The Malik Report

The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a fine set of second-day-of-training-camp observations, including the following:

If Day 1 of Red Wings training camp was about first impressions and setting a tone, the story of Day 2 might have been about intensity — headlined by a battle drill in the corner to end practice.

And though you might not have picked 5-foot-11, 176-pound Lucas Raymond to have been one of the standouts in that kind of drill, the Red Wings’ dazzling 20-year-old winger made it his own anyway. Going up against Dylan Larkin, Raymond had to find a way to outmaneuver Detroit’s bigger, faster captain one-on-one. But he did it, scoring twice in some of the most impressive reps of the day.

“I thought that was amazing,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “And Dylan got frustrated from it. That’s the type of compete you want to establish in practice. You want to have those just natural habits. And that practice, that drill was there for a reason, and Raymond produced very well in that, and that was very exciting to see.”

There’s not much more that can be said about Raymond’s exceptional rookie campaign — which is good, because it’s time to move on to what he might have in store for an encore.

And if he’s going to be able to blend his skill and smarts with that kind of competitiveness, that is indeed an exciting possibility for the Red Wings.

Continued

The second day of Derek Lalonde’s tenure as the Red Wings’ head coach basically built upon the first day’s worth of teaching and introducing the Red Wings’ players to a new system of defensive play.

Once again, the Red Wings’ 67 roster players were divided into three groups, Team Lindsay, Team Howe, and Team Delvecchio, but the coaching staff chose to change up Team Lindsay, which practices from 8:30 until 9:30. They swapped out most of the try-outs and Grand Rapids Griffins-bound prospects and players, who spent the day on Team Howe or Team Delvecchio, the two “big club-bound” practice squads.

As a result, the practices had something of a different flavor, with lines changed up and Tyler Bertuzzi absent due to a “flare-up” which coach Lalonde said he was made aware of only an hour before practice began. It’s believed that Bertuzzi will be fine, but that’s a situation worth monitoring.

Anyway, as was the case on Thursday, injured skaters Andrew Copp, Jake Walman, Jake Uberti and Tnias Mathurin took to the ice for an 8 AM skate, and they were joined by injured goaltender John Lethemon. They worked with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon, player development consultant Dwayne Blais, and Griffins goaltending coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson.

Once again, the other injured players, including Oskar Sundqvist (undisclosed), Mark Pysyk (Achilles) and Robby Fabbri (ACL) were able to take part in both Team Lindsay and Team Delvecchio’s particularly lengthy video sessions.

Without getting too technical, Team Lindsay’s drills involved a lot of “tracking,” where players would “pick up” their opponents through the neutral zone and track them back into the defensive zone.

Continue reading Impressions from the second day of the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan has filed his second-day-of-training-camp notebook, and he focuses on one Jakub Vrana, who is finally healthy after shoulder surgery this past year repaired an issue that he was dealing with for two seasons:

“I can’t describe my excitement,” Vrana said Friday of being able to compete. “Being out for a long time (last season), and the shortened season the previous season, I wasn’t able to play a full season for a few years. I’m real excited and just focusing on what we have to do. I’m enjoying being here and playing hockey.”

The time span feels longer, but Vrana was acquired from Washington at the April 2021 trade deadline for Anthony Mantha and draft picks. Ironically, Mantha also missed most of last season because of shoulder surgery.

When Vrana returned in March, he gave a glimpse to the Wings and fans of what could have been — and what could be this season. Vrana scored 13 goals and had six assists in 26 games.

In his brief time with the Wings, Vrana has 21 goals in 37 games. Touted as a pure goal scorer, Vrana has lived up to the billing.

“Sometimes you know guys are skilled guys and you have an appreciation for their skill,” said coach Derek Lalonde, who saw plenty of Vrana in Washington while he was in Tampa Bay. “But until you are out with them on the ice you don’t get a true appreciation of how skilled they are. But, man, he has a special shot, and he has some offensive tools that are real special.”

Continued

The Detroit News’s David Guralnick posted a 66-image photo gallery from the first day of the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp, and he’s back with a 65-image gallery from day two:

Photo gallery: Day 2 of #redwings training camp. https://t.co/HY7w3giaWg @DetroitRedWings pic.twitter.com/KZ6mpGbcRX— David Guralnick (@DavidGuralnick) September 23, 2022

MLive’s Ansar Khan and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen have both weighed in on Simon Edvinsson’s comments made after practice at training camp today, and the Detroit News’s John Niyo makes it a trio, discussing Edvinsson’s attempts to make the Wings’ roster as a 19-year-old rookie:

So, then, here we are, with Edvinsson, fresh off a busy summer that included heavy minutes for Sweden’s bronze-medal team at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, auditioning for his dream job during his first extended visit to the U.S.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of different things here in America, but it’s starting to feel like I have a home here,” he admitted with a laugh Friday, while also crowning himself the team’s best putt-putt golfer after a recent outing in Traverse City. “And I started to dream in English, actually. So that’s weird, too.”

Still, Edvinsson turns serious when addressing the prospect of making an NHL roster. He knows the expectations that have traveled with him ever since Detroit selected him No. 6 overall in the 2021 entry draft. And he’s well aware of just how high the bar was raised here last year when Moritz Seider stepped into the Red Wings’ lineup as a 20-year-old defenseman and skated away with the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

Seider, of course, already had a year of pro hockey in North America under his belt with the Wings’ AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids before spending a year dominating in the Swedish Hockey League. But for Edvinsson, who had a strong showing as an 18-year-old playing for Frolunda in the SHL last winter, understands the challenge is the same.

“You need to earn your spot, and that’s what they told me,” he said. “That’s what I want to do: I want to earn my spot. I don’t want to have it given just because of some hype that I get. I want to really feel that I can play my game in this league and against these players.”

Continued; I really enjoyed this one from Niyo. Good stuff and a wise perspective as always.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen is the second Red Wings columnist to weigh in on one Simon Edvinsson’s comments from training camp today, and Allen suggests that Edvinsson might be as quick a learner in terms of mastering the North American game as those who are optimistic about his potential are hoping he is:

It would be a dream-come-true for the Red Wings if Edvinsson showed he’s ready to play in the NHL on opening night. That’s 21 days away. Everyone seems to be trying to encourage, maybe even push, 19-year-old Edvinsson to go all in to make the Detroit roster.

“(Coaches) put expectations on me,” Edvinsson said. “I feel like they communicate good with me. They want me to be better every day.”

Edvinsson is heeding the advice that Yzerman gave him.“He said play your game of hockey,” Edvinsson said. “That’s why you’re here. Listen to the guys who have been in the league and try to learn from them. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve worked hard,”

As a Swede, Edvinsson has grown up on the wider European playing surface There’s less room to skate on an NHL rink and less time to make plays. Fellow Swedes Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall, now both working under Yzerman, have warned Edvinsson the adjustment to the ice and the league is challenging.

“They said I played good but I don’t think I played that good,” Edvinsson said. “I feel like I have higher expectations on myself. We talked a lot about this training camp and how to play in different kind of areas.”

Continued

Rasmussen spoke with John Keating for about 90 seconds today:

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article based upon the 20 minutes‘ worth of comments made by Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson at training camp today. Edvinsson made it clear that he feels he can be a better defenseman and a better overall player:

“The guys are on me, (Dylan) Larkin especially, to be harder, win my one-on-ones,” Edvinsson said. “I have a pretty big body, pretty long reach. In Sweden you kind of time everything. It’s different kind of one-on-one duels along the boards. Here you need to be more aggressive and that’s what I need to be better on. If I work on that and feel comfortable with that the game is going to step up and I’ll build my confidence.”

Edvinsson has an ideal role model in Moritz Seider, who is nearly as big (6-4, 205) and showed last season how tough he is to play against on the way to winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

“He’s playing the kind of hard game I want to develop,” Edvinsson said. “I try to see the practices when he’s on, how he plays. We have a different kind of play style but a lot of things he does I can do as well, to play hard and play the puck.

“He’s one of the best defensemen in the league. I need to earn my spot. I try to look at him as much as possible to develop my game from there and maybe reach that level some time.”

Edvinsson, the sixth pick in 2021, is trying to earn a spot on the NHL roster after flourishing with Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League. His strengths are his skating and puck-moving ability. But even the smaller Lucas Raymond, Edvinsson’s former Frolunda teammate, showed him how to compete in drills.

“He likes to battle. It’s fun. It gets everyone else going,” Edvinsson said. “One thing I really learned is you need to be so aggressive and harder on the player.”

Continued; it’s good that Simon is interested in playing defense, because he’s an effortless offensive player, but he must apply himself to succeed in stopping opponents.

From Bally Sports Detroit’s John Keating:

Appreciate the time to chat with a couple of Wolverines, ⁦@Dylanlarkin39⁩ and @copp94. Captains to each now. Great interview and terrific backdrop here. pic.twitter.com/kR8WqzSFBr— John Keating (@JohnKeatingBSD) September 23, 2022

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In the Finnish Liiga, Antti Tuomisto finished even with 1 shot in 19:19 as TPS Turku won 3-2 over Koo Koo;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Albin Grewe scored a goal, finishing at +2 with 2 shots and 2 penalty minutes taken in Mora IK’s 3-0 win over Vita Hasten;

Albin Grewe 🚨 #Hockeyallsvenskan #MIK #LGRW
🎥 C More pic.twitter.com/n0P25yIpkT— SwehockeyGIFs (@swehockeygifs) September 23, 2022

In the Swedish J20 league, Anton Johansson finished at +2 with 25 minutes in penalties because he got in a fight at the very end of Leksands IF’s 10-1 win over MoDo;

In the USHL, via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Brennan Ali had an assist, finishing at +1 with 2 shots in the Lincoln Stars’ 6-0 win over Green Bay.

And Owen Melenbacher had 3 shots but finished at -2 in the Muskegon Lumberjacks’ 6-4 loss to Tri-City.