Wyshynski issues free agency grades for 32 NHL teams, including the Red Wings

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski issued free agency grades for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

Key additions: C Pius Suter, C Mitchell Stephens, D Nick Leddy, G Alex Nedeljkovic

Key losses: G Jonathan Bernier, C Luke Glendening, C Darren Helm, D Dennis Cholowski (expansion draft)

Remaining hole: The Red Wings have the cap space (over $25 million) to pluck some of the contracts that teams might need to shed later in the summer. They also have to do deals with restricted free agent forward Jakub Vrana and defenseman Filip Hronek.

Grade: A. The Red Wings took advantage of a couple of odd decisions by other teams on restricted free agents. The Hurricanes weren’t convinced that Nedeljkovic, a Calder Trophy finalist, had the stuff of a true starting goalie, and they traded him to Detroit. The Blackhawks said there “wasn’t really a match” in contract talks with Suter, walked away and saw the Red Wings snatch him up. Leddy was a salary dump from the Islanders who’ll help their young defensemen.

They also got better by virtue of who left their lineup. It’s still a knee-deep rebuild for Detroit, but it’s very much on the right track. This grade is erring on the side of GM Steve Yzerman (still) being the smartest guy in the room.

Continued (paywall)

Allen sees few parallels between Tigers and Red Wings’ rebuilding efforts

More than a few sports columnists in the Metro Detroit area have written columns over the past couple of months which compare the rebuilding efforts of the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, and, of course, the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen believes that the comparisons aren’t apt, and, specifically, the comparisons between the Tigers and the Red Wings run short of Allen’s expectations:

The problem is the Red Wings and Tigers are an apples and oranges comparison.  The Tigers play in a luxury tax league where it is commonplace for ownership to set a budget. The Red Wings are in a salary cap league where the vast majority of teams spend to the cap. To my knowledge, the Ilitch family has not imposed any restrictions on general manager Steve Yzerman’s ability to spend.

If Yzerman wanted to pursue a trade for $10 million Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel, he wouldn’t need special dispensation.

Yzerman’s decision to stay below the salary cap is a strategy, one often employed by rebuilding teams. You maintain salary cap flexibility to take advantage of teams with no flexibility. That’s how landed he landed Nick Leddy and Alex Nedeljkovic this offseason.  That’s why they were in position to land Pius Suter when the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t fit him into their cap structure.

According to CapFriendly. com, the Red Wings have $25.8 million. However, that number will shrink close to $15 million after signing RFAs Jakub Vrana, Filip Hronek, Adam Erne and Givani Smith.

Yzerman undoubtedly will use that cap space to his advantage during the regular season when other teams are having cap trouble.

Continued (paywall); Allen argues that the lack of blue-chip prospects who are NHL-ready in the Red Wings’ system, combined with a weak free agency class next summer (combined with the salary cap’s spending limitations) all add up to a longer rebuilding timeline for the Wings.

He’s not wrong.

Via A2Y: NHL Network’s Stu Grimson discusses HOF candidacies of Henrik Zetterberg, Rick Nash

Via Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner/Abel to Yzerman comes this Tweet from the NHL Network, in which Stu Grimson debates whether Henrik Zetterberg and/or Rick Nash should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame:

HSJ in the morning: discussing a possible opening-night Red Wings lineup

The Free Press’s Helene St. James examines the Detroit Red Wings’ roster this morning, discussing a possible lineup that the Wings could ice on opening night in October. Here are her second and third forward lines:

Line 2: Jakub Vrana-Pius Suter-Robby Fabbri

Suter has good hockey IQ and hands. Vrana made a terrific impression after being acquired at the trade deadline, pumping 11 points into 11 games. He’s an opportunistic, savvy scorer, and could help Suter as he transitions to a new team. A concussion sidelined Fabbri in early April, but he said in July that he’s fully recovered. He’s been a solid, steady scoring threat since arriving in December 2019, and he adds a nice bit of grit.

Line 3: Vladislav Namestnikov–Joe Veleno-Sam Gagner

Yzerman said in late July that Veleno, who played five games for the Wings after his season in the Swedish Hockey League ended, isn’t a shoo-in for a spot in Detroit. But Veleno looks poised to stake a claim, strengthened by the experience he gained playing for Malmö and by gotten significantly stronger. Gagner is a good fit because he’s a savvy veteran who keeps things calm. Both he and Namestnikov can take faceoffs if needed.

Continued (paywall);

Coach Jeff Blashill believes that the Wings will improve, but he’s focused on day-by-day improvement

Early August is charity golf tournament and charity softball game season for hockey players and coaches. As such, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the Big Rapids Pioneer’s John Raffel while attending a charity golf event raising funds for his alma mater, Ferris State University.

Blashill discussed the addition of Pius Suter to the Wings’ lineup, Darren Helm’s departure, and he said this to Raffel about the timeline of the Red Wings’ rebuild:

Blashill said the Red Wings are headed in the right direction.

“How quickly, I don’t know that answer,” Blashill said. “We get to answer that question on a daily basis this season. We’ve gone through some lean years where it’s been hard. But I think we’ve learned some lessons though it. How big the steps are, I think we’ll see.

“Let’s make sure we have a great first day of camp. That’s the bigger focus. We have to take things day by day and make sure we’re getting better. I know that sounds like a cliché but that’s a reality of sports and a reality of life.”

Continued; Blashill also had this to say to the 9 and 10 News’s Tyler Dreisenga:

Blashill also talked about the excitement of returning to Traverse City for the NHL prospects tournament and training camp.

“First, that means the world is a little more right than it was last year,” Blashill said. “Second, Northern Michigan holds a dear place in my heart having grown up in Sault Ste. Marie. My sisters live in Traverse, my parents both live in Traverse. Probably more importantly, I understand the fans we have on the west side of the state and it really gives the west siders access to our players and to seeing our camp start. So I think it’s a great thing.”

The Red Wings will hold training camp in Traverse City from September 23-28.

Here’s a Tweet from Driesenga of Blashill speaking about Pius Suter:

A pair of articles from Detroit Hockey Now: Allen ranks the Wings’ offseason moves, and Duff talks about the Wings’ next generation

This evening, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen ranked the Red Wings management’s offseason moves, from 1 to 10, with work left to do in re-signing the restricted free agents left on the docket (Adam Erne, Jakub Vrana, Filip Hronek and Givani Smith). Numbers one and two have to do with the Wings’ goaltending:

1. Trading for Alex Nedeljkovic: The Red Wings have a collection of rebuild problems, but lack of a young, premium goaltending prospect was probably chief among them. He solved that in extraordinary way by acquiring goalie Nedeljkovic, who was finalist for NHL Rookie of the Year. He had 15 quality starts last season in 23 appearances for the Carolina Hurricanes. His 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage speak to his potential to be Detroit’s goalie for years to come.

At 25, Nedeljkovic is still young enough to be the team’s No. 1 goalie when the team’s rebuild is completed. The bonus of this trade is that Yzerman only gave up a third-round pick and the rights to Jonathan Bernier, who wasn’t going to resign in Detroit.

2. Drafting Sebastian Cossa: Yzerman moved from No. 23 to No. 15 in the draft to take Cossa, who is a fiery, 6-foot-6 goalie with overflowing talent. While many in the scouting world were crowing about Jesper Wallstedt, the Red Wings focused on Cossa. They liked Cossa’s potential more. He’s a trash-talking, cocky netminder who believes strongly in his ability to stop the puck.

The Red Wings only gave up a second rounder and a fifth rounder to the Dallas Stars to get this done. With Nedeljkovic aboard, the Red Wings have no reason to rush Cossa.

Continued; Bob Duff also wrote a subscriber-only article for Detroit Hockey Now on this humid Saturday evening, discussing the fact that the Red Wings are not going to simply hand out roster spots to their top prospects:

Continue reading A pair of articles from Detroit Hockey Now: Allen ranks the Wings’ offseason moves, and Duff talks about the Wings’ next generation

A legitimate one-sentence question from Brooks: will the NHL still need taxi squads in a COVID world?

I’ve tried to not hammer home my take on the coronavirus and vaccination, but as someone who is probably recovering from long-haul COVID and is living with an immune-compromised aunt, I strongly believe that those of you who are able to get vaccinated need to protect both yourself and others by getting vaccinated…

As we’re seeing in society and sports, however, there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the concept of vaccination in itself, and the New York Post’s Larry Brooks offers a one-sentence question that’s very valid in his weekly notebook today:

So if COVID-19 outbreaks persist into the autumn, won’t the NHL have to maintain taxi squads for a second year in order to ensure clubs have enough players to play in case of a rash of game-day positive tests?

Regardless of where we are as a society, we are going to be living with the coronavirus for the foreseeable future, and, as we’ve seen this summer, virus mutations are going to yield breakthrough cases, even among the most forward-thinking NHL teams. It’s entirely possible, if not probable, that NHL teams are going to find themselves scrambling to contain outbreaks going forward into the 2021-2022 season.

Duff discusses Sam Gagner’s desire to mentor the Wings’ younger players

When Sam Gagner re-signed with the Red Wings, he spoke about his desire to mentor the Red Wings’ younger players. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of the 31-year-old Gagner’s remarks:

Selected sixth overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2007 NHL entry draft, Gagner spent his first seven seasons with the Oilers as they rebuilt from the ground floor. He’s seen that process from the point of view of an incoming NHLer. Now that he’s a veteran skating in a similar scenario in Detroit, Gagner is drawing upon those lessons as he seeks to mentor young Red Wings through the same situation.

“It allows me to see it from a different perspective and kind of help our young group coming up,” Gagner said. “A lot of the things they’re going to go through early in their careers I’ve been through.

“I was a high pick in Edmonton, one of the guys that was kind of expected to help turn things around. You learn a lot about yourself and there’s a lot of growth that comes with that.

“Handling that adversity has made me a better person. It helps in the situation that I’m in now, being able to kind of impart some of that on our young group.”

Continued

Via KK: The Athletic’s Russo reports that COVID surge yields NHL memo prohibiting player-fan interactions

Via Kukla’s Korner, it doesn’t sound like Red Wings fans will be able to get autographs from players during training camp, nor that the Red Wings’ “Community Tour” will take place this fall. Per The Athletic’s Michael Russo:

With COVID-19 cases on the rise, the NHL sent a memo to all clubs this week prohibiting all organized corporate, community and charitable interactions with fans (handshake lines, fist bumps, autograph sessions, speaking engagements, etc.)— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) August 6, 2021

The NHL and NHLPA will continue to monitor vaccination rates/surge in variants as the offseason progresses to determine if a modification is needed as camp approaches.— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) August 6, 2021

Told @DaBeautyLeague in Minnesota is seeking further questions from the NHL, but this would seem to indicate at the least protocol changes will need to be made. No more autographs, etc.

Also, media must be vaccinated and wear masks during interaction with any club personnel— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) August 6, 2021

Seeking further info* that should read, obviously ?— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) August 6, 2021