Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman gave a pre-training camp press conference today, and the Word on Woodward’s Daniella Bruce, Carley Johnston and Ken Kal covered the event…
But you can watch a stand-alone video of the 45-minute presser as well:
Hockey season is HERE! 🙌
📽️: https://t.co/nA17M4pHId pic.twitter.com/SPmcx0YMb2— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 21, 2022
FYI:
Injury updates from Steve Yzerman:
➖ Andrew Copp: (abdominal surgery in off-season) back first week of regular season.
➖ Jake Walman: mid-November
➖ Robby Fabbri & Mark Pysyk: expected to return after the new year.
➖Chase Pearson: out indefinitely (personal reasons)— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 21, 2022
From the Red Wings’ Twitter account comes this gem from NHL.com/de:
Der siebenfache Norris-Trophy-Winner – oder einfach “The Perfect Human”: Nicklas Lidström! 😍 #LGRW | @DetroitRedWings | #Lidström pic.twitter.com/8UvjJnR9Qs— NHL Deutsch (@NHLde) September 21, 2022
Yesterday the Globe and Mail reported that Canada will drop its vaccination requirement for travelers entering the country on September 30th, and that’s theoretically good news for Tyler Bertuzzi, but Eric Atkins Robert Fife pointed out that the United States still has a requirement that all travelers be vaccinated upon entry. Atkins and Fife do not know whether the U.S. will waive its requirement as well.
The Wings’ beat writers are weighing on on the story, with MLive’s Ansar Khan discussing it yesterday, and the Free Press’s Helene St. James discussing it this morning:
Tyler Bertuzzi made headlines last season as the only player on the team (and one of the few in the NHL) to decline to get vaccinated for COVID-19, calling it a “life choice.” The Wings did not pay Bertuzzi when he missed team activities, such as games and practices, because of his unvaccinated status, and Bertuzzi had to pay his own airfare when he met the Wings on a road trip when they were coming back to the U.S. from Canada.
That may not be necessary any more, as it appears Canada is ready to drop the vaccine requirement at the end of September, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.
The Wings have 10 games in Canada this season. They begin camp under new head coach Derek Lalonde on Thursday in Traverse City.
Bertuzzi is among the storylines to watch this season, entering the last season of a two-year, $9.5 million deal. He has topped 20 goals three times in his career, reaching 30 last season in 68 games. If Wings general manager Steve Yzerman senses the framework for an extension for the 27-year-old is not in the making, Yzerman would seek to trade Bertuzzi rather than let him walk as an unrestricted free agent. That scenario would have been hampered if Bertuzzi were not able to play in Canada, but now it looks like a nonfactor.
Continued; we’ll see. This story isn’t as simple as it seems.
Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman will address the media today at approximately 10:30 AM EDT, and The Word on Woodward’s Daniella Bruce will discuss what Yzerman has to say:
Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde spoke with the media today at Centre ICE Arena. Here’s an audio clip of the interview, in which coach Lalonde outlined his plans for training camp and more over the course of a 6:44 interview with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills, the Free Press’s Helene St. James and myself:
Update: Here’s the Red Wings’ video of the press conference:
Red Wings prospect Cross Hanas scored a “Michigan” goal last season with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, but Hanas insisted to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff that it wasn’t something he’d intentionally planned:
It was more instinctive in that time, because at that moment it just felt like I had the puck for more time than usual behind the net,” Hanas recalled. “No one was really coming at me, so I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll try it.’
“Thankfully it worked out. It would’ve looked pretty dumb if it didn’t work out. I just felt like I had a lot of time there behind the net.
“I saw it a few days before when Zegras and Milano did it, so I thought, ‘you know what? Maybe I’ll try this.’
hat Hanas would be the creator of such hockey magic isn’t at all surprising. After all, 60 of his team-leading 86 points for Portland last season were assists.
“I think of myself as a playmaker,” Hanas said. “I like making plays. Setting guys up is kind of what I find myself enjoying. I’ve been that way my whole life.”
Continued; here’s the goal, via Duff:
📽️ HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT 📽️
— The WHL (@TheWHL) December 19, 2021
It's a thing now, and we are here for it.@pdxwinterhawks | #WHLHoN pic.twitter.com/IgOEtogfXD
Okay, folks, we’re in a bit of a fundraising emergency: the second $971 bill for the hotel came due at 3:20 AM this morning, and there’s no way that I can make it.
Actually embedding requests for Prospect Tournament/Training Camp support in articles has been a total dud, so I’m posting this stand-alone article asking you for any support you can give so that my credit card and aunt’s bank account don’t bounce like a rubber ball over the next 48 hours.
Any amount of support for this two-week odyssey, which is only halfway over, would be greatly appreciated, because the crap has hit the fan again.
If you’re are willing or able to lend a fundraising assist, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums” (an old nickname).
I’m really desperate here, folks. Anything you can help is very necessary right now.
Bleacher Report’s Sara Civian discusses the ways in which the caliber of NHL defensemen have changed and grown since Zdeno Chara broke into the league, and one of the examples she gives as a representative of the defensive evolution is Moritz Seider:
My sneaky favorite
Mortiz Seider: “Sneaky” might be a stretch considering Seider won the 2022 Calder Trophy, but I’m not sure many of us outside of Detroit have truly grasped how good and fun this kid is going to be.
His stats are good—he led a stacked rookie class in assists (43) and power play points (21), and he led rookie defensemen in points (50) and game-winning goals (four) in 82 games. But I’d rather talk about all that combined with the fact that the 6-foot-4 21-year-old also led the struggling Red Wings in average time on ice (23:02) and blocked shots (161), while bringing the physicality every night.
Listen, I am totally here for the short king, skill-based NHL defenseman era. But did we ever consider maybe we can have it all?
Continued; why can’t we have it all, indeed!
The Athletic’s “Down Goes Brown,” a.k.a. Sean McIndoe, offers “bizarro meter” takes on the offseason happenings for Eastern Conference teams this morning, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:
The offseason so far: They signed a whole lot of guys. Some of them are good, some of them not so much, and none of them are superstars. But GM Steve Yzerman brought in enough help that Dom’s model thinks they improved more than any other team. That should give new head coach Derek Lalonde more to work with than Jeff Blashill had.
But their strangest story was: Signing David Perron to an NHL contract. Wait, only the Blues are allowed to do that!
Bizarro-meter ranking: 3.5/10. Busy? Absolutely. Newsworthy? Sure. But given how long the rebuild has been going, the only bizarre thing about Yzerman’s offseason was that he waited this long.
Continued (paywall)
