Tweets of note: Kaplan discusses Trouba and Kane situations

FYI from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan:

ESPN’s Doerrie issues draft grades

ESPN’s draft expert, Rachel Doerrie, has issued a Sunday-afternoon slate of 2024 NHL Draft grades for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and here’s what she has to say about the Red Wings’ draft haul:

Detroit Red Wings
Grade: B

The Red Wings need a high-end scorer, which many believed would be Jake Guentzel in free agency. It now seems like it may be Steven Stamkos.

In terms of picks, they left value on the board with Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, but got good value in the Ondrej Becher selection, and I liked the Max Plante selection. There is no doubt Brandsegg-Nygard will be a middle-six NHL player and an effective one at that. There’s nothing to write home about, but nothing to be too disappointed in, either. A perfectly fine draft.

Continued (paywall); I’ll take the “B” at this point.

Regarding the probable end of the ‘Sprong Song’

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood posted a superb article which summarizes the Red Wings free agency outlook, and he dug into the bottom of the depth chart to discuss the borderline Red Wings/Grand Rapids Griffins’ players.

He also discusses the 1i-goal-scoring elephant in the room in Daniel Sprong, who probably won’t be back due to his status as an even-strength defensive liability:

Daniel Sprong, RW/LW
Last contract: $2 million AAV for one year
Season stats: 76 games played, 18 goals, 25 assists, 55.8% on-ice expected goals, 19.8% share of possible ice time

If you take him for what he is — a bottom six sniper who struggles to defend — Sprong is a valuable role player. He was a great source of offensive depth for the Red Wings, especially on the power play where he scored 12 of his points. But with Sprong, there’s always the big what-if of the player he could be if he rounded out his game. At 27 years old, Sprong has the odds of doing that stacked against him.

That’s probably why Sprong is most likely to be a free agent. His scoring gives him bargaining power for a pay raise, but his prioritization of scoring is antithetical to the defensive responsibility that Detroit wants to emphasize in the future. And this future seemed all but decided when Lalonde scratched Sprong late in the season with playoff hopes on the line. If trust in Sprong is lacking, it’s safe to say he’ll be moving on to another team.

Continued (at length); I just don’t think that the Red Wings can pay Sprong what his goal-scoring total merits on the open market.

That’s okay. It’s going to stink to lose his production, but Sprong was an utterly terrifying player to deal with in terms of his defensive lapses and role on the team as a 3rd/4th line player. Maybe another team gives “Sprong Song” a real chance to be in their top six, and he shines. We can hope that it happens, and that it isn’t within the Red Wings’ division

Tweet of note: Daily Faceoff’s Seravalli says Wings have ‘made progress’ with Kane

Per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli:

From Seravalli’s article:

Continue reading Tweet of note: Daily Faceoff’s Seravalli says Wings have ‘made progress’ with Kane

A little about the Wings’ middle-of-the-lineup UFA’s

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted an article regarding the Red Wings’ free agency options this afternoon, and as Kulfan notes, it’s the Red Wings’ middle-of-the-lineup guys who are getting squeezed out by Detroit’s cap crunch:

The focus is re-signing forwards Patrick Kane and David Perron, along with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, all while keeping salary cap space available for restricted free-agent defenseman Moritz Seider and forward Lucas Raymond, who are getting significant salary increases coming out of their entry-level contracts.

Forwards Christian Fischer and Daniel Sprong, and goaltender James Reimer, are also potential unrestricted free agents, but the Wings have varying levels of interest on retaining them.

General manager Steve Yzerman said Saturday at the NHL Entry Draft it’s unlikely everyone will return.

“We’d love to bring everybody back, (but) that’s going to be really difficult to do,” Yzerman said. “We’re just not going to have enough money to bring everybody back. That’s just not the way it’s going to work.”

The Wings have about $32 million to work with under the salary cap — but approximately half of that is likely targeted to sign Seider and Raymond at some point this summer.

Continued; it’s guys like Fischer and Sprong who really can’t be re-signed, and I don’t know how I feel about that, honestly. To some extent, I want to see the Red Wings get as young and fast as possible, but Yzerman said yesterday that he’s not going to open up a top-nine spot for any prospect–that they would have to “take a job” from a veteran instead–and if that’s the case, I don’t know whether there are better grinders to fill out the Wings’ four lines than the affable Fischer and scoring Sprong.

Press release: Red Wings to hold development camp at LCA from July 1-5, will stream 3-on-3 game Friday at 8:30 AM

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS TO HOLD 2024 DEVELOPMENT CAMP AT LITTLE CAESARS ARENA JULY 1-5

  … Five-Day Camp Featuring Red Wings Prospects Returns to BELFOR Training Center …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today announced the schedule for their 2024 Development Camp, which returns to the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena from July 1-5. The camp begins on Monday, July 1 and features on-ice skill development and off-ice workouts each day, ending with a three-on-three tournament on Friday, July 5.

The camp will be split into two teams – Team Howe and Team Lindsay – and will feature daily on-ice instruction and skill development from a team of coaches, led by the Red Wings player development staff. Attendees will also take part in NHL-level off-ice workouts and attend presentations designed to help players transition to professional hockey, while experiencing the state-of-the-art player amenities offered at Little Caesars Arena and receiving feedback from Red Wings coaches and management.

The Red Wings roster will be comprised primarily of players selected by Detroit over the last several NHL Drafts, as well as signed free agent prospects and undrafted free agent invitees from collegiate, junior or European leagues. The full roster for the 2024 Development Camp will be announced at a later date.

3-ON-3 TOURNAMENT TO BE STREAMED AT DETROITREDWINGS.COM

The three-on-three tournament will be streamed live on DetroitRedWings.com and on the Red Wings social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube) on Friday, July 5 starting at 8:30 a.m. The streams will feature exclusive interviews with Red Wings prospects and select members of the Red Wings front office staff – hosted by Red Wings radio voice Ken Kal and Red Wings TV’s Daniella Bruce. For in-depth coverage of Development Camp, visit www.DetroitRedWings.com/Prospects.

Fundraising update: Time crunch

Good afternoon. I’m wanted to let you all know that we’re still at the $500 mark in terms of fundraising for me to rent a working vehicle (out of about $900-1,000 needed to actually rent a vehicle and pay the security deposit) for the purposes of attending the Red Wings’ summer development camp…

Which most likely starts tomorrow or Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.

Long story short, we’re facing a tremendous time crunch, so if you are able and/or willing to lend a hand, now’s the time to do it.

I haven’t missed a summer development camp since 2006, and I’d hate to miss this one, but it’s a very real possibility right now.

If you’re willing to help, here are the details: you can use Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

As always, thank you for your readership and your time.

Khan talks free agency targets

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted his list of potential unrestricted free agents for the Red Wings to target starting at 12 PM EDT tomorrow, and he includes one player that would be a dark-horse candidate, presuming that he would be willing to come to a rebuilding team:

Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas, RW/LW, 33 ($5 million): He’s an original Golden Knight, the franchise’s all-time leader in goals and points and the 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He’s coming off his most productive season (42 goals, 69 points in 82 games). Vegas has virtually no cap space, however. Yzerman, as Tampa Bay’s GM, traded for him in 2014 before he left as a free agent in 2016.

Continued; Again, I don’t know whether Marchessault would be willing to “step down” from a contender like the Golden Knights to a team in the middle of a rebuild, but he’s fast, he scores goals, and I’m sure that there will be 31 teams hot on his tail if he has to leave Las Vegas.

Update: The Athletic’s Max Bultman suggests that the Red Wings need a top-six winger as well:

Detroit hasn’t given up on trying to keep Patrick Kane, but whether it’s him or someone else, the Red Wings have a hole for a scoring forward high in the lineup. Kane was a big source of offense last season, so there is real incentive for Detroit to figure something out with the future Hall of Famer. If not him, perhaps Jonathan Marchessault or Steven Stamkos (if either make it to market) would be fits for a team that came close last season to snapping an eight-year playoff drought.  — Max Bultman

A bit of Steven Stamkos speculation

The Hockey News’s Jacob Stoller posted an article which discusses three possible destinations for Steven Stamkos, who’s going to test the free agent marketplace on Monday, and he includes the Red Wings in his list, alongside the Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators.

I don’t really see Stamkos-to-Detroit happening, but stranger things have happened…

Coming off a collapse that saw Detroit lose its playoff spot and miss the post-season for an eighth straight year, GM Steve Yzerman ought to be feeling the pressure.

While the Red Wings have a decent core in Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, they still look like a mushy-middle team, even with a few tweaks here or there.

They need someone like Stamkos. And for a player who might be signing his last contract, depending on the term, the fit outside of hockey may be one of the most important things as well. Detroit is just four hours away from Stamkos’ off-season home in Toronto.

Detroit recently cleared up cap space when they traded Jake Walman to San Jose, leaving them with roughly $31.87 million in salary cap space — though the impending extensions to Raymond and Seider will shrink that figure. 

Continued; I would imagine that Steve Yzerman is always feeling pressure to some extent, but we’re working on his timeline to slowly build a playoff contender, not the other way around…

And if the Wings attempt to re-sign Patrick Kane, Shayne Gostisbehere and/or David Perron, I’m not certain that there would be salary cap room left to snag Stamkos on a cap-friendly deal. He’s also 34 as of July 1st, so there aren’t any 35-plus contract bonuses that could be squeezed in to reduce his cap hit.

From what the “insiders” are saying, I think that Carolina, Nashville or other places are much more likely landing spots for Stamkos, but again, one never knows, regardless of his relationship with Yzerman.