Roughly translated: Axel Sandin Pellikka won’t attend training camp

This morning, Hockeysverige.se’s Rasmus Kagstrom clarifies the rumors and reports that Axel Sandin Pellikka will attend the Red Wings’ training camp alongside teammate Michael Brandsegg-Nygard. According to Kagstrom, Sandin Pellikka has told Norran.se’s Robin Lindgren that he will not attend Detroit’s training camp:

Axel Sandin Pellikka is not going to Detroit Red Wings training camp

After winning SHL gold with Skelleftea, the great talent Axel Sandin Pellikka signed an NHL contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Now the defensive prospect tells Norran that he will not go over to the team’s NHL camp this fall.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will go over to the Detroit Red Wings’ training camp this fall, and thus risks missing the start of the SHL regular season. Skelleftea AIK has risked that the promising Axel Sandin Pellikka will join Michael Brandsegg-Nygard–but that’s not the case.

To Norran, the defensive talent confirms that he’s not going to training camp.

“We talked and since I will be playing here with Skelleftea this upcoming season, we agreed that I will stay here the whole season,” says Sandin Pellikka to the newspaper.

Last season, Axel Sandin Pellikka posted 18 points (10 goals and 8 assists) in 39 regular season games played, and another seven points (2 goals and 5 assists) in 14 playoff games for Skelleftea.

Detroit’s training camp begins on September 19th, two days before the SHL premiere, and lasts until the NHL premiere on the night of October 5th, Swedish time. During that period, the Red Wings will play eight exhibition games.

Khan predicts the Wings finishing 5th in the Atlantic Division

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses how teams in the Atlantic Division will finish this upcoming season, and he’s predicting that the Red Wings will finish 5th in the division:

5. Detroit

Key additions: LW Vladimir Tarasenko, D Erik Gustafsson, G Cam Talbot, C Tyler Motte.

Key losses: RWs David Perron, Daniel Sprong, LW, Robby Fabbri, Ds Shayne Gostisbehere, Jake Walman, G James Reimer.

The Red Wings are not as strong on paper as the team that missed a playoff spot due to a tiebreaker. They lost a lot of offense, including a key power-play component in Gostisbehere. Tarasenko, Jonatan Berggren and improvement from within will compensate to some degree, but they must move up several spots from 24th in the league in goals against to end an eight-year playoff drought.

Continued; no Perron, no Gostisbehere, no Sprong, yeah, that looks like a “step back,” but the goaltending situation is going to get sorted out, Tarasenko might ride shotgun with a fully healthy Patrick Kane…

And you lose the defensive struggles and penalties committed by David Perron’s slow-footed status, Gostisbehere’s inability to defend at even strength, and Sprong’s inconsistency.

Sometimes there’s “addition by subtraction,” and while the losses in terms of goals-for will hurt, if the Red Wings work on their goals-against average, and players like Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and Joe Veleno take steps forward, they’ll be all right.

Twitter video: NHL Network’s Coyle and Grimson discuss Raymond and Seider’s next contracts

Red Wings players Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and Jonatan Berggren are still restricted free agents, and the NHL Nework’s Jameson Coyle and Stu Grimson discussed the “big fishes'” likely contractual terms:

News about Jakub Vrana and Valtteri Filppula

Of alumni-department note today:

  1. Former Red Wing Jakub Vrana has signed a pro try-out with the Washington Capitals, most likely saying, “No, thank you” to some lucrative offers from Czech Extraliga teams in the process;
  2. And, as the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood notes, Valtteri Filppula, who’s 40 years old, is going to join Jokerit HC of the Finnish Mestis. Ilta-Sanomat’s Sami Hofr and Marko Lempinen report that Filppula will officially be named to the team next Monday, and, as Eargood reports, Filppula’s going to try to bring Jokerit back up to the Finnish Liiga:

Filppula and Jokerit will play 2024-25 in the second-tier Mestis. He will also be a co-owner of the team once he’s done playing, joining an ownership group full of NHL alumni.

Way back in the early 2000s, Filppula was a force for Jokerit before joining the Red Wings system. He scored more than a point per game in both the Finnish U18 and U20 leagues as a prospect, debuting with the club’s senior team at 19 years old. In his rookie season with Jokerit, Filppula notched 18 points in 49 games, the highest total of any U20 player that season. He remained an elite player in 2004-05, when he led his age group with 30 points in 55 games amid a surge of NHL talent in the league due to the NHL lockout. 

This success earned him an entry-level contract with Detroit, where he played 591 of his 1,056 career games and won the 2008 Stanley Cup. That Stanley Cup, plus gold medals at the 2022 World Championship and Winter Olympics made him the first ever Finn to join the illustrious Triple Gold Club.

It’s this kind of pedigree that could really help Jokerit. While Filppula spent 16 years in the NHL, his former club took a decline. In 2014, Jokerit moved from the Finnish Liiga to the Russian KHL, where it saw mild regular season success that didn’t really translate to the playoffs. Then, controversy struck. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Jokerit left the league before the playoffs due to pressure from investors and fans alike. This departure, and the need to sever all its financial ties with Russia, caused Jokerit to lay dormant in 2022-23. Last season saw a grand return for Jokerit orchestrated by a management group full of Finnish NHLers, but the team is still in the country’s second-tier league. The Jokers finished third in the league with a 23-10-10-5 record before losing in the quarterfinal of the league’s playoffs.

Jokerit’s owned by people like Teemu Selanne and Jari Kurri, and Filppula, who’s coming off a Swiss league title with Geneve-Servette, brings them a huge cachet of star power as a member of the IIHF’s Triple Gold Club.

He’s going to play for Jokerit for at least a year before joining ownership, and the “long play” is for Jokerit to work its way up to promotion to the Liiga, which is going to take some significant work.

A bit more about the Red Wings ‘season preview party’ prior to training camp in Traverse City

This morning, the Red Wings officially released the details of their truncated prospect tournament and main training camp, and this evening, the Traverse City Record-Eagle’s James Cook has more details regarding the new wrinkle in training camp, a “Season Preview Party” on the evening before training camp begins:

The Red Wings open training camp with a season preview party Sept. 18 at Delamar Traverse City. The new event provides guests with opportunities to meet Red Wings players, coaches and personalities, and hear directly from team leadership ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Hosted by Red Wings TV broadcasters Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond, the party also features a silent and live auction, as well as a VIP package that includes an exclusive meet and greet with Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman and head coach Derek Lalonde, and reserved seating with a Red Wings player for the season preview show. Proceeds from the event benefit Involved Citizens Enterprises (I.C.E.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing affordable skating programs to Northern Michigan.

Tickets to the event start at $200 per person, which includes two drink tickets and two tickets to the opening day of training camp. The VIP package starts at $600 per person, with discounts for purchases of four tickets ($2,000 total), eight ($3,750) or 12 for $5,000. VIP packages include two drink tickets at the party, two tickets to opening day of training camp, two club-level tickets to a Red Wings home game. Full details are available at centreice.org/drwseasonpreviewparty.

This is an intriguing post-COVID way of raising more funds for Centre ICE, hearkening back to the pre-camp galas of the past. Here’s hoping the media’s invited, too!

Tweets of note: U of M, MSU to play outdoors at Wrigley Field after the Winter Classic

Per EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro…

The Chicago Sun-Times’ Ben Pope…

And Michigan State University hockey…

Tweet of note: ASP + MBN at Wings camp?

Per IceHockeyG on Twitter:

Also:

A little point-counter-point

DobberHockey’s Brennan Des discusses the Red Wings’ offseason moves from a fantasy hockey perspective, suggesting that the Red Wings have slipped down a peg due to the offseason departures of David Perron, Shayne Gostisbehere, Daniel Sprong and Jake Walman…

It’s hard to get too excited about Detroit’s offseason additions because they mostly offset their offseason losses. The Red Wings narrowly missed the playoffs last year, finishing 18th in league standings. They were carried by an offense that ranked ninth in the league with 3.35 goals per game but sunk by a defense that allowed 3.33 – ninth most in the league.

To address their defensive deficiencies, they brought in… Cam Talbot? Although the 37-year-old netminder posted solid results behind a defensively competent Kings team last year, he’ll be hard-pressed to repeat that performance behind a much more questionable defense in Detroit. The Red Wings struggled to keep the puck out of their net last year because they didn’t defend well enough, allowing the 8th most expected goals across all strengths. They lost a promising piece in Jake Walman and made a somewhat lateral move by swapping Shayne Gostisbehere for Erik Gustafsson. Unless youngster Simon Edvinsson takes massive strides this year, the team’s blueline seems slightly worse off than it was last season – which obviously isn’t good news. Although new forward addition Vladimir Tarasenko can help the team’s offense, he doesn’t have a great defensive reputation, which could make their biggest issue even worse.

Lost in any excitement about what Tarasenko brings to Detroit’s offense is the reality that they’ve lost a fair bit of scoring this summer. Key departures – Gostisbehere, Perron, Sprong, Fabbri, and Walman – scored 75 of the team’s 275 goals last year (27%). Sprong and Fabbri each flirted with the 20-goal mark despite skating just 12-13 minutes a night, so the team’s depth scoring seems to have taken a hit this offseason.

But the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood offers a counter-point, at least regarding the Red Wings’ forward lines:

“We did a good job addressing some holes,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “It feels like guys may be slotted going into the year a little bit. I think we did a good job addressing some loss offense, which is very important. It’s just exciting. All I’ve known here, since I’ve come here, is progression. Moving in the right direction, year one to year two. We did it going into the second year, obviously, and now we need to keep building.”

A well-built team has to be constructed from well-built lines. With this summer’s changes to the roster, Lalonde doesn’t have to build lines with the wrong parts. That’s a major progression for his team, even if the lost offense seems like a step backward on paper.

In reality, this advancement addresses an aspect of roster depth that is often ignored. Usually when talking about a team’s depth, the focus goes to scoring depth. Checking depth is often ignored for the flashy allure of goals and point totals. But, having players who can succeed in crucial defensive roles is an equally important aspect of depth, especially when goals are hard — and expensive — to come by.

Detroit would benefit from more scoring depth, sure, but Lalonde’s glass-half-full perspective also lends itself to the stylistic changes that he wants to make anyway. His marching orders at the end of last season called for him to make the Red Wings a better defensive team to make its scoring matter. Lower the goals against, and they don’t need as many goals for to make up for them. That’s what both Lalonde and general manager Steve Yzerman laid out at their closing press conferences, and it’s what they’ve maintained all summer long.

So far, Lalonde has been given the right players in the right spots to complete the job. Now, the task becomes putting them to good use once the season starts.

Is the truth somewhere in between? I’m not certain yet. We’ll have to see how the team performs during training camp and the exhibition season, as well as the first dozen-or-so games of the regular season.

Press release: Red Wings training camp to take place from September 14 to September 22

NHL PROSPECT GAMES AND RED WINGS TRAINING CAMP RETURN TO TRAVERSE CITY IN SEPTEMBER

  … Annual Training Camp Events Return to Centre ICE Arena from Sept. 14-22 …

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman today announced that the Red Wings will return to Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City, Mich., to host NHL Prospect Games and Training Camp, as well as the 2024 Training Camp Season Preview Party at Delamar Traverse City.

NHL PROSPECT GAMES

NHL Prospect action returns to Traverse City for its 25th season, with the Red Wings hosting the Dallas Stars for a two-game series on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 15 at 2:30 p.m. Over the history of prospect action at Centre ICE Arena, 772 players have moved on to play in at least one NHL game, including 13 who played for the Red Wings in 2023-24: Jonatan Berggren, Ben Chiarot (Atlanta), Alex DeBrincat (Chicago), Simon Edvinsson, Robby Fabbri (St. Louis), Ville Husso (St. Louis), Klim Kostin (St. Louis), Dylan Larkin, Michael Rasmussen, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Joe Veleno and Jake Walman (St. Louis).

TRAINING CAMP SEASON PREVIEW PARTY

The Red Wings will open their annual NHL Training Camp with the 2024 Training Camp Season Preview Party, presented by Porsche Detroit North, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at Delamar Traverse City. This exciting new event provides guests with incredible opportunities to meet Red Wings players, coaches and personalities, and hear directly from team leadership ahead of the 2024-25 season. Hosted by Red Wings TV broadcasters Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond, the Season Preview Party also features a silent and live auction, as well as a VIP package that includes an exclusive meet and greet with Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman and Head Coach Derek Lalonde, and reserved seating with a Red Wings player for the season preview show.  Proceeds from the event benefit Involved Citizens Enterprises (I.C.E.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing affordable skating programs to Northern Michigan.

RED WINGS TRAINING CAMP

The 2024-25 Red Wings hit the ice for the first time for Training Camp on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 19, and continue daily through Sunday, Sept. 22. Red Wings players, prospects and tryouts will be divided into teams that will practice and scrimmage throughout camp, including the annual Red and White Game on Sunday, Sept. 22. Following the Red and White game, the team will break camp for Detroit to begin its preseason schedule. A full camp roster and the complete training camp schedule will be announced at a later date.

TICKETS FOR ALL EVENTS ON SALE TUESDAY, AUGUST 20

Advance tickets for all September Red Wings events in Traverse City will be available online this season at www.mynorthtickets.com/organizations/centre-ice starting on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 10:00 a.m. Ticket prices are as follows:

  • NHL Prospect Games (Sept. 14-15): $25 per day (general admission)
  • Training Camp Season Preview Party (Wednesday, Sept. 18) – visit www.centreice.org/drwseasonpreviewparty for details
  • Training Camp Practice (Thursday, Sept. 19): $20 per day (general admission)
  • Training Camp Practice (Friday, Sept. 20): $20 per day (general admission)
  • Training Camp Practice (Saturday, Sept. 21): $30 per day (general admission)
  • Red and White Game (Sunday, Sept. 22): $25 standing-room, $45 reserved seating or mezzanine

Select 2024 Training Camp merchandise will also be available for purchase in the arena store on the upper level behind the concession stand. For additional information, please call (231) 933-7465 or visit www.centreice.org.

Three prospect things: NCAA UFA Day, preseason dates of note and Buchelnikov things

  1. It’s August 15th, and Red Wings Prospects on Twitter reminds us that this is the day that NCAA prospects who have completed their senior year of enrollment become free agents (and, obviously, you should go follow Red Wings Prospects, they’re excellent):

O’Reilly has transferred to Providence College from Arizona State for his 5th year (due to COVID, NCAA-playing prospects who played through the pandemic can play for one extra year at NCAA schools);

Stange has transferred to Nebraska-Omaha from Wisconsin for his 5th year of eligibility;

Cooper Moore will play his 5th year for Quinnipiac, where he transferred from the University of North Dakota.

All three will become free agents today, and it is possible that the Red Wings and other teams will look at the pool of players who “age out” of NHL-drafted eligibility and become free agents at 22-25 years of age.

2. As previously stated, Red Wings prospects Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (Norway) and Marco Kasper (Austria) will play in the Olympic qualifying tournament from August 29th-31st, and here are some other significant dates for MBN and Axel Sandin Pellikka:

3. Finally, via Red Wings Prospects, we find out about Dmitri Buchelnikov’s first game for Vityaz Moscow Region of the KHL (yes, the Russians are already playing in a month-long slate of preseason games and tournaments):