The Malik Report

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a morning column today, in which he discusses Red Wings 2023 1st round pick Nate Danielson’s competitive streak:

Connor Bedard called Nate Danielson one of his toughest matchups in the Western Hockey League, and the Detroit Red Wings’ ears perked up.

The words of a generational talent and the first pick in this year’s draft carry weight. It’s not the reason the Red Wings selected Danielson ninth overall, but it helped him rise above any other prospects they were considering with their top selection in this deep draft.

“That kind of stands out in an interview,” Kris Draper, Red Wings assistant general manager and director of amateur scouring, said. “When we heard that, it was something that put a little smile on our face. Same thing with Marco (Kasper, their top pick last year), a very competitive player, very driven player. We feel Nate’s in that same mold. They don’t cheat the game. They’re responsible. They play the right way. It’s a 200-foot game and they have passion for the game.”

The 6-2, 186-pound right-shooting center from Brandon has offensive ability, too, picking up 33 goals and 78 points in 68 games last season.

“Real smart player,” Draper said. “He’s a guy that plays in all-situations. Saw him as an underage as well. Impressive young man in the way he talks, the way he presents himself. Trying to get some centers, trying to build through the middle. It’s another piece for us going forward.”

Continued

I don’t like posting these stories for a very simple reason: I don’t believe that Vladimir Konstantinov should have to help cover the cost of his own care.

In any case, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Konstantinov is holding a public signing event next month in Livonia, MI:

Sports Graphing is offering another opportunity for Detroit Red Wings fans to have a meet and greet with legendary ex-Detroit defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov. The Vladinator will be appearing on Aug. 12 at the Sports Zone in Livonia, Michigan.

He will also be doing a private signing on July 30. For those who cannot attend the public event, they are making send ins available to be signed at the end of July. Those items must arrive at Sports Graphing before July 28th. The cost is $50 per item, plus $10 for JSA certification. All of the signed items are JSA certified.

All proceeds go directly to The Vladimir Konstantinov Special Needs Trust that will be used for his ongoing non-medical care. His health insurance is still paid for by the State of Michigan. However, much of his other therapy costs are no longer covered due to a change in the Michigan insurance laws.

Continued; neither Konstantinov nor Sergei Mnatsakanov should have to want for anything at all.

The Hockey News’s Detroit correspondent, Sam Stockton, goes into a “deep dive” to analyze what exactly Alex DeBrincat’s game looks like from analytical and stylistic perspectives this evening, using analytics and video to determine what DeBrincat adds to the Red Wings as an offensive asset:

So where does this profile best fit in with Detroit?  

The obvious answer, at least to start the season, is on Dylan Larkin’s wing.  It’s fair to wonder who belongs in the other wing spot on that line (specifically, does it make more sense to pair those two with a third scorer like Lucas Raymond or more a worker bee/puck hunter like Michael Rasmussen).  

Regardless, placing DeBrincat on Larkin’s wing should jump-start both players in 2023-24.  It would give the former the chance he never had in Ottawa to flourish with his best teammates, and it would give the latter the kind of support Yzerman named as essential to the Red Wings’ off-season, before even the draft.

DeBrincat also belongs on the left flank of Detroit’s top power play unit, where he thrived in Chicago and Ottawa.  Again, it will take some time to develop chemistry here.  In Chicago, Kane and DeBrincat worked well on opposite flanks.  In an ideal world, Lucas Raymond and DeBrincat will do the same.  

DeBrincat also showed nice chemistry with Brady Tkachuk on the Sens’ power play, with Tkachuk doing an impressive job of creating from the goal line and DeBrincat finishing a number of those chances.  The Wings don’t have that type of down-low playmaker on their roster (there are precious few of Tkachuk’s quality around the NHL) and the net-front spot on the power play may well be up for grabs.  It will be interesting to see who ends up in that role, and whether they too can provide DeBrincat with quality service.

Continued, and his article is worth your time…

The Red Wings only have to re-sign one restricted free agent this summer in Joe Veleno, but the team is a summer away from Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond being eligible for restricted free agency.

Both players were eligible to be signed to contract extensions on July 1st, and it is highly likely that the Red Wings’ main post-Veleno priority will be to ink Seider and Raymond to either “bridge deals” or full-on contract extensions.

As such, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen wonders aloud what shape those contract extensions will take, and he focuses on the possibilities for Moritz Seider’s next contractual deal this evening:

Given Seider’s projected future as a top pairing defenseman, [Red Wings GM Steve] Yzerman might prefer getting Moritz Seider tied up. But how much would Yzerman have to give him up to tie him? Boston’s Charlie McAvoy started an eight-year deal this season with an average yearly salary of $9.5 million. The New York Rangers gave Adam Fox a seven-year, $9.5 million per season deal in 2021.

Some younger players don’t want eight years because when their contract is over they want to be young enough still to be able to ask for term on their next deal. In 2021, Cale Makar took a six-year deal for an average of $9 million per season.

“What exactly is middle term, is it 4-5, is it 3 through 6, I don’t know,” Yzerman still talking generally about contract negotiations. “I like these mid-term deals. You get to know the player. I’ve watched Alex (DeBrincat) play his entire junior and pro career. Now you get them in the organization and really get to know them and your comfort level and we can go back at it. But these mid-term deals I think are a good compromise for both sides.”

DeBrincat settled on a four-year deal, even though it was originally reported that he wanted a long-term deal. Seems like the Red Wings will be looking for a bridge contract for Raymond.

Seider and Raymond are both going to be restricted free agents so there is no pressure on the Red Wings to act with any urgency.

Continued; I would imagine that Raymond will be looking for a “prove it”-style bridge deal as well, and that Seider will probably want to be locked up long-term, but that’s my best guess as well.

Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion appeared on Ottawa’s TSN 1200 AM this morning, offering his take on the circumstances leading up to the Alex DeBrincat trade to Detroit. TSN posted a summary of the main points of Dorion’s 27-minute interview:

“I don’t look at it as the price we paid versus what we got in return because the situations are totally different,” Dorion said on TSN1200 Tuesday morning. “One guy was two years out from UFA, when we acquired him, and he gave us a good year of hockey. A lot of things could have gone a bit differently for us, a bit better luck with injuries. Maybe we make the playoffs and people don’t look at it that way. We got a pretty good player for a year and we feel we maximized our return. Let’s look in 3-5 years if that player we take in the first round is better than the player we would’ve taken at No. 7.”

DeBrincat, 25, scored 27 goals and 66 points in his only season with the Senators, finishing fourth on the team in both categories. Despite the solid season from DeBrincat, the Senators missed the playoffs by six points. 

Dorion added that it was always the goal to re-sign the forward to a long-term contract but DeBrincat and his team made it clear that he wished to play elsewhere.

“It was always our goal to sign Alex long term. We talked to him at training camp and [his team] said ‘let’s see how he likes it’,” said Dorion. “About halfway through the year we reached out to them and they said ‘We thought your team would be a bit better from the start of the year.’

“Alex’s body language in the exit interview told me enough. Being around a long time, I told [head coach D.J. Smith] ‘he doesn’t want to be here’. When I got back from the World Championships his agent called me and said ‘we’re not going to sign long-term with you guys.”

Dorion said he reached out to a list of nine teams provided by DeBrincat and gave several teams permission to negotiate a long-term contract with the two-time 40-goal scorer. However, Dorion found finding a trade partner difficult, as DeBrincat did not wish to sign a long-term deal with certain teams and believes he found the best deal he could for the organization.

“At the end of the day, Detroit kept calling and you’re almost just negotiating with one team. And you have to get the best return and do what’s best for the organization,” said Dorion. “What made it a bit more difficult is that if you had a deal close with teams and Alex said he wouldn’t sign there, it made it difficult for us. We were pretty much negotiating with one team.”

Continued

With an opponent to be determined:

ATTENTION! Hockey returns to The Van on October 13th! #GoGRG

Details >> https://t.co/jsCHhJVISe pic.twitter.com/sJCopeDNa2

— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) July 11, 2023

Just a reminder from B/R Open Ice that Pavel Datsyuk had magic hands:

You ever just stop and think about how INSANE Pavel Datsyuk’s hands were 🤯 pic.twitter.com/1WVsRhTAKx

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) July 11, 2023

The Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski discusses the possibility of the Red Wings making the playoffs–or at least talking about making the playoffs–now that the team has acquired Alex DeBrincat from Ottawa:

“There are a limited number of what we actually call goal scorers — the guys that can get it on their stick and any time they shoot it, it looks like it has a chance to go in,” [Red Wings GM Steve] Yzerman said. “I think we’d categorize Alex in that mold, as a sniper. Just one shot can change a game. With our players, you’ve seen at the deadline, myself trading actual hockey players for draft picks, the players have to have people to play with.”

That was the growing concern, that the Wings were collecting lots of touted prospects and decent NHL players, but not many difference-makers. Maybe Larkin or Raymond can become that with DeBrincat attracting defensive attention.

The Wings still need to get more physical, although the trade for 6-3, 215-pound Klim Kostin should help. They desperately need goalie Ville Husso to have a bounce-back season, although the backup situation appears more stable. The Wings are far from a complete team, but they’re much closer to having an actual complete NHL roster, with talented youngsters on the way. If nothing else, the trade-deadline sell-off days should be over.

Yzerman emphasized the intelligence and competitiveness of DeBrincat, who has shown both with a feisty, abrasive style. Tough enough to mix it up, smart enough not to pick the wrong fight.

“(Physical play) is maybe not a huge part of my game, but I try not to back down from anyone,” DeBrincat said. “I think being a smaller forward in the league, sometimes people try to bully you around. I think I can hold my own. Definitely keeps me engaged in the game, but that’s not my main goal.”

His main goal is to be the main goal guy. He knows Larkin well, and along with several Michigan natives on the roster, the main goal is for them to lift each other. All the way to the playoffs? I wouldn’t shout the possibility too loudly, but it deserves more than a whisper.

Continued (really good stuff here)

Yahoo Sports’ Nick Ashbourne discusses the Red Wings’ trade for Alex DeBrincat today, suggesting that Detroit “won the trade” in terms of player personnel compensation and monetary compensation:

The success of any deal for an RFA is tied up in the subsequent extension. Even if the pure compensation side is light, the move can be a flop if a team goes on to overpay the player it has given up assets for.

Detroit has not done that here. The four-year, $31.5 million contract the Red Wings signed DeBrincat to was nothing short of outstanding for the team.

This deal gives the winger a cap hit that is tied for the 48th-highest among NHL forwards, which feels on the light side for one of the league’s top scorers.

Over the last three seasons, DeBrincat’s 100 goals rank 12th in the NHL. Since he debuted in 2017-18, his 187 goals rank 14th. The winger has been labelled a power-play specialist at times, but his ranks in even-strength goals over those time periods are 16th and 20th, respectively. The man puts the puck in the back of the net like few others.

He’s also been exceedingly durable, missing just four games in his career. DeBrincat is available, consistent, and dangerous.

That doesn’t mean he’s a perfect player. The undersized winger (5-foot-8, 178 pounds) is no Mark Stone defensively, and his 2022-23 campaign in Ottawa wasn’t his best.

DeBrincat isn’t as good an overall player as he is a scorer, but scoring is a forward’s most important function — and there are few who do it better. On this deal, the Red Wings get four years of that dependable scoring at a price point that is going to get better with time.

Continued

New Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat took part in an interview on 97.1 the Ticket this morning, and 97.1’s Will Burchfield took note of DeBrincat’s remarks:

The knock on his game is on the other side of the puck. DeBrincat was a minus-31 last season, though that was partly attributable to poor luck. His on-ice shooting percentage and on-ice save percentage both plunged to career lows at five-on-five, so a bounceback is likely in order. He should also benefit from joining a team that plays defense-first hockey under Derek Lalonde.

DeBrincat acknowledged that “my 200-foot game can always get better.” He also pointed out that “it got a lot better” toward the end of his time with the Blackhawks. Indeed, DeBrincat was a minus-10 over his final two seasons in Chicago on a team that was a combined minus-97. No one should ever go too far down the plus-minus wormhole, but that was best on the team among players who logged at least 70 games. (Patrick Kane? Minus-26.)

“Obviously last year my plus-minus wasn’t very good, but I think there’s a lot of things that go into that as well, so looking to have a bounceback season and get that 200-foot game back,” DeBrincat said. “I think I fit well on this team. There’s a lot of guys who want to play fast and control the puck and that’s kind of my big game, controlling the puck and playing in the O-zone. But you gotta play well in the D-zone to get it in the O-zone, so just looking to do that.”

The addition of DeBrincat gives the Wings legitimate playoff aspirations for the first time in several years. A few more goals should yield a few more wins, which could be the difference between falling out of the race and staying in it. While DeBrincat admitted that “it’s a little early to tell,” he said that returning to the playoffs is the aim for the Red Wings next season. They were 12 points shy last season, the closest they’ve been since the last time they actually made them in 2016.

“That’s the goal going into the year,” he said, “is playing meaningful games and hopefully contending for the Stanley Cup. I think that’s everyone’s goal in that locker room and we’re hoping to get there.”

Continued