The Malik Report

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a final-day-of-training-camp notebook, and

New coach Derek Lalonde was pleased with what was accomplished over the four days of scrimmaging and drills in practice in Traverse City. Now, it’s onto some games, more evaluating, and maintaining and improving what was established in this camp.

“Structure, and keep building on our process,” Lalonde said of what his hopes are for the preseason. “Obviously take a step every day hopefully with our structure. Some of it is new for the guys, but certainly establishing some compete, attitude, work on all those things and again, we feel fortunate to have eight (preseason) games this year to start fine-tuning some things.”

Lalonde was planning to give players a certain amount of games, but that plan is already changing by the day. Injuries to forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Andrew Copp (recovering from summer core surgery), Joe Veleno and Oskar Sundqvist, and defenseman Robert Hagg − all are essentially day to day − have thrown the lineups into flux, but also give other players opportunities for ice time.

“It’s a little frustrating to see (several forwards) out of our top nine out of camp to start, but it gives opportunity for other guys for some different looks, so that’s a positive in some ways,” Lalonde said.

There are roster spots to be won during this exhibition season, but Lalonde isn’t getting into how many positions might be available.

“(General manager) Steve (Yzerman) and I have talked a few times, we’ve talked about being patient with this, not go too deep about it,” Lalonde said. “I can’t give you any looks or numbers going forward. We’ll take the full eight games and let it play out and go from there.”

Continued

Per the University of Michigan‘s Kristy McNeil:

University of Michigan interim ice hockey head coach Brandon Naurato is pleased to announce the hiring of Jeff Salajko as goaltender coach and Anthony Ciatti as director of analytics to the Michigan ice hockey program.

Salajko spent the last six seasons as the Detroit Red Wings’ goaltending coach. He was promoted to that position after a three-year stint with their American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids from 2013-16. He is not a stranger to the college coaching ranks, as he served as an assistant coach at Ohio State from 2008-11. A native of Kitchener, Ontario, Salajko was selected in the 10th round and 236th overall in the 1993 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks. He played eight seasons of professional hockey, seeing action with 11 different teams in four leagues.

“Jeff has been at the highest levels of the game,” Naurato said. “He’s worked with the best and is well respected. We’re happy to have him work with our goalies and take them to another level. Jeff is a great communicator and student of the game. It’s a luxury to add someone of his caliber to the coaching staff.”

Ciatti has four years of experience in junior hockey as both a data tracker and analytics lead. He spent two years as coordinator of analytics with Green Bay of the United State Hockey League and two with the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga Steelheads. A native of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Ciatti graduated from U-M Dearborn with a degree in computer engineering. In addition to technical program management, Ciatti has worked in product innovation and has 11 US patents.

“Anthony is one of the most driven analytic people, who can help steer and guide a program, and has shown that with his time spent within two different leagues,” Naurato said. “Through Anthony, we will put ourselves in a position to show clear objectives of where we are at, and how we are progressing. He’s forward thinking and brings things that don’t exist in college hockey.”

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a mid-day article in which he discusses the impact that Red Wings free agent signing David Perron will have upon the team:

“He self-admitted he’s had to evolve within his career on approach, work ethic, habits,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “It’s an unbelievable example of where he is now that he expects practice to be at a high pace. He wants guys to work throughout the entire practice. He’s going to bring some energy to practice.”

The Red Wings hope that translates to games as they seek to take a significant step with several new additions, including Perron, a 34-year-old winger who has played 973 games over 15 seasons, mostly in St. Louis.

The Red Wings signed Perron to a two-year, $9.5 million free-agent deal because of his offensively ability. He tallied 27 goals – including a career-high 11 on the power play – and 30 assists in 67 games last season with the Blues. He will provide secondary scoring, possibly on a with Andrew Copp and Jakub Vrana.

“For me at the stage of my career I’m at I want to be a difference-maker on the ice,” Perron said. “Also, leadership-wise, being an extension of the coaching staff, preaching the right stuff in the room.”

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Here’s coach Derek Lalonde’s final training camp presser, all 13:19 of it:

Per the Red Wings, while they were practicing:

Down to 60.

📰 » https://t.co/LKYSeUAPNs pic.twitter.com/akSEl3xl5k— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 26, 2022

Per the Wings’ PR department:

The Detroit Red Wings today assigned forwards Amadeus Lombardi and Pasquale Zito, defenseman Oscar Plandowski and goaltender Jan Bednar to their respective major junior clubs and released forwards Julien Anctil, Marcus Limpar-Lantz, Mitchell Martin and Jacob Mathieu and goaltender Andrew Oke from their amateur tryouts.

The Red Wings currently have 60 players on their training camp roster: 34 forwards, 20 defensemen and six goaltenders. Detroit will continue practices in Traverse City, Mich., on Monday, Sept. 26 prior to beginning an eight-game preseason schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at Pittsburgh.

Here are the breakdowns of teams for today’s practices:

Rogle BK’s YouTube channel posted a Swedish-language video in which Red Wings prospect and Rogle defenseman William Wallinder is profiled after scoring 2 goals over the course of Rogle’s first SHL games (as is forward Linus Sjodin):

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a set of training camp observations this morning, and among them are the following:

Big Kid: Dominik Kubalik, like [Ben] Chiarot a newcomer who has looked really good in camp, smiled when asked about 6-foot-8 prospect Elmer Soderblom.

“He’s huge,” Kubalik said. “When I saw him the first time, he’s a big kid. And he skates pretty well, he’s got a good shot, good hands. It’s exciting to watch him. I like him so far.”

It’s one thing to see Soderblom from the stands, another to see him at ice level. He towers over even taller players like 6-6 Michael Rasmussen and Sebastian Cossa. Soderblom, 21, dates to Steve Yzerman’s first draft as general manager of the Wings, selected in the sixth round, at No. 159. As much as rebuilding teams need their top picks to thrive, they need to hit on some of their later-round picks, too. Soderblom will get lots of looks in exhibition season, and his odds of earning a job are tied to whether he can help their power play with his big, net-front presence.

Sharp shooters: The emphasis in camp has been on being good defensively as a team, but it helps put opponents on their heels when they have to be wary of offensive threats like Vrana and Kubalik. The Wings know Vrana only needs one shot to change a game, but Kubalik looks like another guy who can finally give the Wings the scoring depth they’ve lacked for years. The 27-year-old scored 30 goals with Chicago in 2019-20, but has been in the mid-teens the past two seasons. He’s fast, hard on the forecheck and has a shooter’s mentality. He should fit in well with the top nine and power play group.

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The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed his training camp notebook for Sunday evening, and, among his observations are the following:

Another storyline from the week that repeated itself in the scrimmage was the tone-setting physicality of Chiarot. Detroit went out and signed the 31-year-old in free agency this summer as it looks to become a tougher team to play against, and it’s already crystal clear how Chiarot will help that aim.

On one shift in the first period, he tossed 6-foot-6 Michael Rasmussen toward the bench, then delivered a bit hit on Zadina — arguably from behind, but at open ice. Lalonde called that sequence a “tone-setter” signaling, “we’re going to get to work today, this is how we’re going to play.”

Of the overall edge to the game, he went on to say: “We encouraged it. We talked about it. We ended both meetings asking for it. And I think you saw that. You can’t turn it on and off. And we want to be able to turn it on and make it just a habit of who we are.”

The play led to a transition opportunity for Raymond, so it wasn’t just physicality for the sake of physicality. It helped drive play favorably for Detroit.

Notably, Chiarot also was one of five players wearing an “A” on his sweater for scrimmage, along with Rasmussen, Määttä, Hronek and David Perron.

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The Detroit Red Wings concluded the most formal portion of their training camp activities with a Red vs. White Game on Sunday. Played over the course of 2 25-minute, stop-time halves, spiced up with a pair of shootout sessions at the end of each regulation period, and shootouts for every penalty taken.

Ultimately, the Red Team defeated the White Team 4-2; Dylan Larkin opened the scoring for the White Team, Givani Smith scored on a penalty shot penalty (Simon Edvinsson high-sticked him), and that was the first half.

In the second half, forward Matt Luff scored the go-ahead goal for the White Team on a set of slick plays from Drew Worrad and Jonatan Berggren….

But Jakub Vrana responded with a game-tying goal for the Red Team on a one-timer 11:57 into the 2nd half, Cross Hanas jabbed home a rebound 43 seconds later to give the Red Team a 3-2 lead, and Givani Smith tucked home an empty-net goal with 2 seconds left in regulation time.

After the game, the Red Wings’ players took their annual picture with a majority of the volunteers who make the prospect tournament and main training camp happen:

Continue reading Impressions from the Red vs. White game at the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp