DHN’s Robinson profiles Jack Phelan

The Red Wings drafted 6’3,” 181-pound defenseman Jack Phelan 137th overall in this past June’s NHL Draft. Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson posted a profile of Phelan this morning, noting that Phelan will play for the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede this upcoming season:

“The plan was always to play two years in the USHL,” Phelan says. “I’m sure there was an opportunity for me to go in this year (at Wisconsin). But when I committed to play for Wisconsin, I was always on a two-year plan. I think it would be good to go back and have a year of experience under my belt and, you know, grow as a player more.”

Red Wings director of amateur scouting and assistant general manager Kris Draper says adding strength will be a key part of Phelan’s development.

“For 17- and 18-year-olds, that’s a common theme for a lot of these guys,” he said. (Phelan’s) going to play another year of junior, going to school. It buys him time to do exactly what he needs to do and that’s to add strength.”

Phelan will be working to be more of an offensive presence at Sioux Falls this season after recording just one goal and four assists in 59 games last season.

“I want to get bigger, stronger, faster,” he said. “Guys get better and better every year. I’ve obviously got to be more offensive and find the holes to jump into and, um, you know, join the rush more and, uh, be a little more active at the blue line.”

Continued

Roughly translated: Joe Veleno discusses Gustav Lindstrom and his contract status with RDS.ca

Red Wings restricted free agent forward Joe Veleno spoke with RDS.ca’s Jean-Christophe Bertrand on Monday night via Zoom, discussing the Jeff Petry trade as it applies to the Canadiens adding Gustav Lindstrom, as well as his own contract negotiations with the Wings. What follows is roughly translated from French:

Continue reading Roughly translated: Joe Veleno discusses Gustav Lindstrom and his contract status with RDS.ca

Videos: NHL Network’s Rupp, Luftman discuss the Petry trade and the Wings’ outlook

The NHL Network spoke about the Red Wings at length on The NHL Tonight this evening. Here are two clips from the show:

  1. In the first clip, Mike Rupp discusses the Jeff Petry trade to Detroit and what Petry’s addition to the blueline might mean for the Red Wings’ organization…

2. And in the second clip, Rupp and Tony Luftman discuss the Wings’ season outlook:

Windsor Spitfires post 88-image gallery from the ‘All in 4 ALS’ game

As noted on Saturday, six Red Wings players took part in the “All in 4 ALS” game in Windsor, raising over $200,000 for ALS research in the name of Bob Jones, an Ottawa Senators assistant coach who is battling the disease.

Today, the Windsor Spitfires’ website posted an 88-image gallery of photos taken by their team photographer, Remo Augustino, and it includes pictures of the Wings’ participants:

Twitter…Erm, an ‘X’ video: WXYZ’s Galli reports on the Petry trade

WXYZ’s Brad Galli posted a Tweet…I mean posted on “X” in video form, discussing the Jeff Petry trade:

Bultman on the Petry trade’s effects down the lineup

The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed a late-afternoon article discussing the ramifications of the Jeff Petry trade for the Red Wings’ blueline and their top defensive prospects:

[The trade] also comes with some interesting questions about potential fallout elsewhere on the blue line, which suddenly looks very crowded. After the projected top pair of Moritz Seider and Jake Walman, the Red Wings now may have to sit one of Petry, Gostisbehere, Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl and Olli Määttä, all of whom except Gostisbehere are under contract for at least the next two seasons, and all but Petry (whose cap hit is $2.34 million, after Montreal retained salary) will cost at least $3 million.

In many ways, that crowdedness can be a good thing — injuries are inevitable in the NHL, and in recent years, the Red Wings have had to resort to asking depth defenders to carry a real load. Last season, Detroit’s Nos. 6-8 defensemen (Lindstrom, Jordan Oesterle and Robert Hagg) combined for 126 games. Now, when all are healthy, the Red Wings would project to scratch a player who is better than all three of them — and that’s without knowing who, exactly, shapes up as the odd man out on a given night. There should be real competition.

Improving the blue line was the top priority for head coach Derek Lalonde when he arrived last season, and remains as such going forward, with Lalonde recently saying that even though Detroit improved defensively last season, it “still isn’t good enough.”

“I’ve been fortunate enough prior to coming here, being around some winning within this league, and it’s still about keeping it out of the net,” Lalonde said.

Clearly, Yzerman agrees, as the Red Wings now look much deeper (and more veteran) on defense. Petry had a 54 percent expected goals share last season in Pittsburgh, and while much of that was a result of what he brings offensively, he has a history of strong defensive impacts too.

And beyond that, finding more offense is still a major need for Detroit. Petry, for his part, has tallied 40 or more points in four of his last six seasons, in addition to being on pace to do so last season in the 61 games he played. That’s the good: the Red Wings got better, deeper, and more experienced, and did so without giving up much.

Bultman continues (paywall)

Summarizing the Wings media corps’ takes on the Petry trade

The Detroit Red Wings acquired defenseman Jeff Petry from the Montreal Canadiens for Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional 4th round draft pick. Here’s what the regular media folks have to say about the deal:

A. MLive:

MLive’s Ansar Khan weighs in as follows:

Continue reading Summarizing the Wings media corps’ takes on the Petry trade

Videos: Canadiens GM Kent Hughes discusses the Jeff Petry trade

Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes spoke with the media for nearly 20 minutes, in both English and French, regarding the fact that he basically acquired Jeff Petry to flip him (and a whole lot more) over the course of his conversation…

And if you don’t have 20 minutes to spare, TSN posted a 5:30 video in which Hughes very directly addresses the Hughes deal in English:

A quick take on the Petry deal

Okay, here’s what I’ve Tweeted regarding the Red Wings’ trade for Jeff Petry from Montreal:

Yes, Petry is 35 years old, but he’s still a very strong skater, and he can post 30-35 points on the right point. He’s coming in on a $2.34 million cap hit, and in terms of real-world salary, he’s going to cost the Wings $2.8125 million this season, and only $1.875 million next season.

That’s very reasonable for someone who’s essentially coming in to replace Filip Hronek until the Wings can bring in a younger right-side defenseman (or one of their lefties steps up and takes the spot).

I’m not thrilled that the Wings gave up Gustav Lindstrom, upper-body strength issues included, but Lindstrom and a conditional 4th round pick are very reasonable rates for someone with Petry’s track record.

Moreover, the Red Wings now have a depth chart on defense that goes seven defensemen deep–Seider, Walman, Maatta, Petry, Gostisbehere, Holl and Chiarot, not counting the youngsters like Edvinsson or Wallinder–and there are going to be injuries on defense, so you have to build your forward corps and defensive corps deeper than 12 + 6.

Overall, I mean, no, it’s not ideal to be adding another guy in his mid-30’s, who’s signed next year as well as this one, but Petry addresses a need, he’s a hometown guy, his skating is strong and he’s got some savvy, as well as a track record of scoring 35+ points…

And the Wings didn’t pay much for him. So this works.

Now we’ll see whether they bring in one more scoring winger.