The Malik Report

Of Red Wings-related note this Canada Day morning:

1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ free agency needs ahead of the start of the unrestricted free agent period today at 12 PM EDT:

“We have a list this year, yeah,” [GM Steve Yzerman] said Thursday after wrapping up the second day of the NHL draft. Free agency begins Saturday at noon, and among priorities for the Wings are a scorer and a goaltender. “I’d like to add some offense,” Yzerman said, “but there’s no guarantee I can do anything. We’ll fill some spots; who exactly; I’m not sure, or for how long or how much. That’s the nature of free agency.”

Last year the Wings used the free agent market to add forwards Andrew Copp, David Perron and Dominik Kubalik and defensemen Ben Chiarot and Olli Määttä.

Ville Husso was acquired via a trade, and Yzerman could go that route again if he doesn’t get what the Wings need on the market. Priority No. 1 is someone to serve with Husso, which Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg both struggled to do. (Both are pending unrestricted free agents.)

…

Then there is the issue of scoring. Yzerman unloaded his top two goal scorers at the trade deadline in Tyler Bertuzzi and Jakub Vrana. Bertuzzi is headed for the market after the Boston Bruins were unable to re-sign a player for whom they gave up a conditional first-round pick in the 2024 draft (top-10 protected) and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft. Yzerman made the trade because there was no common ground in exploratory contract talks with the Bertuzzi’s agent.

St. James continues (no paywall);

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes that yesterday was a very important day for the Red Wings, who acquired four-time Stanley Cup champion Kris Draper from the Winnipeg Jets for “future considerations”:

Continue reading Morning news: On free agency needs, the Draper trade and an ‘unnumbered thought’

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman offered a “32 Thoughts” “quickie blog” ahead of the start of unrestricted free agency at 12 PM EDT today, and Friedman issues three Red Wings-related UFA rumors:

• If not Toronto, Ryan O’Reilly’s been linked to Detroit, Montreal, Nashville and Vancouver. There’s probably more. However, some sources warned not to discount his desire for St. Louis until he actually signs somewhere else.

• Detroit and Nashville have also been linked to JT Compher. Again, there probably are more. People need centres.

• Detroit buying out Kailer Yamamoto with almost a bajillion dollars in cap room means Steve Yzerman is up to something. All eyes are on Alex Killorn, with Alex DeBrincat trade talks stalled. 

Continued; we’ll see what happens in 12 hours.

The Detroit Red Wings posted an 8-minute, behind-the-scenes video spotlighting their top prospects from the 2023 NHL Draft as they experienced the drafting process:

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Red Wings submitted qualifying offers for the following players:

Detroit is Lethemon, McIsaac, Newpower and Veleno

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 30, 2023

So John Lethemon, Wyatt Newpower and Joe Veleno were qualified;

Klim Kostin, Gustav Lindstrom, Seth Barton, Pontus Andreasson, Matt Luff and Jasper Weatherby were not qualified.

Not qualifying Kostin doesn’t mean they can’t still sign him, of course. And maybe that’s imminent. But interesting list

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) June 30, 2023

Let's give it a beat here on Kostin. Could very well be something coming there. Yzerman certainly sounded excited about him yesterday.

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) June 30, 2023

Three Red Wings scribes have penned articles which discuss Detroit’s looming attempts to bolster its roster via unrestricted free agency:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan examines the free agent marketplace, prefacing his list of potential UFA signings with the following:

“I’d like to add some offense, but there’s no guarantees I can do anything,” Yzerman told media Thursday at the draft. “So, we’ll fill some spots. Who exactly, I’m not sure, or for how long or how much. That’s the nature of free agency. You know our roster, the guys we’ve traded (Tyler Bertuzzi, Jakub Vrana, Filip Hronek). We’ll try to do that in some form or another. Keep our fingers crossed that we can score some more goals.”

The competition will be high for the top free agents.

“You got this long list, you got all these names, you’re lucky to get one or two,” Yzerman said. “We were able to get four or five guys last year. We’ll try to get the best ones we can, taking into account the term and cost of the contract.

“I think people are looking at the free-agent market and it’s kind of thin this year. If they want to improve their team, they’re looking at the trade market. There’s probably more needs than there are players at this point.”

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also discusses the Red Wings’ free agency outlook…

Continue reading Three things: A trio of Yzer-takes on the Red Wings’ free agency outlook

The Athletic posted an article which discusses the “biggest need” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams going into the unrestricted free agency period, and here’s what Max Bultman has to say about the Red Wings’ need(s):

Detroit Red Wings

Top-six scoring: After trading away Tyler Bertuzzi and Jakub Vrana, the Red Wings are going to have to go to free agency (or trade) to replace them and boost a bottom-10 offense. And while the trade route has the better options (headlined by Alex DeBrincat and Travis Konecny, among others), free agency is possible if Detroit is willing to pay up for a proven (albeit aging) winger such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Killorn or others. The question they’ll have to answer revolves around those players’ respective ages and how much term to give, though, and their answer could ultimately swing some outcomes on July 1. — Max Bultman

Continued

Per CapFriendly:

Detroit #RedWings update after buying out Yamamoto

Cap Hit: $53,268,056
Cap Space: $30,231,944
Roster Size: 16 (10F – 4D – 1G – 1IR)

Notable RFAs include:
Kostin
Luff
Veleno
Lindstromhttps://t.co/sSae8AGwgK— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 30, 2023

And PuckPedia:

After buying out Yamamoto, #LGRW have $30.2M Projected Cap Space with 16 players on the roster (11F/4D/1G)

RFA: Kostin, Luff, Veleno, Lindstrom

UFA: Nedeljkovic, Hellberg, Oesterle, Hagg, Pysyk, Chiasson, Erne, Suter

Includes $4.1M Dead Cap Hithttps://t.co/Vr2k3LN2xs— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 30, 2023

Kailer Yamamoto will be bought out by the Red Wings. Detroit strongly considered keeping him but couldn’t make moves to make it work. Given tight cap, Yamamoto is a good you player hitting the market.— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 30, 2023

Bought out. Becomes a decent UFA option. https://t.co/hIzzAHmhjm— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) June 30, 2023

Yamamoto is less than 26 years of age and therefore his buyout costs 1/3 of the remaining value. With 1 year left it will span 2 years.

Buyout Cap Hit:
23-24: $433k ($2.67M savings)
24-25: $533khttps://t.co/2zZZwWXdn5 https://t.co/jUTGBcAYON— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 30, 2023

Matt Duchene (NSH), Blake Wheeler (WPG), Yamamoto (DET), Reilly (BOS) and all on unconditional waivers today for purposes of a buyout.— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 30, 2023

Detroit is buying out Kailer Yamamoto— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 30, 2023

Yamamoto headed for a buy out, as we suspected. Confirmed now by @DarrenDreger— Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) June 30, 2023

Good news here from Edmonton-based Sportsnet correspondent Mark Spector:

Told that Avangard Omsk (KHL) has given up on signing Klim Kostin, now that the Red Wings have acquired him.
Expect a two-year deal in Detroit for the former Oiler and Blue.— Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) June 30, 2023

Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper discussed the Red Wings’ 2023 NHL Draft haul on 97.1 the Ticket’s “Stoney and Jansen” show this morning.

Red Wings Director of Amateur Scouting Kris Draper joined us this morning to talk about the Wings’ 2023 draft class. Listen here:
https://t.co/n8f9yqdJSN— Stoney & Jansen with Heather (@StoneyJansen) June 30, 2023

Draper was unwilling to make comparisons between Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin Pellikka and the rest of the Wings’ prospects and current NHL’ers, and he offered a cautiously optimistic message as to whether the Red Wings will slowly but surely build a contending team through the draft.

Update: You can also listen to the interview directly here.