The Malik Report

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills examines Olli Maatta’s successful 2022-2023 season with the Detroit Red Wings this morning, discussing the fact that Maatta “bet on himself” by signing a one-year contract, and won the bet in a big way:

That gamble paid off for the 28-year-old defenseman, who tallied 23 points (6-17-23) in 78 games with the Red Wings during the 2022-23 season, nearly doubling his combined point total (1-11-12 in 107 games) from 2020-22 as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

Maatta’s impact both on and off the ice impressed Detroit’s brass enough to ink him to a two-year contract extension on Feb. 16.

“I put great value in really good, high-character people,” Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman said on March 3. “Olli is a real professional. He shows up every day. He’s there early, training, prepared before practice and the game, there after practice and the game. He’s been a good, solid and steady defenseman.”

Maatta began his debut season in Detroit by posting a four-game point streak from Oct. 14-21, becoming the first Red Wings blueliner to record a point in each of the first four or more games of a season since Brian Rafalski had nine (1-8-9) in seven contests in 2008-09.

According to Maatta, his training camp experience helped him burst out of the gate.

“You were at and outside the rink with the guys for seven days, which was awesome,” Maatta told Red Wings TV’s Daniella Bruce on Feb. 27.“We’re a new team with so many new guys, so you got to know everybody. I think that helped a lot. The coaching staff also put me in situations and helped me build confidence that way.”

Continued; Maatta is a very strong middle-pair defenseman, and while he’s never going to be an offensive superstar, an NHL team needs players who are willing to play in supporting roles in order to succeed, and Maatta has found his place in Detroit.

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Hockey is coming… and single-game tickets go on sale in ONE WEEK! 🙌

Which games will you secure tickets to?!

🎟️: https://t.co/C3c7hZn1Ac pic.twitter.com/iNI5QZgYac

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 28, 2023

Here’s the text of an email they just sent out to their email subscribers:

Continue reading Red Wings announce single-game tickets will go on sale on Friday, August 4th

The excellent Sean Shapiro is back with another selection of “Shap Shots” on his Substack, and he answers a reader question regarding the Red Wings’ hiring of Roope Koistinen as the Grand Rapids Griffins’ goaltending coach:

The Griffins named Roope Koistinen the new goalie coach. I’ve always wondered – does a goalie coach actually matter that much? If it does have a significant impact, doesn’t it seem like a fairly large gamble to put a coach with no AHL or NHL experience (playing or coaching) in place in a system that’s tasked with developing Cossa and now Trey Augustine? (From Aaron)

Yes, goalie coaches matter, a lot. I think it’s become even more important in the AHL, which is one of the most volatile leagues in the world for goalies. Having a strong goalie coach, a confidant, that can help with the ups-and-downs of the AHL can be the difference between a prospect making it or not.

So I understand your concern about Koistinen, he’s never coached in North America. But I really like the hire, and some people I’ve spoken to in both Finland and North America also keen on his work he’s done developing young goalies in Finland with both Karpat and the national team program.

Sebastian Cossa needs more of a tactician to work with in his next goalie coach. He needs someone who will help create some more calmness in his game, and remove some of the wasted movements/energy. That’s something that Finnish goalies tend to be very good at, so for Cossa in general, Koistinen could be an ideal fit, even without North American experience.

Continued (paywall); Sean offers a set of reader questions about topics all over the hockey map, he discusses how writing about soccer made him a better hockey writer, and he shares some of his goaltending superstitions. I really enjoy Sean’s work.

Anyway, my thoughts on the Koistinen hire:

1. Koistinen almost entirely worked with Karpat Oulu’s under-18 and under-20 teams as their goaltending coach, so he’s specialized in development. He’s only 30 years old, which is particularly young for a goaltending hire, but the Red Wings seem to want a younger coach that can relate to the players they’ll be working with (in this case, Alex Lyon, Sebastian Cossa and John Lethemon), as was the case with Brian Mahoney-Wilson.
2. The Wings then have an older coach, Phil Osaer, working as their roving goaltending development consultant, and he will be spending his time working with and checking in on all the Red Wings’ goaltending prospects, be they at the AHL, ECHL or other developmental levels. Trey Augustine is an interesting case (as is Carter Gylander) in that the Red Wings can’t technically work with their NCAA prospects on the ice at any time of year save development camp, but coach Osaer can still go over video with them and offer feedback and suggestions.
3. As far as Cossa is specifically concerned, Sean’s right in suggesting that Cossa needs to refine the technical details of his game. He’s still a remarkably talented, 6’6,” 229-pound goaltender, but the little holes in his blocker and five-hole, the fact that he can be “turned around” and struggle…Those are detail-oriented mistakes that need to be fixed through repetition and reinforcement.

Per Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

Wayne Maxner replaced one Detroit Red Wings legend and inadvertently wound up playing a role in the arrival of another.

Maxner, who died Thursday at the age of 80, was Detroit coach from 1980-82. His hiring came on Nov. 25. Maxner was given promotion from Detroit’s AHL farm club at the time, the Adirondack Red Wings, where he was serving as head coach.

Maxner was replacing Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay as coach in Detroit. Immediately, he was announcing plans to reunite what had previously been the club’s top line of Dale McCourt between John Ogrodnick and Mike Foligno.

Continued

WOOD TV8 in Grand Rapids reports that several current and former Grand Rapids Griffins will be raising money for the Cascade Township Firefighters (and more charities) via a charity hockey game this weekend:

It’s almost time for the puck to drop at the Patterson Ice Center for the annual Cascade Firefighters’ Association Charity Hockey game.

This is the third year of the charity game and organizers said they hope it’s the biggest year yet. The event starts Saturday with a parking lot party at 4 p.m. There will be games, a food truck and fire trucks.

The puck drops at 5:30 p.m. The two teams are made up of current and former professional hockey players.

This year, many Grand Rapids Griffins players are returning to the ice for the charity game, including Dominik Shine and Tyler Spezia. Another big name expected to play is Mitch Callahan, who won two Calder Cups with the Griffins and played for the Detroit Red Wings.

All proceeds for the game go to Riding for Ryan, an organization that provides free bike flags for kids, Brody’s Be Café, a coffee shop that employs people with intellectual struggles and special needs and the Cascade Firefighters’ Association.

Organizers expect hundreds of people at the game and said it connects the community.

“Everybody is together, and you see the kids’ faces light up when somebody scores a goal or it’s just a sense of togetherness and community with this hockey game,” Jon Snyder, firefighter and treasurer for the Cascade Firefighters’ Association, said.

My offerings for Thursday at the World Junior Summer Showcase were somewhat limited. I posted an “arrival, and here’s how it goes in terms of schedule/games” post, and interviews with Axel Sandin Pellikka and Anton Johansson of Sweden, as well as Trey Augustine of Team USA White.

My first-day takeaways, on a team-by-team basis, were fairly straightforward:

The Swedes ran an efficient practice, emphasizing economy of motion and no wasteful spending of time, with the name-and-number-less players engaging in some fairly competitive drills that covered the fundamentals of the game, with a lot of emphasis on dynamic plays and special teams.

The Finns seemed to engage in a little more of a casual approach, sort of a, “Welcome to the U.S., here are some basic drills to shake off the jet lag” before really getting into puck possession drills and working on sorting out defensive coverage, transitions and retrievals.

The Americans, under University of Denver coach David Carle, really took things to another level, for both Team USA White and Team USA Blue. Right off the bat, the teams were split into two units which engaged in “battle drills” off the bat, with stick and body checking fully engaged, and things got more complicated from there. The Americans really busted their humps from stem to stern of their 1-hour practices in a way that the elegantly efficient Swedes and slightly slow-starting Finns did not.

Continue reading Brief impressions from Day 1 at the 2023 World Junior Summer Showcase

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton did a superb job of breaking down the practices which Team Sweden, Team Finland and Team USA (White and Blue) held today at the World Junior Summer Showcase, offering detailed notes and videos describing said happenings, and he focused in on Axel Sandin Pellikka’s play as well:

2023 Red Wings first rounder Axel Sandin Pellikka takes plenty of reps along the point during Sweden’s power play work, showing once again the skills that made him such a coveted prospect in the lead up to June’s draft.  

Two habits of his that jumped out at me this morning were the way he keeps his head up from the point and the way he always has the puck in a dual threat position.  Put those two skills together (and throw in some remarkable balance and edgework), and it’s not hard to see why he’s been so effective in that position throughout his amateur career.  

Sandin Pellikka also has a clear affinity for a dying art in the modern game: the old fashioned, non-one-timed slap shot.  He has an excellent shot fake in his bag, and it’s no empty threat; the Swedish blue liner has no compunction about firing a clapper on goal.  That tool further feeds the sense that he is just as comfortable beating you with his playmaking or his shooting from the point.  He can wind and fire, he can wind and slap pass, or he can wind, hold and survey his options.

Continued; give Sam a read as he really knows his stuff.

Red Wings prospect and 2023 draft pick Trey Augustine is all business: when myself, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton and The Athletic’s Max Bultman spoke with the affable goaltender from South Lyon, Trey let us know that the Americans have one goal: to win the gold medal at the World Junior Championship.

That apparently starts now, because the Americans on Team White and Team Blue have been practicing full-out with battle drills and combative play from the first drop of the puck today at USA Hockey Arena.

Augustine also talks about preparing for his freshman season at Michigan State by spending the last month in East Lansing and how he’s incorporated what he learned at the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp into his routines.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers several “offseason thoughts” today, including the following:

Once [restricted free agent Joe] Veleno’s deal gets done, Detroit should be as deep down the middle as they’ve been in years. That’s mainly due to the addition of J.T. Compher, who not only finally gives Detroit a right-shot center, but gives them another tough-minutes option who last season topped 50 points.

Now, Compher probably won’t get 20 minutes a night next season, as he did in Colorado, and won’t have any linemates as good as Mikko Rantanen, his most frequent linemate last season, either. But between him, Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp, the Red Wings now have three centers they should be able to pencil in for 40-plus points, all of whom they can trust against opposing teams’ top players.

That’s going to be important for each of them, and perhaps especially for Copp, who often drew the toughest matchups last season and finished with just nine goals, after breakout scoring seasons the previous two campaigns. Whether it’s him or Compher technically slotting as the second-line center, it’s probably safe to expect they log similar ice time, with a much more balanced division of the toughest matchups.

And Veleno should benefit, too. With three centers above him who can all take on opponents’ top players, the door should be open for Veleno to get more of an offensively-driven deployment than is typical of fourth lines.

With all that said, even with their best outlook in years, the Red Wings can’t yet call this position a strength compared to some of the teams they’re competing with in the Atlantic Division. Maybe it gets there in time, with top-10 picks Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson on the way, but right now the top end of the NHL group still has question marks relative to its divisional foes.

Their 1-2 punch won’t, for example, stack up favorably against Toronto, Tampa Bay, Florida, Buffalo or Ottawa. But the depth of the position is stronger and will be counted on to neutralize that gap.

Continued (paywall)

Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva posted a lengthy article discussing the “All-Bargain Teams,” consisting of players whose performances exceeded their contractual values this past season.

In his “Top 10 Value Performers” list, Daniel Sprong earned a nod for betting on himself with the Seattle Kraken this past season, and parlaying his one-year deal with Seattle to something of a payday with Detroit…

2. Daniel Sprong, Seattle Kraken

2022-23 Impact: 46 points, $750,000 cap hit

Cost per point: $16,304

After bouncing around the league and showing glimpses of his potential during stints in Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Washington, Sprong put together a breakout season with Seattle in 2022-23, potting 21 goals and 46 points through just 66 games. Having taken time to find his footing in the league, the young sniper was playing out his third post-ELC contract, meaning his strong depth scoring season came with a price tag of just $750,000 for the Kraken. The 20-goal effort earned Sprong a one-year, $2-million deal with Detroit for 2023-24.

Sachdeva also picks Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider as players who are delivering maximum value for their entry-level contracts…