The Malik Report

According to The Athletic’s Max Bultman, the Red Wings are not practicing today, though they are hoping to build upon last night’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia…

As a home-and-home series with Montreal (and goaltender Samuel Montembeault) looms on Friday and Saturday, and the pre-Christmas portion of Detroit’s schedule will conclude with a home game against St. Louis on Monday the 23rd of December.

The condensed schedule consists of 3 games in 4 nights, so, with Ben Chiarot playing 29:14 and Moritz Seider playing 28:02 after Simon Edvinsson left last night’s game with an “upper-body injury,” the Wings are going to have to manage their defensemen’s ice time better over the course of the next three games.

That’s all presuming that Edvinsson doesn’t play tomorrow or Saturday, but there’s a complicating factor in the Edvinsson saga:

Tonight at midnight, the NHL’s “holiday roster freeze” goes into effect.

The “roster freeze” means that teams can’t make trades or recall players between December 20th and 27th, save “roster emergencies,” and as Albert Johansson’s presence on the Wings’ blueline = Detroit having 6 healthy defensemen, the Wings would have to place Edvinsson on the IR (and lose his services until the 27th vs. Toronto) to open up a roster spot.

There may be no practice today, but it will be interesting to see whether the Wings do something like waiving Ville Husso again in order to create a roster spot for a healthy defenseman, or whether they attempt to make a recall from Grand Rapids.

Such moves would indicate that Detroit’s #1B defenseman might miss some time, which would not be good news for Red Wings fans.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote a lengthy article discussing Simon Edvinsson’s incredibly important status as one of the Red Wings‘ top defensemen:

It’s easy to forget that just one year ago, he was still just waiting for his chance — marinating with Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids while so many were itching to see him at the next level. That wait had to be hard for Edvinsson, as it took until late March for him to get a full-time shot with the big club. But looking back now, Edvinsson can see all the ways that time with the Griffins helped him get to where he is today.

“It was huge for me,” Edvinsson said Wednesday morning. “It helped me so much. It was great to be down there, play for Grand Rapids and the fans. I just enjoyed it, and I just learned so much from there. It was huge for me to get those reps in down there, and then come up here and feel confident enough to do it up here as well.”

Now, Edvinsson looks like a foundational piece of the Red Wings’ core going forward. Of course, that was always the hope. At 6 feet, 6 inches with graceful skating, soft hands and a bit more edge than expected, his profile is straight out of central casting for a modern-day shutdown defenseman.

His skating and long reach make him an asset not just in defending against the rush but also in being able to skate the puck up ice himself — becoming a sort of one-man breakout when needed. Both aspects are big parts of why, despite his difficult workload, he is the only Red Wings defenseman with a five-on-five on-ice expected goals share north of 50 percent.

“Obviously him and (Seider)’s numbers of getting pucks out, getting pucks out clean, (have) been really high,” Lalonde said. “And it’s been a huge positive, and part of who he is.”

Continued (paywall);

The Hockey News’s Lyle Richardson is one of the most respected writers out there, but I’m scratching my head at “Spector’s” suggestion, via the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, that the Red Wings may be willing to trade one Cameron Talbot in order to help clear the decks:

Turning to the Detroit Red Wings, [the New York Post’s Larry] Brooks noted that Cam Talbot has performed well thus far in Motown. The 37-year-old goaltender has a record of 6-6-2 with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.

Talbot has an affordable two-year contract with an average annual value of $2.5 million. Brooks believes the Colorado Avalanche or New Jersey Devils might come calling if their current goalie tandems don’t work out as hoped. 

Continued; anything is possible, especially if Sebastian Cossa takes leaps forward in his development, and/or Trey Augustine turns pro…

But I’m not seeing the Wings moving Talbot unless all hope is lost, especially given Ville Husso and Alex Lyon’s up-and-down performances.

The man of many hats, EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro, wrote an article for USAHockey.com which discusses the United States‘ 2026 World Junior team, which includes incumbent starting goaltender and Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine:

On paper, the Americans are a deep team at all three position groups, but during camp, almost everyone pointed to goaltending as one of the foundations for the medal chase.

Augustine, who joked he was the “old man” in camp, will be playing in his third straight World Juniors and is the likely starter. Augustine has been one of the best goalies in college hockey the past two seasons, currently posting a .930 save percentage for Michigan State, and made his U.S. Men’s National Team debut this past spring at the IIHF World Championship.

Augustine is the calming force and has been that way for the U.S. at multiple tournaments, winning both World Junior and Under-18 gold medals in the past two years.

“He’s just so composed and calm, and he understands the game,” David Lassonde, USA Hockey’s national goaltending coach, said. “He reads the game so well; there’s so rarely a time or place where he isn’t in the right position.”

Continued; Shapiro’s article is a good read…

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler posted a list of the “top 25 prospects” participating at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

With Axel Sandin Pellikka (Sweden), Jesse Kiiskinen (Finland), Trey Augustine (USA) and possibly Max Plante (USA) participating against a field of 2025 draft stars, Pronman and Wheeler decided that there was only one Red Wing on their list:

10. Axel Sandin Pellikka, RHD, Sweden (Detroit)

Sandin Pellikka enters his third World Juniors as the tournament’s reigning top defenseman, an SHL champion and the winner of the Salming Trophy (awarded annually to the best Swedish-born defenseman playing in Sweden). He’s a near-point-per-game defenseman in the SHL as a teenager and projects as a competitive, right-shot offensive defenseman in the NHL. He should be one of the top players in this year’s tournament — again.

Continued (paywall); again, Pronman and Wheeler really leaned upon both 2025 draft prospects and 2024 draft picks, so maybe it’s not a surprise that Augustine was left out. [sarcasm] He is only a goalie, after all [/sarcasm].

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn posted a set of “16 stats” of note prior to the NHL’s holiday break, and Luszczyszyn actually compliments a member of the Red Wings this morning:

Denied by Simon Edvinsson

I’ve always viewed Corey Sznajder’s tracking work as some of the most illuminating data in the public sphere and he’s started to share some of his tracked data for this season on his website All Three Zones. While it’s obviously important to be careful with small sample sizes, it’s still cool to take a look at some players standing out early.

One of those is Simon Edvinsson. In the last edition of 16 stats, I noted how strong Detroit’s top pair has looked defensively and one indicator of why that might be is Edvinsson being a potential neutral zone force. In the games Sznajder has tracked, Edvinsson stands alone in his ability to deny zone entries and force dump-ins — two keys to limiting offense. Last year, Brett Pesce, Devon Toews, MacKenzie Weegar, Jared Spurgeon and Gustav Forsling were among the league’s best. That’s good company to keep.

It’s still very early in the season and in Sznajder’s tracking process, but it’s something to keep an eye on with Edvinsson’s game going forward.

Continued; here’s hoping that Edvinsson’s going to be healthy going forward.

The Detroit Red Wings (and their fans) put up a fight against the Philadelphia Flyers last night, winning a 6-4 decision that was a little wild and woolly.

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted an overnight recap which emphasizes the “wild and woolly” aspects of the loosely-played game…

Patrick Kane scored the winner for the home side at the 7:22 mark of the third period, burying a wrist shot off a marvelous Moritz Seider stretch pass that led Kane seamlessly into the attacking third.  “Well last game I had a similar play, and I missed the net to the far side,” Kane said post-game, when asked about the sequence.  “I’ve come down that wing a few times in my career and scored going short side, so sometimes that play happens once or twice in a row and you get redemption the second time.”  Though he was only referring to a personal redemption, the notion applied just as well to his team’s second look at the Flyers in six days.

Even with six goals on the evening, the Red Wings have scored fewer goals than every other team in the Eastern Conference, but, per JT Compher (who scored Detroit’s first of the night on a first period power play), the early season offensive lethargy didn’t detract from confidence.  “In the room we know that we’re capable of scoring more,” Compher said.  

Coach Lalonde understood that the team didn’t play its best defensively…

Detroit’s performance wasn’t perfect. The Red Wings needed every last drop of rush offense they produced because, even after the initial sting of Konency’s goal, they couldn’t entirely cut out Philadelphia’s counter-attacks. As coach Derek Lalonde put it, “as a group, we probably could’ve managed our game a little better.” Nonetheless, Lalonde was pleased with his team’s overall effort, pointing to the way Detroit limited their guests’ offensive volume. “We had four shots we gave up in the first,” he noted. “We held them to under 20 shots. We’ll take that game any night. Obviously, we didn’t make it comfortable…but of course, we’ll take that game.”

But there was a big reason for that, and it was the loss of Simon Edvinsson to an “upper-body injury” in the 1st period. MLive’s Ansar Khan noted Lalonde’s remarks regarding his 5-man defensive corps, which mostly included a Ben Chiarot-Moritz Seider pairing and a Justin Holl-Jeff Petry pairing…

Continue reading Morning news: On the Wings’ win over Philly, Simon Edvinsson’s injury and the Habs games to come

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Thursday:

In the OHL, Landon Miller stopped 31 of 32 shots as the Soo Greyhounds won 4-1 over the North Bay Battalion…

And in the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins earned 3 of a possible 4 points in a back-to-back set of games against the Texas Stars, dropping a 3-2 OT decision to Texas on Wednesday night. The Griffins’ website posted a recap, photo gallery and highlight clip:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Soo’s Miller wins, Griffins lose to Texas in OT

The Detroit Red Wings won a slightly unorthodox 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, but they also lost Simon Edvinsson to an upper-body injury in the process thereof.

For the Red Wings, winning a game as they prepare to play in 3 more games over the course of 4 pre-holiday-break nights (starting Friday evening vs. Montreal); for the Flyers, their second loss in a row can be assuaged tomorrow night when they host Los Angeles.

Coach John Tortorella told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall that it was to the Flyers’ detriment to perhaps overlook the result of Wednesday night’s game:

“These times before holidays, the five, six, seven games, I think they’re really important points for the end of the year,” Tortorella said Tuesday. “Because I think sometimes players are packed and ready to go somewhere and they forget. We can’t forget. We’re not good enough. We need to grab as many points as we can before we have that Christmas break. We’ve got four games in six nights here, it’s a tough schedule. I’m just hoping we can get some points here, that you go home and you put them in the bank for March and April.”

The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Red Wings (13-14-4). They beat Detroit, 4-1, six days ago. The clubs meet once more Jan. 21 in Philadelphia.

Tortorella continued while speaking with NHL.com’s Dave Hogg…

Continue reading Red Wings-Flyers wrap-up: on the Wings’ fight and the fans’ fight

With the holiday roster freeze in effect, but Ville Husso still on the roster as Cam Talbot is still on the IR, it will be interesting to see whether the Wings call anyone up.

Anyway, per the Free Press’s Helene St. James, the Red Wings suffered an injury of significance during the 6-4 win over Philadelphia:

Simon Edvinsson did not return after the first period because of what the team called an upper-body injury. The Red Wings announced the move on social media after the first period.

Edvinsson only played 5:36 in the first period. That forced the coaching to scramble the other pairings, and Ben Chiarot instead was out on the ice with Edvinsson’s usual partner, Moritz Seider.

Edvinsson, 21, is in his first full season with the Wings, although having played 25 games over the previous two seasons, he is not considered a rookie. The 6-foot-6 Swede quickly worked his way up to the top pairing, where he and Seider (6 feet 3) give the Wings a formidable pairing with enormous reach.

Edvinsson has also helped contribute offensively, with three goals and 10 assists, in 30 games.

Also of note from Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

Continue reading Wings lose Simon Edvinsson to an upper-body injury