Yet another set of tiered rankings from The Athletic

The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe ranks the NHL’s 32 teams by “tiers” (have we heard that before from The Athletic over the last couple of weeks? Regarding players? Prospects? Teams?) and predicts the NHL’s “order of finish”…sort of…and when it comes to the Red Wings, it sure feels like The Athletic has to take a mandatory shot at the Wings’ rebuild every time the team is mentioned:

The Middle-of-the-Pack Division

It’s not a bad place to be as long as you’re passing through. Get stuck here for more than a couple of years, though, and the future starts looking mighty bleak.

Detroit Red Wings

Last season: 41-32-9, +2, fifth in Atlantic, missed playoffs on tie-breaker.

Their offseason in six words: Tarasenko in, Perron out, kids extended.

Why they’re here: Because they’ve pretty much always been here, ever since Steve Yzerman arrived and started the world’s slowest rebuild. That’s not exactly a compliment, but it’s worth noting the Wings do keep shuffling forward, which is better than some other rebuilds we’ve seen over the years. Last year they came as close to the playoffs as you can without actually making it, so another few baby steps should get them in… assuming they don’t get leap-frogged by someone who’s moving quicker.

Continued (paywall); yes, there is real pressure for the Red Wings to not be “leap-frogged” by the Senators or Canadiens at this point, with the Sens and former Wing David Perron staring down the barrel of a budding rivalry’s gun against Detroit…

But none of us expected that Yzerman and the Wings’ management group would have to tear down so much of what Ken Holland had baked into the declining Wings before starting a rebuild from scratch.

Realistically speaking, if Detroit is to rebuild itself into a playoff contender, they’re somewhere around two thirds of the way there, with some key prospects, attractive free agents and trades left to draft/make/sign before this team both makes the playoffs and wins playoff rounds on a regular basis.

This year, the team wants to earn a playoff spot and see what happens. Throughout the season and seasons to come, internal improvement is essential from the Wings’ prospects and young stars, and continuing to draft, develop and sign players (and, again, possibly trade for them) will be big components of the rebuilding machine.

HSJ in the morning: as the exhibition season winds down, pressure builds

The Red Wings begin a stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 3 nights tonight at home vs. Toronto (7 PM EDT start on Bally Sports Detroit). As such, the Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of the fact that the Wings practiced particularly hard on Wednesday, playing “small area games” of 3-on-3 hockey, and then taking sprints to end Wednesday’s practice.

Why undergo all of that work and mental and physical wear-and-tear while the team’s in the middle of a stretch where they’re playing 6 times over the course of 6 nights (Monday’s double-header included)?

“You just have to make sure your brain is working, that you’re back in a game mentality,” captain Dylan Larkin said Wednesday. “I think everyone in here has a good understanding of the systems at this point in camp, but it’s getting your legs and your brain going, getting your awareness set up. That’s my main objective the next few games.”

The cramped schedule — the Wings play six games in six days this week — means the NHL regulars among the 55 players at camp (Alex Chiasson was released from his professional tryout Wednesday) mostly are split into different groups for games. But as the regular season nears, there’s extra focus on getting the NHL’ers looks together. Most of Wednesday’s practice was spent on special teams, featuring Larkin on a unit with Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider and another unit comprised of Erik Gustafsson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jonatan Berggren, J.T. Compher and Joe Veleno.

“We checked off a lot of boxes,” head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Some other areas — some goalie-pull situations, some four-on-three, some five-on-three. Just a necessity throughout camp.”

The heavy emphasis on three-on-three — aka, overtime play — stems from what happened at the end of last season, when the Wings missed out on the playoffs by virtue of a tiebreaker. “Lessons learned from last year,” Lalonde said. “One point here or there makes a ton of difference as you’re growing and building on this. Three-on-three is very important for us.”

Continued (paywall); aside from pointing out that Cam Talbot’s going to get the net for the full game tonight, with Alex Lyon entertaining the Ottawa Senators in a home game tomorrow, it’s worth noting that there’s a bit of a traditional rhythm that the Red Wings use toward the end of the preseason.

Usually speaking, the Wings have undertaken 1 or 2 full “dress reharsals” with a near-full-NHL roster during their final home game(s), with a final group of prospects and AHL’ers making the trip to Toronto on Saturday.

Detroit’s never played in 3 straight games to close the exhibition season, however, so I’m not certain whether the Wings might stretch out their lineups to minimize wear and tear.

Regardless of how things end up, pressure ramps up over the next three games, and the pace of play ramps up over the next three games as the regular season approaches.

This is the time when management begins to make its decisions as to how the opening-night roster is going to look and where prospects are in initial “pecking order” for call-ups from Grand Rapids.

We’ll also have to see how try-out Austin Watson and Griffins players further down the depth chart do in terms of attempting to impress both the Wings and Griffins’ brass, because this year’s AHL team is going to be particularly competitive in terms of battles for jobs on the Griffins and spillover onto the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.

Finally, St. James posted a clip of Larkin and Lalonde speaking about the Wings’ situation:

Hunter Johannes intrigues despite his age due to strong raw abilities

Rather ironically, I’d been thinking about Grand Rapids Griffins-contracted Hunter Johannes last night, and this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a subscriber-only profile of the 26-year-old winger.

I’m not certain whether Johannes qualifies as a prospect per se, but he stands at 6’3″ and 228 pounds, and the University of North Dakota graduate is still an intriguing late-bloomer.

As Duff notes, there isn’t a whole lot of runway for Johannes to utilize to develop into a late-late-developing NHL prospect, but power forwards don’t grow on trees:

“He’s a big power forward can put the puck in the net,” Detroit prospect Amadeus Lombardi said. “I love playing with those guys. They made it really easy for me to do my thing.”

Let’s be honest here for a moment. That growth isn’t going to happen overnight. Johannes is at best a long-range hope. Realistically, he’s also a longshot to be an NHLer. And yet the things he can deliver between the boards are always coveted in the NHL and in short supply with Detroit.

Those qualities alone are leading to intrigue regarding what he could become.

“What I like about him is he put a lot of work in the offseason,” Griffins coach Dan Watson said. “I know that for a fact. He was in Detroit most of the summer. “His skating has certainly improved and he’s able to get on the forecheck and he’s not scared of the physicality. He gets in there. He’s going to be aggressive along the walls. He’s going to be able to get pucks out. He’s got more skill than people probably give him credit for.”

Continued; as Duff suggests, it’s more likely that Johannes goes on to have a prolific AHL career than a meaningfully-productive NHL’er…

But even if he develops into a player that can be called up from time to time to play reliably physical hockey with a skillful edge, that’s not a bad outcome.

For Johannes, there’s still time to develop into that kind of player, and anything else is gravy.

Video: Coach Lalonde speaks with the media after Wednesday’s practice

After today’s practice, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde told the media that he would start Cam Talbot and afford #39 the net for Thursday’s game vs. Toronto, and that he would start Alex Lyon and allow #34 to play for the entirety of Friday’s game vs. Ottawa.

Here’s the video of coach Lalonde’s media availability:

Husso’s feeling fine after stopping 43 shots vs. the Pens

Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso was downright excellent in stopping 43 of 44 shots in last night’s 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, and today, he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that he hopes last night’s performance is just the start of his comeback:

“It was nice to get a full game and a team like that, too,” Husso said. “Just wanted to go out there and play and we did a good job. It was fun to play again.”

Husso stopped 15 of 17 shots in his preseason debut against Chicago last week, and the Pittsburgh victory was a progression both Husso and the Wings wanted to see.

“A win is always a good thing, but I went in with the mentality of enjoying the game and playing a full game again and it went pretty well,” Husso said. “The body feels good again. It’s nice to get those games and some reps.”

Lalonde said goaltenders Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon will get the next two starts, as the Wings continue to go with a three-goalie rotation. But seeing Husso play at a high level, Lalonde said, was encouraging.

“It wasn’t the 97% (save percentage); it was the way he looked,” Lalonde said. “He looked sharp and composed and he was seeing pucks. The puck handles were great. It was a real good step forward for him.”

Continued (paywall), with a profile of Joe Veleno…

Prospect round-up: Kiiskinen 1G+1A in HPK OT loss

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today in Europe:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen scored a goal and added an assist, finishing at +2 with 3 shots in 15:10 as HPK Hameenlinna lost 4-3 in overtime to Karpat Oulu. Kiiskinen was named the game’s second star;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, in a battle of Red Wings prospects, Liam Dower Nilsson and IF Bjorkloven won 2-1 over Maximilian Kilpinen and Osterlunds IK.

Dower Nilsson played on the 3rd line, finishing even with 2 shots in 12:48 for Bjorkloven;

Kilpinen played on Osterlunds’ 3rd line, finishing even in 12:50 played;

And in the Swedish J20 league, Charlie Forslund played on Mora IK’s 1st line in a 4-2 loss to Timra IK.

Red Wings release Alex Chiasson from PTO, reassign Emmitt Finnie to Kamloops

From the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS RELEASE ALEX CHIASSON FROM PROFESSIONAL TRYOUT  

  … Detroit Assigns Emmitt Finnie to WHL’s Kamloops Blazers …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today released right wing Alex Chiasson from his professional tryout and assigned center Emmitt Finnie to the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers.

The Red Wings currently have 55 players on their training camp roster: 31 forwards, 16 defensemen and eight goaltenders. Currently at 3-1-1 through five preseason games, Detroit continues its preseason schedule with a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7:00 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena. The game will be televised on Bally Sports Detroit and air on 97.1 The Ticket.

Austin Watson hopes to stick with the Red Wings via his ‘jam’

Austin Watson spoke with the Red Wings’ media corps on Wednesday, and MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Watson’s attempt to earn an NHL contract via his pro try-out. Watson says that he chose the Red Wings for more than simply his birthplace, which happens to be Ann Arbor…

“Having played against this group for a while in Ottawa, you saw the core group of guys, the high-end talent,” Watson said. “You see the young guys coming up, you see this team just getting better and better. For me, being able to bring that element of some physicality, jam, being hard to play against, sticking up for guys when that’s necessary, I thought that could be a good fit for both sides.”

Watson, 32, has played two preseason games (one assist, no penalty minutes) and will get one or two more to state his case. The Red Wings (3-1-1) finish with three games in three nights starting Thursday at home against Toronto (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit).

The 6-4, 210 pound forward earned a contract while on a PTO at Tampa Bay’s camp last year and appeared in 33 games (two goals, two assists, 93 penalty minutes, seven fighting majors).

“I didn’t expect to be on a PTO last year,” Watson said. “I came off two years where I scored 10 and nine goals and fought a bunch (in Ottawa), so a little caught off guard. This year, having only played 30-some games, I kind of had an expectation that this might be the case and having gone through it before has made it a little bit easier. You just do what you can and let the cards fall where they may.”

Khan reports that Watson would prefer to earn an NHL contract over a two-way deal…

Watson is focused on earning a one-way contract and playing in Detroit. He’ll consider the possibility of a two-way deal and playing in Grand Rapids after.

“I like playing in the NHL and I prefer that to riding buses,” Watson said. “It becomes part of your identity. I changed a bit coming out of the minors 10 years ago to finding a way to help the team to stick around in the NHL, whether that be hitting, blocking shots, penalty killing, sticking up for teammates, fighting when need be. I feel the game evolves but that kind of stuff is always at a premium and I’ve been good at it for a while now.”

And I can’t deny that it’s possible that Watson will impress another team and earn a contract out of camp regardless of whether he makes the Wings’ roster. He played a very competent two-way game against the Penguins last night, and if he continues to show strongly, he may yet impress, Wings’ roster crunch included.

Update: Here’s a bit of a critique from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

While he’s certainly capable of being a deterrent, the Red Wings braintrust is more concerned about whether he’ll be a detriment. Watson’s 5-on-5 analytics data over the past two seasons is, to be frank, dreadful.

His 5-on-5 SAT for Tampa Bay last season was 41.8%. That was 17th out of the team’s 18 forwards. The previous season in Ottawa, his 5-on-5 SAT was 19th out of 20 forwards at 45.7%.

Certainly, those numbers are of concern to Detroit coach Derek Lalonde.

“We expect the hard from him,” Lalonde said. “We expect him to win battles, wall battles. But one important viewing for us was he’s got to be able to help us five-on-five and through two games so far, he’s done that. He’s done that well.

“It’s helped our team in the two games he was in.”

Tweet of note: Coach Lalonde will start Cam Talbot on Thursday and Alex Lyon on Friday

The Red Wings’ “first group” of practicing players today almost entirely consisted of NHL players, and Ville Husso and Austin Watson spoke with the Wings‘ media corps after their practice ended.

The first group was indeed star-studded…

But the Husso and Watson interviews were so engrossing that the media didn’t cover the “second group’s” skate, and skipped to speaking with Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde, who’s going to give Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon some full games on Thursday and Friday:

A bit of praise for Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard

FloHockey landed a deal to air 100 SHL games this upcoming season, and as such, FloHockey’s Chris Peters offers 8 reasons to watch the SHL in prospect form. Because flattery will get you everywhere, I’m going to allow him to describe Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard in positive terms for us…

Axel Sandin-Pellikka, D, Skellefteå AIK (DET)

Though just 19, Sandin-Pellikka has already appeared in 66 games in the SHL over the previous two seasons. In his third year in the league, even more is expected after the incredible bar he set last season with 10 goals and 18 points in 39 pro games. His 10 goals were the second most ever by a U19 defenseman in the SHL.

Through his first five games of the 2024-25 season, the Red Wings 2023 first-round pick has already produced four points, including a pair of goals. He’s also more regularly playing top-pairing minutes and thriving in that situation.

A talented puck-mover, Sandin-Pellikka has poise beyond his years and just keeps getting better.

…

Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, RW, Skellefteå (DET)

Though still with the Detroit Red Wings in training camp, expectations are that Brandsegg-Nygård will be coming back to Sweden. After spending the last two seasons with Mora IK in the Hockey Allsvenskan, the 18-year-old Norwegian forward is going to get his first run in Sweden’s top pro league this season.  

He has a great shot and can get it off from just about anywhere. On top of that, Brandsegg-Nygård is an abrasive, aggressive player who can play physically and take charge on the forecheck. He’s going to need to make some adjustments as he gets going in the SHL, but there’s a lot to like about his game.

Continued; as noted today by Michel Brandsegg-Nygard’s former GM, Anders Myrvold, it’s entirely possible that MBN may remain in North America, but we’ll let that sleeping dog lying down for now.

As for ASP, he’s practically auditioning for an NHL job this season.