’t without some useful pieces, but replacing so much power play scoring is tricky business. There’s still a lot for Detroit to sort out with chemistry and roles, and we still haven’t seen this team even take the ice for a practice yet.

Setting a quiet goal for a top five unit is the kind of ambitious goal-setting that a hungry team should be doing this time of year, but putting plans into practice might reveal limitations that aren’t readily apparent. In the very same way, next season might reveal even greater performances from the Red Wings’ power play producers.

To perform at a top-five rate, Detroit probably needs big production from [Patrick] Kane, just like he labeled himself. A healthy [Dylan] Larkin could really kick the Red Wings into overdrive compared to where they left off last season. Not to be ignored, a confident top-unit quarterback — whether [Erik] Gustafsson or [Moritz] Seider — is an absolute necessity. If Detroit can get the best of those three areas, then there might be a conceivable path to a top-five unit.

It’s always important to note with offseason aspirations that every other team is trying to grow, too. The Red Wings are going to have to outpace other improvers who might be right on their heels, not just maintain their past production. If Detroit finds a way to make up its 40% power play production loss and stay around ninth place in the NHL, that alone would be a major coup. Any improvements would be monumental.

The Red Wings’ power play won’t look the same next season, but that hasn’t changed their expectations. In fact, they’ve only risen. And now it’s on Detroit to make good on its hopes.

Continued; good article, very thorough.

Ondrej Becher may be a bit of a wanderer this upcoming season

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff profiles Red Wings 2024 draft pick Ondrej Becher today. The Red Wings drafted Becher as a 20-year-old after a 64-assists, 96-point season with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, but Duff notes that Becher believes it’s his defensive play that paved the way for his dominant offensive season:

On the surface, people are looking at Becher’s 32 goals and 96 points for the Cougars last season as the reason an NHL team was was finally calling his name on draft day.

He’ll tell you something completely different.

“I think I started to play more defensively, so I became a two-way player now,” Becher said. “I wasn’t a two-way player before. So I try to improve in the defensive zone and I think I did. I think that’s why I’m here now.”

As Duff notes, Becher’s immediate future is unclear. The 80th overall draft pick is an “overager” at the WHL level of play, which means that he can be one of a maximum of 3 20-year-olds playing on Prince George’s roster; the fact that he’s 20 also means that he’s eligible to play for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL or the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, too:

If he goes back to junior, Becher, 20, would be an overager. Were he to be sent to the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, he might have to adjust to playing on the wing. In Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson and Amadeus Lombardi, the Griffins figure to be deep down the middle.

“He’s a little bit older, a fun guy,” Red Wings director of player development Dan Cleary said. “He’s got skills. It was nice to watch him play. We’ll see what transpires here in terms of where he’s going to play.”

Continued; one way or another, Becher should be playing a starring role regardless of where he ends up this upcoming season.

Tweet of note: PuckPedia posts details of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s entry-level contract

PuckPedia posted the details of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s entry-level contract with Detroit, signed just before 7 PM on a Thursday night in July:

The fact that the Wings signed MBN doesn’t mean that he’s going to skip playing for Skelleftea AIK of the SHL this upcoming season. This just gives the Red Wings more control over MBN’s status, and as it’s an entry-level contract, the 3-year term can “slide” for a year or two if he doesn’t play in 10 or more NHL games.

The Wings have to pay him that $97,500 signing bonus now, but the rest of the contract doesn’t apply until he makes the jump to North America.

I believe that, at this point, the Wings will let the “power shooter” mature in Sweden until he’s at least AHL-ready.

Given the Wings’ crunch of prospects who are developing up front (see: Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur, to name a few), and given that Brandsegg-Nygard won’t even turn 19 until October, the Wings don’t need to rush him at all.

Ideally, the big boy continues to develop physically, learns to play against professionals on a full-time basis in Sweden, and he goes upward from there.

Press release: Red Wings sign Michael Brandsegg-Nygard to 3-year entry-level contract

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS SIGN MICHAEL BRANDSEGG-NYGÅRD TO THREE-YEAR, ENTRY-LEVEL CONTRACT 

  … Forward Was Selected 15th Overall by Detroit at 2024 NHL Entry Draft … 

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today signed forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård to a three-year, entry-level contract with an average annual value of $975,000.

Brandsegg-Nygård, 18, was selected by the Red Wings in the first round (15th overall) of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, held at Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29, and participated at Detroit’s Development Camp from July 1-5 at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena. The 6-foot-1, 207-pound forward spent the majority of the 2023-24 season with Mora IK in Sweden’s second-highest professional league, recording 18 points (8-10-18), a plus-three rating and 19 penalty minutes in 41 regular-season games. Brandsegg-Nygård also collected 10 points (4-6-10) and eight penalty minutes in 12 postseason contests, helping Mora IK reach the Semifinals for the second consecutive season. Additionally, Brandsegg-Nygård logged 12 points (5-7-12), a plus-nine rating and 10 penalty minutes in seven games with Mora IK’s under-20 team in Sweden’s top junior league. A native of Oslo, Norway, Brandsegg-Nygård became the first Norwegian-born player to be selected in the first round of an NHL Entry Draft.

Brandsegg-Nygård debuted with Mora IK in 2022-23, logging three points (1-2-3), a plus-three rating and six penalty minutes in 11 games, along with 38 points (17-21-38) in 35 games with the under-20 team and 10 points (5-5-10) in four games at the under-18 level. Prior to arriving in Sweden, Brandsegg-Nygård made his professional debut as a 16-year-old with Vålerenga in the EliteHockey Ligaen, skating in eight games in Norway’s top professional league during the 2021-22 campaign. He also collected 42 points (24-18-42) in 25 games with Vålerenga’s under-20 team and 19 points (10-9-19) in seven games with the under-18 squad in 2021-22. Brandsegg-Nygård paced Norway’s under-18 circuit with 16 goals in eight games in 2020-21.

On the international stage, Brandsegg-Nygård played for Norway at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, recording five points (3-2-5) in seven games en route to being named one of his country’s top three performers. He also represented Norway at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, logging five points (3-2-5) in five games. Brandsegg-Nygård won a gold medal at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship Division I, collecting five points (2-3-5) in five games, and also captured a silver medal at the 2022 IIHF World Under-18 Championship Division I with four points (2-2-4) in five appearances.

In Ottawa, David Perron is ‘Coming in Hot’

Former Red Wing David Perron appeared on TSN 1200’s “Coming in Hot” podcast today, speaking with Brent Wallace and Jason York about joining the Ottawa Senators as an unrestricted free agent…

And the Hockey News’s Ottawa correspondent, Steve Warne, asked Red Wings beat writer Sam Stockton about the Senators’ signing:

“David Perron will be missed in Detroit. Yes, he is now one of the slowest players in the league. And yes, as Senators fans well know, he has something of a penchant for needless penalties. But, in their push from the bottom of the Atlantic to the painfully close playoff brink, Perron made the Red Wings better. 

“Despite the lack of foot speed, his proficiency along the boards and craftiness in finding space in the offensive zone means he remains an attacking player, and he doesn’t sacrifice defending to find his points. He remains an effective player on the flank on the power play—with a knack for completing passes into the slot and no compunction about forcing the issue with a one-timer when the circumstances call for it. 

“Eight million dollars over two years is a lot to live up to at 36, but you can be assured of at least one thing with Perron. He will be relentless every night, a spark of energy for his teammates. Perron’s teammates would all describe his voice in the locker room as ever-present, demanding a standard of competitiveness that helped push the Red Wings toward the playoffs. 

“There’s no reason that shouldn’t travel to Ottawa, regardless of age.”

Perron is definitely relentless in terms of his energy and effort, but at this point, I just can’t see the sense in paying him $4 million per season until he’s 38. Perron had some difficulties scoring goals this past season, yielding a litany of stick changes, and his penalty-minutes and plus-minus were not exemplary. Moreover, his lack of foot speed and penchant for taking obstruction penalties began to become a liability, especially in the second half of last season.

It’s going to suck for the Red Wings to have to play against Perron because he’s such a sneaky sniper and tough son-of-a-monkey–and there is no doubt that, as Stockton suggests, Perron is going to be a hell of an exemplary for Brady Tkachuk and the up-and-coming Senators.

I just believe that the Red Wings’ relationship with Perron reached its logical conclusion, and I wish him the best–except when he plays against Detroit.

A reminisce about Howe, Beliveau and Hull’s divergent paths as the WHA emerged in the 1970’s

NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs tells the story of Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau’s decision to remain with the Habs instead of taking a $1 million offer to join the WHA’s Quebec Nordiques in 1973. In doing so, Stubbs explains why the greatest Red Wing, Gordie Howe, ended up joining the Houston Aeros of the WHA after retiring from the Wings:

Gordie Howe had concluded a magnificent 25-season career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1971, and the traditional three-year waiting period was waived for his 1972 Hall of Fame induction.

But the Houston Aeros of the WHA came calling in June 1973 and Mr. Hockey, who had won the Stanley Cup four times with Detroit during the 1950s, was happy to answer, along with his family.

Howe accepted the Aeros offer of $1 million, the legend’s sons Marty Howe and Mark Howe welcomed to the fold for lesser sums. One of hockey’s biggest stars ever would line up with his boys, a trio for the ages.

…

Howe, of course, was built of alloys perhaps not yet even invented. He would play six seasons with Houston and the New England Whalers of the WHA, then another with the Hartford Whalers in the NHL before his second retirement following the 1979-80 season at age 52.

The money to jump was great, no doubt. But Mr. Hockey might well have remained with the Red Wings on their management team had he felt wanted. Unhappy with almost menial roles with the team during his brief retirement, Howe wasn’t a tough sell when the Aeros approached.

“They were willing to pay what I felt I had to have, and my name and reputation are part of me,” Howe told reporters during a June 19, 1973, news conference to announce his signing with Houston. “I talked to Ned [Harkness, the Red Wings GM] just the other day and he’d said he wished he’d known my feelings. He would have given up as GM and been my assistant. At least that’s what he said. I simply told Ned that I didn’t see eye to eye with his thinking. That’s no great crime, but I wasn’t contributing much there or learning much and then the feeling grew that there were a few people who didn’t really want me there. So, well, I can’t be a hypocrite. The thing to do, I thought, was get the [heck] out. So here I am.”

Continued; Ned Harkness was almost as destructive to the Red Wings as the post-1955-Stanley Cup Jack Adams was.