In the middle (of fundraising)

My aunt is, for better or worse, usually right when she makes observations, and as we talked about fundraising yesterday, AA suggested that the mysterious benefactor’s $2,000 donation might actually make raising funds for the Traverse City trip more difficult, because people might think that those kinds of donations happen all the time.

She’s not wrong; over the past two days, we’ve raised about $50, and the GoFundMe has stagnated.

We’ve also been discussing the state of our 17-year-old Chrysler Pacifica, whose power steering is acting weird, whose right rear passenger side brake whines, and which needs an oil change rather desperately after spending so much time on the road due to Aunt Annie’s hospitalizations over the past year.

I’ve got to get my Pacifica into Norm’s Total Auto for a once-over before I leave, and it’s not going to be cheap, no matter how little we ask him to actually fix.

But there’s something that I want to address on a larger level, too.

After spending much of yesterday with the covers pulled over my head due to an anxiety attack, I got up and wrote a sprawling explanation of the fact that Aunt Annie and I live a spartan life, and that we really are absolutely blessed by a once-in-a-lifetime gesture by our mysterious benefactor.

Continue reading In the middle (of fundraising)

A bit of praise for Nate Danielson from the Brandon Sun

The Brandon Wheat Kings’ website re-posted an article from the Brandon Sun’s Perry Bergson, in which Bergson discusses the WHL team’s outlook for the 2023-2024 season.

Bergson points out that the Wheat Kings’ captain, Red Wings 9th overall draft pick Nate Danielson, is literally and figuratively “front and centre” in terms of the Wheat Kings’ forwards:

Everything starts with Danielson, the co-captain last season who led the team in scoring with 78 points on 33 goals and 45 assists. He was then selected ninth overall in the National Hockey League draft by the Detroit Red Wings.

“Nate is a special player,” Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray said. “It’s not too often you get a top 10 NHL pick coming back to your team. We’re expecting him to have a real big year, although you don’t want to put too much pressure on a kid. We just want him to play his game. He’s developed into one of the best players in the league and I’m really excited to see him after a good summer.

“Part of it with him too is the weight of the draft being off his shoulders.”

For Brandon fans, the worst possible scenario occurs if Danielson finds a spot in Detroit in his 19-year-old season, something that happened with previous Wheat Kings stars such as Nolan Patrick and Wade Redden.

Murray is hopeful Red Wings history points in a different direction.

“Detroit typically has a path for these guys where they like them to season themselves a little bit in the American Hockey League,” Murray said. “We fully expect Nate back, but it’s a crazy game, as we all know, and sometimes those kids turn into men over the summer and Nate was on the verge of doing that last year.

“Would it absolutely surprise me if he made an NHL roster this fall? No, but at the same time, we expect Nate to be back and a big part of our hockey team.”

Continued; per the NHL-CHL agreement, Danielson would have to either make the Red Wings out of training camp, or he must return to the Wheat Kings.

There’s no AHL middle ground for Canadian Hockey League-playing players (an exception was made for players who played during the pandemic, like former Wings prospect Donovan Sebrango) for their 18 and 19-year-old seasons, and Danielson doesn’t turn 19 until September 27th, so this year, at least, he’s either an NHL’er or WHL’er.

All of that being said, I don’t expect Danielson to make the Wings out of training camp due to Detroit’s new-found depth at forward. Danielson still has a ways to go physically, and while he’s drawn some recent comparisons to Ryan Kesler, he’s not there yet.

DHN’s Duff on Fedorov, Fedotov, and the ‘special military operation’

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of the fact that CSKA Moscow, the Sergei Fedorov-coached defending Gargarin Cup champs, played goaltender Ivan Fedotov, who’s supposed to be playing for the Philadelphia Flyers this year (per the International Ice Hockey Federation’s rules), against the Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL season-opener today, in clearly flouting the IIHF’s ruling.

Fedorov also made a comment to the TASS news agency after CSKA Moscow lost 5-2, and Duff translated it:

After the game, Fedorov went on a tirade against the IIHF. He was also speaking cryptically in support of the Russian regime and President Vladimir Putin. Fedorov even went as far as to reference Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Reading certain things over the past month, I can say with confidence, in my opinion, everyone needs to wake up a long time ago,” TASS reported Fedorov saying. “A special military operation is underway, the world has changed. Therefore, here everyone needs to wake up and understand what realities we live in, and who rules in our country – we or some laws from the other side?”

Two key members of the Russian Five that helped Detroit win the 1996-97 Stanley Cup, Fedorov and Viacheslav Fetisov, have both now spoken strongly in support of the Russian government.

There’s been speculation about NHL interest in Fedorov as a coach following his Russian success. This episode certainly is likley to put any any such talk on the back burner. The NHL won’t look kindly upon someone who is deliberately violating a ruling that was in their favor.


Put bluntly: CSKA stands for the Central Red Army team. They’ve already been used in campaigns supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as have the Ak Bars, and it doesn’t matter what Fedorov might think on his own.

The “Special Military Operation” is something that he absolutely has to support, he absolutely has to support Putin, and that’s the way things are.

As Duff suggests, this isn’t going to help Fedorov earn an NHL resume, and the same is true for Igor Larionov, who coaches Nizhny Novgorod. But in Russia, prominent hockey personalities have taken sides, and it should not surprise us that they’ve made the predictable choice.

They’re going to flip off the IIHF, they’re going to support the Russian war with Ukraine, and they’re going to support Putin, like any prominent Russian has to do, because in Russia, sports are political, and political messages are sent through sports. It’s always been that way.

A little panic in Hockeytown? Talking ‘front-office confidence rankings’

The Athletic’s Front-Office Confidence Rankings came out yesterday, and Dom Luszczyszyn reported that the Red Wings finished 11th in the rankings, with some fans expressing their displeasure with Steve Yzerman’s slow-building approach:

12. Detroit Red Wings

Last Year: 3rd

Confidence in the Yzerplan is at an all-time low, especially from the public. It’s hard to build a true contender without the lottery luck to nab franchise players, but it feels wrong to attempt to turn the corner without them. That’s seemed to be Detroit’s plan the last two summers with the team making a lot of additions via free agency — many of which don’t look great (hello Ben Chiarot). A big-time trade for Alex DeBrincat signifies the team is gunning for a playoff spot this year which begs the question: Is this it?

For better or worse, this is the team, and while they will be augmented in the future by a strong prospect pipeline, the team is still missing true elite difference-makers — the ones that contenders are built around. Maybe it’s enough to be a playoff team, but it feels like it limits Detroit’s ceiling beyond that.

That brings about questions regarding the team’s vision, something that even the fans are relatively lower on than in years past. A 4.4 rating suggests high confidence in the Yzerplan and maybe that’s the only number needed, but the middle-of-the-pack ranking means they’re much less zealous than other fan bases.

This is a make-or-break year for the Yzerplan and the confidence that it’s instilled in the past. The Red Wings have missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons and it doesn’t feel likely the streak will break this season.

Continued; I’m not thrilled that the Red Wings haven’t been able to bring in many “difference-makers,” but the fact that the team turned over half its roster to bring in more and more depth this offseason showed me that the Wings’ front office is still committed to doing its best to improve the team’s talent base.

Without the blessing of great luck in the draft lottery, the Wings are having to build a team the hard way, and through some sparsely-talented free agency summers at that, and I still feel that the entire front office and coaching staff are doing their best to build a base for the stars that may become available over the next couple of summers.

Is that a fast enough rebuilding effort for anyone’s level of patience, mine included? Definitely not, but it’s a realistic one for a team that really started from scratch when Yzerman took over. Patience isn’t Detroit fans’ strong suit, but it’s still required.

Stockton on Raymond and Seider’s extensions, as Auston Matthews’ extension applies

This afternoon, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton examines the Red Wings’ looming contract extensions for Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider as the Auston Matthews extension–a four-year contract instead of a max-term, 8 year extension–applies to the Wings’ young stars:

So, how does all this affect Raymond and Seider?

The short answer is it’s hard to say.  ELCs are mostly boilerplate, dictated by a player’s draft positioning and the Collective Bargaining Agreement; they don’t offer much insight into an individual player’s approach to contract negotiations.  With that in mind, it’s difficult to say what Raymond and Seider will prioritize in their second contracts.  

Neither Raymond nor Seider will be in a position to command a $13 million+ salary, but, if they want to max out their career earnings, they would both be well served to follow some portion of Mattthews’ lead and getting themselves back to free agency.

For Yzerman and the Red Wings, the challenge will be securing a healthy portion of each players prime at a number that entices them to remain in Detroit, without over-committing.

As I said from the outset, there is no serious risk of either Raymond or Seider playing elsewhere in 2024-25 (unless that is an option the Red Wings select themselves). Instead, Seider and Raymond’s next deals will be all about the money that remains to flesh out the roster beyond them.

Continued; I’m gonna be honest, with all respect to Sam, who does wonderful work every dang day:

I think that Matthews is in a very different situation as someone who is looking to continue to maximize his value as the salary cap climbs upward in the next couple of years. Raymond and Seider are still developing into star players, and they may very well sign “bridge deals” of similar length, but they don’t have the kind of leverage of one of the NHL’s brightest stars to completely dictate the term and terms of his contract.

What will happen this season, though? As Sam suggests, Raymond and Seider will be asked to afford the rest of the team some cap space to be built around them.

Khan’s mailbag: Done with free agent signings?

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a notebook feature earlier this afternoon, and he addressed a question as to whether the Red Wings are done signing free agents for the summer/fall:

Q: Though it’s likely that Yzerman is done making moves, could we see a possible reunion with current UFA Tomas Tatar? If seems doubtful that the Devils are going to end up with the cap space to sign him and with a 20-goal season last year, he would complement any team’s second or third lines. – Tyler

A: They have one available roster spot and the cap space, so it can’t be ruled out. But if Yzerman acquires another player, he might prefer someone who can play center and wing. Assuming they keep Michael Rasmussen on the wing, their four centers are Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher and Joe Veleno. If one is injured, they would need to either move Rasmussen back to center or bring up Austin Czarnik from Grand Rapids, unless Marco Kasper appears NHL-ready at that time and they’re comfortable playing him at center at a young age.

I think they’re comfortable with the number of top-three line wingers they have in Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond, David Perron, Robby Fabbri, Daniel Sprong, Jonatan Berggren and Klim Kostin, with Elmer Soderblom waiting in the wings in Grand Rapids.

Continued; I don’t expect the Wings to sign anyone else, but a pro try-out or two might be in the offing.

Prospect round-up: Axel Sandin Pellikka’s season gets underway in the Champions Hockey League

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In the Champions Hockey League, Axel Sandin Pellikka had 6 shots and 4 blocks in 15:43 played, finishing even in Skelleftea AIK’s 4-0 win over the Red Bull Salzburg.

Mills’ Friday Notebook: Recapping the Grand Rapids Griffins’ Youth Foundation Golf Classic

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills covered the Grand Rapids Griffins’ annual summer golf tournament to raise funds for the Griffins’ Youth Foundation in a Friday notebook article:

Several Grand Rapids Griffins players and alumni joined fans and sponsors to support a good cause by participating in the 29th annual Griffins Youth Foundation (GYF) Golf Classic, presented by Meijer, on Aug. 21 at the American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Mich.

The golf classic is the primary fundraiser for the GYF, which promotes academic excellence, community involvement and healthy lifestyles among the youth of West Michigan through hockey and ice-related sports. In addition, greens fees support Folds of Honor, a nationally recognized non-profit organization that provides scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled service members as well as first responders.

Longtime Griffins radio announcer Bob Kaser, who also serves as event director and president of the GYF, said the scramble golf tournament shines a light on an important mission.

“Anytime you can go out on the course is a lot of fun, especially when you’re doing it for charity and a great cause like our youth foundation,” Kaser told DetroitRedWings.com. “We continue to grow the program.”

Continued