Wednesday round-up: Probert’s PIM’s, Max Plante’s learning curve, a ‘Street Hockey in the D’ event and ‘would’ve should’ve’ trade talk

I’m not feeling particularly well today, so I’m going with a news round-up post as opposed to a bunch of entries. My apologies if this is inconvenient:

  1. Earlier this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of five impressive statistical performances by the Red Wings team and their players, and, in this case, five statistical performances that fans may not know of:

Bob Probert’s Red Wings PIM Mark:

Bob Probert’s legacy in Hockeytown is timeless. His fights are the stuff of legend. As his 1987-88 Red Wings season also should be. During the 1987-88 season, Probert wound up one goal shy of 30 and two PIM shy of 400. He would serve the equivalent of 6.63 games in penalty minutes and still find enough ice to to score 29 goals.

It was good enough to earn Probert a place in the NHL All-Star Game that season. And, a look of puzzlement from Joe Kocur, his Bruise Brothers teammate.

Kocur would never let Probert forget that all he had to do was hack some opponent in the last game of the season to get to the 400-minute plateau.

2. Shifting focus toward the Red Wings’ future, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted an article about Red Wings prospect Max Plante, who was raised by former NHL’er Derek Plante in a “hockey family”:

Continue reading Wednesday round-up: Probert’s PIM’s, Max Plante’s learning curve, a ‘Street Hockey in the D’ event and ‘would’ve should’ve’ trade talk

A bit of praise for ‘Bootnose’

NHL.com’s Stan Fischler posted an article in which he lists his “best captains” from both the Original Six era and the present-day NHL, and he includes Red Wings captain and coach Sid “Bootnose” Abel:

Sid Abel, Detroit Red Wings: Abel was the center and architect of the famed and feared “Production Line” with Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay. His superior leadership qualities enabled him to blend their varied talents into one of the NHL’s most heralded lines. Despite the loss of Gordie Howe to injury, Abel rallied the Red Wings to a 4-3 double-overtime win against the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the 1950 Stanley Cup Final and eight consecutive wins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 1952 championship. Although slowing down somewhat, Abel took his skills to Chicago, where he became player-coach in 1952-53 and helped the previously forlorn Black Hawks to a rare postseason berth.

Continued; I will never understand why legendary Red Wings coach and GM Jack Adams sent so many of his star players away after winning Stanley Cups, but that’s what he did…

Roughly translated: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard still expects to play for Skelleftea AIK

Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard conducted a behind-the-paywall interview with Norran’s Mille Dybro, and Hockeysverige.se provides us a peek behind said paywall as Brandsegg-Nygard prepares to embark upon a month-long schedule of training camp and exhibition games with his SHL team, Skelleftea AIK:

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard believes he’ll play SHL games with Skelleftea AIK

Skelleftea AIK or the Detroit Red Wings? It’s a question for which there is no answer for Michael Brandsegg-Nygard so far. But now the Norwegian prospect says he believes he’ll play in the SHL.

“I think I will play here,” he says to Norran.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard made history at the NHL Draft in June by becoming the first Norwegian to ever be selected in the first round. That’s when the Detroit Red Wings picked the Oslo native as the 15th overall player.

The Red Wings signed the forward to a three-year rookie contract shortly thereafter. Thusly, they gained power over the player. This means that Skelleftea AIK, who recruited the 18-year-old from Mora IK, is politely forced to wait for an announcement as to what applies.

“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. These are the indications that we’ve also received,” said general manager Erik Forssell to Norran earlier this summer.

Brandsegg-Nygard goes to Detroit

When Skelleftea stepped onto the ice today for their first practice of the season, Brandsegg-Nygard was there. Afterward, he told Norran that he will go to Detroit [for training camp] and will thus miss some games, but that, like Forssell, he’s focused on returning to Vasterbotten for the SHL season with the reigning SHL champions.

“I’m going over for camp, but I think I’ll play here. I want to battle for SHL gold.”

Brandsegg-Nygard posted 18 points (8 goals plus 10 assists) in 46 games for the HockeyAllsvenskan with Mora last year. He followed that up with a fine playoff slate where he accounted for 10 points (4 goals plus 6 assists) in 12 games. The Norwegian also managed to make his World Championship debut and had 5 points (3 goals plus 2 assists) in 7 World Championship games at the tournament in the Czech Republic.

THN’s Eargood talks potential Wings milestones

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood posted a list of 6 Red Wings players who may hit scoring and games-played milestones over the next season, as well as a milestone that coach Derek Lalonde may hit:

Patrick Kane: 1,300 Points Detroit’s biggest individual milestone could be that of winger Patrick Kane, who is 16 points away from his 1,300th point. Most of those came earlier in his career with Chicago, including the 106 he scored in 2015-16 that made him the first American-born player to win the Hart and Art Ross trophies. 

In a similar theme of American history, Kane is in reach of Brett Hull’s 1,391 points that hold the record for most by an American. Kane is currently third, behind Mike Modano’s 1,374. All three played for Detroit at some time in their career.

Alex DeBrincat: 500 Points If Alex DeBrincat keeps playing next to Kane of all linemates, getting 60 points next season to reach the 500 mark should be possible. In 413 games played together with Chicago and Detroit, DeBrincat has recorded 345 points. Kane has notched 472.

No matter his linemates, DeBrincat is really close to the accomplishment. A lot of players have gotten there — 549 and counting, with more than a dozen players besides DeBrincat in striking distance. Considering he’s only 26, it feels as though this is only a temporary stop on the way to greater milestones in the future.

Dylan Larkin: 300 Assists Dylan Larkin is just six assists away from his 300th, a testament to his playmaking over the years. His 294 rank 15th in Red Wings history, though a similar campaign to last season’s could see him jump to 12th, passing Igor Larionov (308), Red Kelly (310) and Brendan Shanahan (324).

In terms of franchise scoring leaders, Larkin’s 506 career points rank 14th. He could pass Tomas Holmstrom (530), John Ogrodnick (546) and Reed Larson (570) depending on how successful his season is.

Continued; I always cross my fingers and pray for good injury juju when I read these articles…

Two things: Pondering an Ilitch Sports + Entertainment network, and ‘just saying no’ to a trade scenario

Updated at 1:45 PM: Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

  1. The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discusses the declining revenues which appear to be dooming Diamond Sports, which is Bally Sports’ parent company, and Diamond also happens to be going through bankruptcy despite having reached a carriage agreement with XFinity/Comcast recently.

There’s been a long-term discussion as to what’s going to come next for the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons’ broadcasts, especially as Diamond pays tens of millions of dollars for the privilege of broadcasting the three sports, at the cost of a big carriage fee for every customer of the cable or satellite system that carries Bally (regardless of whether the individual subscriber watches Bally networks or not)…

And I really wonder whether it’s possible that the long-time rumors that the Ilitches might start their own sports network to carry their teams on cable TV and/or online might come to fruition. That buzz has quietly served as an undercurrent to the various guises of PASS/Bally over the past 25 years, and the emphasis was always that, should the Ilitches be able to absorb the start-up costs of establishing a broadcast network, they’d reap the profits thereof.

Nowadays, the profits are smaller due to legions of “cord-cutters,” but if the Ilitches could start up a streaming service for the Wings, Tigers and Pistons, they’d still turn a profit broadcasting their own teams. With more and more teams inking streaming deals or broadcast TV deals that don’t emphasize turning a profit for the respective teams, I wonder whether we’ll see some sort of “Ilitch Sports + Entertainment Network” down the line.

2. Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman/Kukla’s Korner posted this trade scenario from Heavy.com’s Cole Shelton, and I’m sorry to admit as much, but I didn’t post it because I couldn’t possibly believe that it would happen:

Continue reading Two things: Pondering an Ilitch Sports + Entertainment network, and ‘just saying no’ to a trade scenario

Tweet of note: Griffins have openings for their youth hockey camp in Holland

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins, if you’re looking to send your little one to a hockey camp in Holland, MI next week…

A bit about Fisher Scott

After the Red Wings drafted Austin Baker 203rd overall, Detroit made its final selection of the 2024 NHL Draft in 19-year-old defenseman Fisher Scott 208th overall.

Scott, who’s a defenseman, is headed to Colorado College this upcoming season, and as a native of Carbondale, Colorado, Scott told Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson that there’s a natural fit with the CC Tigers:

“It’s pretty nice being so close,” Scott said of Colorado Springs, which is about four hours from Carbondale. “Their facilities are great,” he said. “Being a Colorado kid, it was pretty cool to be able to do this. It’s been a lot of fun.”

After a cup of coffee with the [USHL’s Dubuque] Fighting Saints in 2021-22, Scott became a regular the last two seasons and was an assistant captain last year. 

“He grew into a leadership role,” coach Evan Dixon said. ‘“He leads by doing things the right way and setting a good example.”

Scott improved his offensive game last year, with 33 points in 61 games after just 13 points in 59 games the year before. 

“He became more aware of opportunities on offense,” Dixon said. “He had a better understanding of when to push the puck up the ice.”

But Scott still sees himself primarily as a defensive defenseman. 

“I’m a guy you can trust in every situation,” Scott said. 

Continued; Scott will be playing on the same team as Red Wings prospect Brady Cleveland, who transferred to CC from the University of Wisconsin.

Wings dip in The Athletic’s ‘NHL front-office confidence rankings’

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn states that a survey by The Athletic reveals that fans are getting impatient with the Red Wings’ rebuilding process, with Detroit dropping to 21st out of 32 teams in terms of fan confidence in the Red Wings’ front office, per The Athletic’s reader survey:

21. Detroit Red Wings

Last year: 12th

“Still think that there is a vision as to what Yzerman and Co. are trying to do and build but there definitely has been some questionable signings and trades that leave you scratching your head.”

“Yzerman’s admittedly been handcuffed by absolutely nothing falling their way in terms of lottery luck despite over a half dozen kicks at the can, but his free agency track record has completely hindered the current version of this team. However, he has left a lot of flexibility in the future which is what truly matters so overall he’s been a net positive.”

It seems as if some of the shine from the Yzerplan has started to wear off within the fan base, with a 45 percentage point drop in confidence since last year. The fans still score the front office above average at a 3.7 rating, but that’s a step back from last year (4.2, seventh) and still well off from public perception.

Yzerman and company are doing the best they can with a bad hand: a rough starting point and a lot of poor lottery luck. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been self-inflicted wounds along the way. Detroit’s track record in free agency has been abysmal with a lot of money spent at the wrong time on ineffective players that move the needle enough to get the Red Wings away from a higher pick, but not so much that they become a playoff team. Even if the players are stopgaps to let the prospects develop, it comes at a long-term cost.

Within the fan base, there’s also some concern that the team is playing safe at the draft table rather than shooting for upside. For a team that isn’t ready yet and lacks franchise-caliber talent, that feels like another red flag.

Continued (paywall); I’d still like to see a rebuilding team that’s landed all its free agent signings. Expecting free agency to be a solve-all salve just doesn’t work, and as we’ve discussed repeatedly here at TMR, the Red Wings’ player development team definitely has a “draft type,” and that’s not a boom-or-bust player.

I’m not defending a front office that’s clearly made some missteps in terms of free agency signings and “too safe” draft picks, but I do understand why the team’s made the decisions it has made thus far in the rebuilding process.

White Lake’s Austin Baker thrilled to be drafted by Detroit

MLive’s Ansar Khan profiles Red Wings prospect Austin Baker, who was drafted 203rd overall by Detroit this past June. Baker’s from White Lake Township, MI, and Khan reports that the Michigan-born left wing’s delighted to be drafted by his local NHL team:

“My family went crazy,” Baker said. “It’s really a dream come true. I couldn’t even have imagined being picked by the Wings. Hearing my name called by them was like the best feeling ever.”

The 6-0, 190-pound left wing, a White Lake native who played for the U.S. National Team Development Program in Plymouth, was surprised because he hadn’t had many pre-draft conversations with Red Wings front-office personnel.

“I think it took a couple of hours to settle in and realize I just got drafted to the Red Wings,” Baker said. “I was just super excited.”

The seventh-round pick has a long way to go to fully realize his dream and knows he must buck the odds. Only 32 players selected 200th or later in the past 15 entry drafts have appeared in an NHL game.

For now, he’s enjoying his status as a Red Wings prospect and the perks that come with it. That included an opportunity at development camp to be on the ice with Pavel Datsyuk, the 171st selection in the 1998 draft who went on to fashion a Hall of Fame career.

“I got the chance to skate with him when I was younger at one of his camps,” Baker said during camp last month at Little Caesars Arena. “Seeing him out there now, trying to teach me something, that was pretty cool.”

Continued (paywall)