The Malik Report

The dust hasn’t yet settled from the free agency fireworks of a week-and-a-half ago, never mind last week’s blockbuster trades, so I’m hesitant to predict how much the Red Wings have improved within the highly competitive Atlantic Division.

That being said, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen gives that particular task a go this morning, delving into the topic over the course of a subscriber-only article. Allen’s in-depth analysis of what each Atlantic Division team did to improve itself leads to a logical conclusion, and here’s his logic for said suggestion as to the Red Wings’ ultimate fate:

Continue reading DHN’s Allen weighs in on the Red Wings’ possible improvement in a competitive Atlantic Division

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James attempts to predict what the Red Wings’ opening-night roster will look like, duly noting that the Wings will both experience some training camp injuries and that Robby Fabbri (knee) and Jake Walman (shoulder) won’t be available for the start of the regular season.

Here’s a sampling of her opening-night lineup:

First line: Tyler Bertuzzi-Dylan Larkin-Lucas Raymond

They clicked right away last season, only to be broken up so Bertuzzi could spark another line. Larkin brings speed and sound defensive play, Bertuzzi has a knack for scoring around the net and Raymond has a flair for finding openings. 

Top pair: Ben Chiarot-Moritz Seider

Yzerman signed Chiarot for four years and $19 million. The 31-year-old has been a solid defender with the Winnipeg Jets, Canadiens and Florida Panthers, giving Seider the steady, durable partner he deserves. Seider should be even more fun to watch on a more talented team.

Goaltending: Alex Nedeljkovic and newcomer Ville Husso are both trying to establish they should be No. 1. Nedeljkovic played 59 games for the Wings last season, while Husso played 40 for the Blues. Neither has yet played 100 career games. If they play equally during exhibition, my guess is Nedeljkovic starts the opener — and since the Wings play the next night in New Jersey, Husso won’t have to wait long for his first start. 

Continued (paywall), with St. James picking Simon Edvinsson and Mark Pysyk as her 3rd defensive pairing…

This evening, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen profiles a player I’m not quite so certain about in one Victor Brattstrom, who will most likely split time as the Grand Rapids Griffins’ starting goaltender with World Championship MVP Jussi Olkinuora.

Brattstrom’s 25 years old, and he possesses good size at 6’4″ and 201 pounds, as well as a solid set of fundamentals, but he never really found his form over the course of 32 starts with Grand Rapids this past season, going 11-16-and-4 with a 3.32 goals-against average and .894 save percentage.

Brattstrom has “all the tools,” as they say, but once he gets in the net on the North American-sized rink, the seasoned European pro is a bit wild in the net, acrobatically and athletically bounding from goalpost to goalpost. He’s entertaining to watch, to be certain, but there’s a lack of control in his game that tends to cost him concentration, consistency, and goals against.

As Allen suggests, this is probably a win-or-go-back-to-Europe season for Brattstrom (and Olkinuora), and as the Griffins’ stalwart goaltender, Calvin Pickard, is moving on, it’s going to be up to a Swede and a Finn to stabilize the Griffins’ crease:

Continue reading DHN’s profile of Victor Brattstrom raises questions about the state of the Griffins’ crease

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan recorded his latest “OctoPulse” podcast just before the Matthew Tkachuk-Jonathan Huberdeau/MacKenzie Weegar trade, and as such, it’s already a little dated, but pertinent:

Ted Kulfan takes a look at the Red Wings’ eight new free-agency signings and former Wolverine Mike Cammalleri is the special guest on the podcast.

Before Matthew Tkachuk was traded late Friday night to the Panthers in a blockbuster deal, Kulfan said the odds weren’t in Detroit’s favor in trying to acquire the Flames’ 42-goal scorer, who is arguably the best power forward to potentially come to Detroit since Brendan Shanahan and Brian Glynn were dealt from Hartford in 1996 for Keith Primeau, Paul Coffey and a first-round pick.

“It’s going to take a Simon Edvinsson or a Lucas Raymond to entice Calgary,” Kulfan said on The Detroit News’ podcast OctoPulse. “I don’t get the sense that Steve Yzerman would be willing to trade away some of those young players. 

“As an aside, what a gut punch for Calgary. Here’s a team that was on the verge of a Stanley Cup. Just to see it decimated like that with their two best players gone, that they didn’t want to stay there. On the surface, it looks like these American players did not want to play there long term. What more could the Flames do?”

Continued; you can listen to the podcast here, and yes, it would have taken a package comparable to Dylan Larkin, Filip Hronek, Simon Edvinsson and a first-round pick to get Tkachuk. That’s too rich for my blood.

Former University of Michigan Wolverines forward Mike Cammalleri bounced around the NHL but had a productive career as a professional hockey player. Soon after he retired, Cammalleri helped found BioSteel Sports, which is now the official beverage supplier of the NHL. Cammalleri spoke with the Detroit News’s Mark Falkner regarding his journey from pro hockey player to sports drink entrepreneur:

It’s been two weeks since former Michigan Wolverines forward Mike Cammalleri was announced as a new business partner with the National Hockey League at the 2022 draft in Montreal.

A co-founder of BioSteel Sports Nutrition in 2009, Cammalleri met the media to discuss the company’s multi-million, multi-year contract to replace Gatorade as the league’s official hydration drink.

Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed but Cammalleri said BioSteel has “come full circle” from the days when he developed the idea while playing 15 years in the NHL from 2003-2018 and while attending Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1999-2002.

“I was training with some of the world’s foremost experts in strength and nutrition, starting with my days back at the University of Michigan,” Cammalleri said. “One of the topics we discussed was watching what you consumed. We were careful of certain products with harmful sugars, food dyes or food coloring, artificial ingredients and preservatives.

“It got to the point in my pro career where I was ordering so many different things and mixing them together. It wasn’t a viable solution so I approached my childhood best friend (John Celenza, now a co-CEO of BioSteel with Cammalleri) and put five things on the table and said, ‘Why don’t we put this into one bottle?’ 

“We went through a year of research and development and then I started training with Matt Nichol, who had had similar challenges as the strength coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. We brought him on as a partner and came up with healthier, cleaner hydration for pro athletes and then eventually to the everyday consumer.”

Continued

Last week, the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe conducted an exclusive Q and A session with new Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde. This weekend, Monroe examines Lalonde’s lasting effects upon Toledo and the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, through the words of its players, alumni, and current head coach, Dan Watson:

Lalonde, 49, got his first head coaching position at the pro level when he took over Toledo’s struggling ECHL franchise in 2014-15. He led that Walleye team to the biggest turnaround in ECHL history, as Toledo posted a 50-15-7 record and won the Brabham Cup as regular-season champions.

“We had great teams when Derek was here,” said Alden Hirschfeld, a former Walleye forward who is now an assistant coach with the team. “Derek was big on building a winning culture with a positive atmosphere in the locker room, creating hard-working, winning teams. He was detailed in his messages and cared about his players on the ice and off the ice.”

On June 30, Lalonde was named the 28th coach in the history of the Detroit Red Wings.

“He will do great in Detroit, because of his knowledge and passion for the game,” Berschbach said.

Since Lalonde’s arrival in Toledo, the Walleye organization has become a perennial powerhouse, making the playoffs every year. Current head coach Dan Watson, who was an associate head coach under Lalonde, still uses many of the same philosophies.

“I know how he operates,” Watson said. “He’s a winner.”

Since leaving Toledo, Lalonde became an assistant coach with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, who reached the Stanley Cup Final three consecutive seasons and won back-to-back titles.

“He’s worked his way up and coached at all levels. He will do great in Detroit,” Hirschfeld said. “It’s special to have a coach coming in to coach the NHL team of your ECHL team’s affiliate that you played for.”

Continued; this is a great read…

The Grand Rapids Griffins didn’t make the AHL’s playoff cut last season, and that’s a rare occurrence for one of the AHL’s best teams.

That being said, between injuries, call-ups and COVID issues, the Griffins’ roster was depleted and often patched together with ECHL call-ups.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggests, next year’s Griffins team should be stacked with some of the best and brightest Red Wings prospects, which should, in turn, make the team more competitive:

Elmer Soderblom. Jonatan Berggren. Pontus Andreasson. Taro Hirose. Kyle Criscuolo. Albert Johansson. Tyler Spezia. Cross Hanas. Steven Kampfer. Brian Lashoff. Maybe even Joe Veleno. Those are some of the players who could play for the Grand Rapids Griffins this season.

The Griffins should be much improved this season. The Detroit Red Wings will be sending several key prospects to their American Hockey League affiliate over the next few seasons. The Red Wings want to make sure young players are in a competitive environment. The mix of AHL veterans and skilled young players should accomplish that this season.

“It should be an exciting year with lots of great prospects ready to make their mark with the Griffins,” Griffins president Tom Gortsema said. “We are eagerly looking forward to developing the next Moritz Seider.”

This week the Red Wings re-signed Chase Pearson, but he possibly could be claimed on waivers by another NHL team if the Red Wings send him down.

Grand Rapids’ goaltending would be handled by Jussi Olkinuora, Victor Brattstrom and former Michigan State player John Lethemon unless the Red Wings decide not to send 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa back to the Western Hockey League.

Continued; it’s just my gut feeling, but between Olkinuora and Brattstrom needing to jump-start and re-start their North American careers, respectively, I don’t see there being a place for Cossa unless he “steals a job.”

In any case, the Red Wings want the Griffins to be as competitive as possible, and this should be a better season for them.

The Red Wings have something of a “wild card” of a prospect in Ryan O’Reilly. The 22-year-old Arizona State University junior has a big puck-lugging sniper’s pedigree, but the 6’4,” 205-pound right wing hasn’t been able to find his form at the NCAA Division 1 level yet.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff profiles O’Reilly this evening, and, as Duff notes, this season is a big one for both O’Reilly and fellow Wings prospect Robert Mastrosimone:

The Arizona State Sun Devils will go two deep in Red Wings prospects and it’s going to be a big proving season for both players. Forward Robert Mastrosimone is transferring to Arizona State from the Boston Terriers for his senior season. O’Reilly is about to begin his junior campaign with the Sun Devils.

Last season, O’Reilly’s goal output doubled from three to six. However, his points total slipped from 13 to 11. He’s a far cry from the 21 goals he counted for the USHL’s Madison Capitals in 2017-18, or the 17 he scored for the Green Bay Gamblers in 2019-20.

If O’Reilly wants there to be a future for him in Detroit, he’ll be needing to display some significant forward strides during the 2022-23 NCAA season. At 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, he certainly displays NHL size

“I definitely need to work on my skating,” O’Reilly admitted. “The game is really fast, especially in the NHL. You never get fast enough.”

Continued; O’Reilly and defenseman Antti Tuomisto were the two biggest-name prospects who didn’t take part in the Wings’ 2022 summer development camp, and what I’ve seen of O’Reilly’s goal-scoring potential is impressive…

But he’s not put the disparate parts of his game together on a consistent basis yet, like so many of the Wings’ prospects.

I thought this was kind of interesting: NHL.com’s fantasy hockey staff is rather bullish on the Red Wings’ offseason moves, issuing an optimistic prediction in its “Fantasy Spin” column:

The Detroit Red Wings acquired goalie Ville Husso from the St. Louis Blues and signed him to a three-year contract, giving them a much stronger goalie tandem with him and Alex Nedeljkovic this season. Husso, one of the fantasy breakout goalies of last season, loses some fantasy appeal from the move but remains among the fantasy top 25 rankings at the position for this season.

Husso was 25-7-6 with a .919 save percentage and two shutouts this regular season, tied for the sixth-best even-strength SV% in the NHL (.919; minimum 40 games) and had a shutout in the Blues’ playoff opener against the Minnesota Wild. Even though Husso lost the starting job to Jordan Binnington in the postseason, he still has plenty of staying power at 27 years old and is now ranked ahead of Nedeljkovic in the fantasy top 250 after the trade to Detroit.

The Red Wings, who hired new coach Derek Lalonde on June 30, are rebuilding but have a strong young core, led by elite center Dylan Larkin and rookie standouts from last season in Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider and forward Lucas Raymond. The signings of valuable forwards David Perron, Andrew Copp and Dominik Kubalik in free agency and potential addition of top prospect Simon Edvinsson could also help the Red Wings improve and challenge for the Stanley Cup Playoff spot as early as this season.

Continued; again, here’s hoping that the Wings compete for a playoff spot this evening.

The 2022 World Junior Championship was cancelled due to the pandemic encroaching upon the “bubble” (or lack thereof) in Edmonton and Red Deer last December, but the tournament will take a re-set and begin again in Edmonton this August.

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi took note of the fact that some of the Red Wings’ Swedish prospects (Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder) will take part in the tournament, and they’re looking forward to the opportunity:

“When I was a little kid, I always wanted to play (in the World Junior Championship),” [Simon] Edvinsson said. “I just played two games, so yeah, that hunger goes a little bit more.”

For Edvinsson, specifically, the World Juniors are a primer for a chaotic couple of months that lie ahead. Yzerman said that he can’t think of a better environment for Edvinsson to prepare for trying to make the Wings’ opening-night roster.

“What a better way to prepare for training camp (than) playing in a highly important tournament, a highly competitive tournament,” Yzerman said. “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 and make a good impression and earn a spot on the team.”

[Theodor] Niederbach downplayed the excitement that he had for the tournament, but maybe it’s because it’ll be his second time participating. He had two goals in five games during the 2021 World Juniors, playing between fellow Red Wings prospect Lucas Raymond and another top draft pick, Alexander Holtz (New Jersey Devils).

“I’m just happy to get ready here to be as good as possible,” Niederbach said. “When the tournament starts, you always give all you have, but we haven’t (thought) about it too much. … It’s been a long summer. And then maybe now we start to think about World Juniors.”

Continued