The Malik Report

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted his pre-2022 Prospect Tournament take as to which Red Wings prospects are worth keeping a close eye upon this weekend. Among his picks are the following:

► Sebastian Cossa, goaltender: With the goaltending situation appearing set in Grand Rapids, it seems the Wings will return Cossa (a 2021 first-round pick) to Edmonton (WHL) for one more junior season. Cossa, 19, wasn’t able to win the starting job for gold-medalist Canada at the recent world junior championships but was dominant leading Edmonton to the Memorial Cup Finals. Cossa will likely get a lot of playing time in this tournament.

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► Elmer Söderblom, forward: After the social-media highlights from Sweden and breathless reports, the 6-foot-8 Söderblom, 20, is likely going to attract a lot of attention. Söderblom scored 21 goals for Frolunda and showed the shot and hands that, combined with his size, make him an intriguing prospect. It’ll be interesting to see how well Söderblom handles the speed and quickness in this tournament.

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► Cross Hanas, forward: A positive tournament and training camp with the Wings could land Hanas, a 2020 second-round pick, a roster spot in Grand Rapids. Hanas scored 26 goals for Portland (WHL) last season and reversed a sub-par 2020-21 COVID-marred season (five goals). Hanas will be looked to for offense this weekend.

Continued; I’ve weighed in regarding the roster, and here’s my take on the above-mentioned players:

Continue reading Bouncing observations off Kulfan’s take on prospects to watch at the Wings’ prospect tourney

Way back in late July, I found an article from WLUC TV 6 in Marquette which stated that the Red Wings Alumni Association would be playing in a charity hockey game against the “Yoopers United” in Marquette, MI to raise funds for the United Way.

It turns out that the game is scheduled for this Saturday, September 17th, and the Yoopers United and United Way spoke about the event on WLUC 6’s morning show (non-embeddable video).

The tickets are still available from Northern Michigan University’s website for $20 apiece, and it sounds like Mickey Redmond and Joe Kocur will headline the Wings’ roster.

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the KHL, the good news is that SKA St. Petersburg won 3-2 over Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, advancing to 6-and-0 (though they’re 5-0-0-and-1 thanks to the KHL’s rule that an overtime win is only 2 points).

The bad news if you’re a fan of Red Wings prospects as opposed to the KHL’s flagship franchise is that Dmitri Buchelnikov continues to be used very sparingly. After playing a staggeringly regular 13:19 in the previous game, he finished even in 4:41 of ice time on Thursday, over the course of 8 shifts.

He may play in SKA-1946’s MHL game (i.e. in the Russian under-20 league) on Friday before returning to SKA on Saturday, but playing yo-yo hockey isn’t great, and playing for five-to-eight minutes per game at the KHL level “because that’s how they break young players in” isn’t ideal, either.

Regrettably, it’s going to be one or the other for Buchelnikov, and he’s going to have to be patient and wait for his chance to impress.

Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell is ranking every NHL team’s salary cap situation, and while he feels that the Red Wings are kind-of-sort-of trending upward…He’s not a fan of Steve Yzerman’s offseason moves, or two of them, anyway.

As such, he ranks the Red Wings as having the 22nd-best salary cap situation in the NHL:

22. Detroit Red Wings

Good Contract Percentage: 16th
Quality Cheap Deals: 15th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 9th
Dead Cap Space: 27th
Quality of Core: 26th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 9th

As far as teams recovering from terrible cap situations go, I don’t think anyone had it worse than the Red Wings in the late 2010s. We’re starting to see the Yzerplan take action as the Wings slowly work their way up this list, although part of the reason the Wings aren’t higher is because of some of the moves Steve Yzerman has made, even as recently as this offseason.

Where the team really takes a hit is its dead cap space and the quality of its core. The dead cap space isn’t necessarily Yzerman’s fault, as almost $3 million of that is due to him having to clean up Ken Holland’s mess with the buyouts of Justin Abdelkader and Frans Nielsen, although I’d argue that Yzerman could have ridden those deals out a year or two more since he didn’t necessarily need the cap space. But what is his fault is the quality of core. The Wings have just two players locked up to long term deals, and both were 2022 free agent signings in Andrew Copp and Ben Chiarot. Part of that is because their actual young core is in a transition phase with their deals, with only Filip Zadina, Robby Fabbri, and Ville Husso locked up longer than two years. But if anything, that should be a sign that you don’t use cap space to sign players like Chiarot and Copp when you’re going to need that space in the next couple seasons.

Not all of Yzerman’s signings this offseason were bad, though. Husso’s deal complements Alex Nedeljkovic’s for a solid duo in net, Olli Maatta and Mark Pysyk’s deals impress on the back end, and David Perron and Dominik Kubalik look great up front. The Wings also boast some solid cheap deals, although maybe not enough for a team on the up and up. At the end of the day, the biggest issues for the team are the uncertainty of their top players with their contracts up, as well as the fact that they currently have seven replacement level players signed for more than $1 million. There’s no question Yzerman has proven himself to be one of the smartest executives in the business, but he has a few blind spots in his rebuild in Detroit that might get in the team’s way in the future when they really look to be competitive.

Continued…

I admittedly don’t like the Chiarot deal at all, even if he plays like the Ben Chiarot that was great in Winnipeg, and the Wings admittedly have a LOT of dead cap space thanks to the Abdelkader and Nielsen buy-outs…

And, given that the cap is going to rise significantly in two years, when the NHLPA has repaid its pandemic escrow earnings to the NHL, and the new TV deals’ bucks kick in, I was okay with the Copp signing. I think that he overpaid a bit for a second-line center, but sometimes you have to do those things.

Where we disagree the most is obviously on the “quality of core,” because I believe that the Red Wings are improving. No mention of Larkin, Bertuzzi, Seider or Raymond here, and that’s an eyebrow-raiser for me, but…We’re all free to disagree.

Good evening. I just wanted to drop a quick note that I made it to Traverse City safe and sound around 5:45 PM, and have been setting up Blanket Fort Malik for the last two hours in my hotel room so that I can camp out for two weeks.

Speaking of which, we never crossed that $200 gulf funds-wise, and the lovely Comfort Inn chomped $971 out of Paypal right away, so I made the hotel bill, but only just.

Sometimes that’s what happens when your 17-year-old Pacifica has a surprise wiring problem and you spend $348.30 the weekend before you leave to fix the Gord Downie headlights.

Shit happens, you fall short sometimes–Gord knows that it’s hard for everybody right now–and complications are complications. No concern, other than the fact that the aunt’s bank account is backing me up temporarily.

Anyway, if you can drop me a couple of bucks for groceries so that we can get to the next fundraising mark (i.e. me putting out stuff and asking for money after putting out a GD product), I’d appreciate it.

As a reminder, here’s the schedule for the prospect tournament, from the Centre Ice Arena website (tickets are still available):

NHL Prospect Schedule

Thursday, Sept 15
3:00 pm – Columbus vs  St. Louis     –     6:30 pm – Dallas vs  Toronto

Friday, Sept 16
3:00 pm – Columbus vs  Detroit     –     6:30 pm – Toronto  vs  St. Louis

Saturday, Sept 17
6:00 pm – Detroit  vs  Dallas

Sunday, Sept 18
11:00 am – St. Louis vs  Dallas     –     2:00 pm – Toronto  vs  Columbus

Monday, Sept 19
11:00 am – Detroit  vs  Toronto

If you’re are willing to lend an 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).

12:51 of Paul Boyer and crew readying for Traverse City

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills filed a notebook article in which he looks back at Red Wings prospect and Arizona State University senior forward Robert Mastrosimone’s remarks made during the Red Wings’ summer development camp:

After three seasons at Boston University, Robert Mastrosimone wanted a change of scenery. So in April, the Detroit Red Wings forward prospect entered the NCAA’s transfer portal and announced the following month that he committed to Arizona State.

“There was a lot of thought with my family, my advisor and everyone close to me that went into that decision,” said Mastrosimone, who was Detroit’s 54th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. “It was the right thing for me. I thought I needed a fresh start just to get out in front of some new eyes, new teammates, new coaches, new area to get my game to that next level.”

Mastrosimone enjoyed a standout season at Boston in 2021-22, setting career-highs in goals (11), assists (14) and points (25) in 34 games. In three seasons with the Terriers, Mastrosimone recorded 21 goals and 29 assists in 83 games. According to the 21-year-old, navigating the transfer portal was advantageous.

“It’s kind of like recruiting all over again,” Mastrosimone said. “But it was a really cool experience being able to talk to all different coaches, hear what everyone has to say and hear how everyone wants to coach their team.”

Continued

Okay, here’s the last fundraising post before the trip:

You really stepped up last night, and for that I’m super grateful. The $600 gulf between getting up to Traverse City and actually having the money to pay the hotel bill is down to about $200, and we’ll be at the halfway point when we hit the mark.

So we’ll see how the day goes, I’ll cross my fingers while driving up to Traverse City, and here’s hoping.

The second $1,500 is going to be a lot harder to raise than the first, but right now, it’s about reaching that halfway point, $200 away.

As I said yesterday, this is definitely a “no donation is too small” period because those smaller donations pave the road up I-96, US-127 and M-72 west (that’s the route I take to avoid I-75 construction) to Traverse City.

Let’s see what we can do. And again, thank you so much for your readership and support. I’m gonna do my best to make sure that I grind out strong content in TC for you.

So, if you’re are willing to lend an 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.” Still trying to figure that out, but it’s another option if you need it.

The Buffalo News’s Mike Harrington has posted a set of Atlantic Division previews eying the Buffalo Sabres’ division rivals in Montreal and Detroit, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

Around the boards: While Ottawa made a splash in the trade market, Yzerman is the one who was most active in the free-agent market. But the big question as a result is how do Yzerman and new coach Derek Lalonde meld a team out of all their acquisitions with the likes of returning core members Seider, Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Tyler Bertuzzi? It’s not easy. And 19-year-old defenseman Simon Edvinsson,their 2021 first-rounder, also seems poised to make his debut.

Topping all of it is the pressure building in the market: The Wings have missed the playoffs in six consecutive seasons after qualifying the previous 25 years, winning four Stanley Cups and playing in eight conference finals. Losing has been presumed in Buffalo for a while. It’s not expected in Detroit at all.

New and notable: Yzerman traded with St. Louis to get new starting goalie Ville Husso and gave him a three-year contract. In free agency, he signed forward Andrew Copp (five years), defenseman Ben Chairot (4), forwards David Perron and Dominik Kubalik (2) and defensemen Olli Maatta and Robert Hagg (1). Only Copp came in at more than $5 million, which is good because Larkin and Bertuzzi will both be UFAs after the season. Lalonde learned under Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay, but he’s a first-time NHL head coach. Nobody knows what that will mean.

Continued; I think that the Red Wings do face playoff pressure, but fans will be satisfied to see progress made in terms of becoming a more competitive, consistent team, and I’m definitely curious to see how the team begins coach Lalonde’s tenure given the turnover in terms of the coaching staff.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown posted “2 truths and a lie” about Simon Edvinsson, and this one–a suggestion that Edvinsson might start the year in Detroit–isn’t much of a stretch:

Sure, Yzerman went out and signed Ben Chiarot, Robert Hagg, and Mark Pysyk, all of whom add to the blue line. Chiarot stands to be a first or potentially a second pairing guy. Where does that leave Edvinsson? If you take into account what Yzerman said back in July, maybe he’s in a pretty good spot. Especially now that he signed some depth.

“His skating his excellent. We’re optimistic,” Yzerman said. “We’ll give him an opportunity. If he’s ready to play and play a regular role that would be great for us. We’ll just kind of let the whole thing play itself out, but the World Juniors will be a great stepping stone coming into training camp to try to make an impression and earn a spot on the team.”

More on that World Juniors comment later.

Yzerman’s goal beyond filling the team with premium talent is making sure that his young and upcoming prospects are surrounded by the right players. Though Nick Leddy’s numbers weren’t eye-popping in Detroit, his experience in the league was able to help Seider along the way. Marc Staal’s mentoring also factored into another season with Detroit.

The same is being applied here, though Seider is now in the fold and likely an early front runner to have an A sewn onto his sweater. Seider might be an anomaly in that sense, but Yzerman has now in Seider what they need. Edvinsson will continue to build onto that.

Continued; I’m not expecting Edvinsson to make the team out of training camp unless he both impresses and there’s an injury on the blueline, but we saw both things happen in order to afford Lucas Raymond a shot with the big club out of training camp and the exhibition season a year ago.