The Malik Report

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton posted a set of free agency “winners and losers” which take into account this evening’s free agent blockbusters, and she offers this take on the Red Wings’ very busy July 13th:

Detroit Red Wings

General manager Steve Yzerman put in work on Wednesday, signing a haul of good players on solid contracts.

Let’s run back the list of key additions: Andrew Copp (five years, $5.625 million AAV), Ben Chiarot (four years, $4.75 million AAV), David Perron (two years, $4.75 million AAV) and Dominik Kubalik (two years, $2.5 million AAV). That’s a fine foursome of players in their own right, and Yzerman has to be pleased about how they’ll complement the Red Wings’ current group of young talent.

Chiarot has a chance to pair up with Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider, who will undoubtedly elevate Chiarot’s game. Perron had a career season with the St. Louis Blues in 2021-22, and will be a versatile middle-six piece for the Red Wings. Copp is a Michigan native excited to be joining his hometown team after a successful post-trade tenure with the New York Rangers (18 points in 16 games). And Kubalik? He’s a former 30-goal scorer who didn’t receive a qualifying offer from Chicago. The 26-year-old will be motivated to prove he’s still got it.

The newcomers up front will join Lucas Raymond, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin to make the Red Wings look suddenly much more formidable. That could also go a long way in keeping Larkin and Bertuzzi interested in remaining with the Red Wings long term. Both players are unrestricted free agents after this season and Yzerman is obviously showing that Detroit won’t be a pushover in the stacked Atlantic Division. Will that help get Larkin and Bertuzzi extended sooner? There’s been some rough seasons recently for the Red Wings but winning helps everything.

Yzerman’s moves on Wednesday will make Detroit far more competitive, exciting and potentially explosive for the coming season (and beyond). — Shilton

Continued (no paywall!)

I wanted the Red Wings to add more depth, even if it was expensive, over the course of free agency.

Over the past couple seasons, I’ve felt that the Wings weren’t betrayed by their lack of star power as much as they were betrayed by the fact that there weren’t any really solid depth players below the stars.

The Red Wings didn’t add any top-line players on Wednesday. Andrew Copp is a stalwart 2nd line center; David Perron, at 34, but still full of vigor, might be Copp’s scoring winger; the Wings took a big risk on a high-mileage Ben Chiarot, but he’s going to stabilize the middle of the Wings’ defense while adding snarl, and Olli Maatta, the guy everybody forgets, is forgettable because he’s so damn solid; Dominik Kubalik is, of course, probably a 2nd or 3rd line winger, but he might rediscover his scoring touch with old teammate Pius Suter on the third line…

And Ville Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic give the Red Wings two solid goaltenders instead of one.

The Red Wings may not make the playoffs in 2022-2023, but I have a feeling that guys like Copp, Perron, Chiarot, Maatta, Kubalik and Husso might make the difference when they do.

If watching this summer’s development camp has reminded me of anything, it’s that you need players who embrace their roles, regardless of whether they’re the next Moritz Seider or the next Kris Draper. You want players who are going to excel at what they do, regardless of whether they’re top-line or top-pair talent or fourth-line grinders.

The Wings have some talent, they need some more, and in the interim, they really, really, really needed competent depth, and that’s what Steve Yzerman chose to add on Wednesday.

Will it be enough to push the Wings over the top in a stacked Atlantic Division, especially with Ottawa and Buffalo improving? I don’t know, but the Wings will be competitive, and that’s what we all want to see from a young and improving team.

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield took note of the fact that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s status as himself might be one of the reasons why the team was able to sign its unrestricted free agent targets on Wednesday:

Any GM can make noise in free agency. Money talks. But no one talks like Yzerman, who is making Hockeytown a destination again. He is reviving the aura Detroit lost toward the end of its epic playoff run, never clearer than when Steven Stamkos dismissed the Wings as a free agent in the summer of 2016, declined to even meet with them, and stayed with Yzerman and the Lightning in Tampa. At the time, the allure of the winged wheel was dead.

The allure was always tied to winning, to the promise of success. It was tied to figures like Yzerman. It is tied more tightly to him now than ever. In his three years running the Red Wings, Yzerman has plotted a path forward for a team that was going nowhere. He has strengthened their roster and restocked their farm system, and players around the league are taking notice. Yzerman is the reason free agents will consider the Wings. The future he’s built is why they’re once again choosing the Wings.

“Obviously Steve did a great job building the team in Tampa. He drafted a bunch of those guys and turned that into a big part of where they’re at today, so the trust stems from there,” said Copp. “And then just seeing (the Red Wings’) product on the ice the last couple years, with Raymond and Seider, it was really an influx of talent. I think everyone across the league saw it as an opportunity where, ‘Detroit’s going to be good in a couple years, just wait.’ And I’d like to be a part of that.”

Copp, Chiarot and Perron all had different offers on the table Wednesday. They were three of the more coveted free agents on the market, Copp in particular. Mattaa, a two-time Cup winner, and Kubalik, a former Rookie of the Year candidate, surely had other suitors, too. They all picked the Red Wings.

More precisely, they all picked Yzerman. They all picked his reputation as a winner. As a player and an executive, there is not a more distinguished figure in the game. Free agents used to come to Detroit to win with Yzerman. Now they’re coming back.

“The moment you get a call from Steve Yzerman, it catches your attention right away,” said Perron.

Continued

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi spoke with University of Michigan Wolverines coach Mel Pearson and former coach Red Berenson regarding new Red Wings forward Andrew Copp, who chose to play college hockey over college football:

A moment of down luck would change his life forever. Copp suffered a broken collarbone that ended his [junior] season. He recovered, had a standout season playing for Compuware and the US National Team Development Program, and was offered the last scholarship Michigan hockey had to offer. Football was out of the picture.

“We really didn’t recruit Copp in the normal recruiting process, and I don’t know if he was playing another year of junior, or what he was going to do,” former Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson told The Detroit News.  “All of the information we got was just what you’re gonna get: He’s a hard-working kid; he trains hard.”

The first time he was eligible, before his freshman season, Copp was passed over completely in the NHL Entry Draft.  After a 38-game freshman campaign, in which he scored 21 points over 38 games, his life’s trajectory changed again.

He was taken by the Winnipeg Jets in the fourth round of the 2013 draft and given the ‘A’ in his second season with the Wolverines. His junior year, he was named captain, and his senior year never came. He’d shown enough to convince the Jets to sign him to an entry-level deal after his third season with Michigan.

“He can do a lot of things to help a team win. He knows what it takes to win, he knows what good leadership is, what teamwork is, what dedication is, he’ll be a good role model,” Berenson said. “I think, eventually, he’ll be part of the leadership group in Detroit.”‘

Going from an over-aged fourth-round pick to a top free-agent prize is a remarkably difficult task. A little bravado helps. Current Michigan hockey coach Mel Pearson, who helped recruit Copp while serving as an assistant on Berenson’s staff, said the first thing that stuck out to him was that Copp was “he was really confident in himself.”

“I know he wasn’t overly recruited and wasn’t maybe highly recruited like some of the players are, but he had an unwavering confidence in his ability. And how he could stack up and perform against other players,” Pearson told The Detroit News. 

Continued (paywall)

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi offers a superb column analyzing the Red Wings’ free agency moves as viewed over the course of the next season and couple seasons’ worth of growth:

Ben Chiarot, David Perron and Andrew Copp all said that getting ready to become a contender was the next step in Detroit’s evolution. One can reasonably hope that the Wings will grow significantly from a team that half-heartedly stayed in the playoff race for the first half of the season before the bottom fell out.

It’s pretty clear that playoffs are the goal in 2022-23, and the growth they showed early last season, coupled with Wednesday’s signings and a new voice in Lalonde, I think that’s reasonable.

Let’s say, though, that doesn’t go according to plan. After all, the East is loaded. Ottawa made a massive overhaul this offseason, too, and the aging Bruins are really the only team that could fall off a cliff in the Atlantic. Buffalo is also on the rise, Carolina and the New York Rangers will likely remain atop the Metro, and the next three or four teams in that division all project to be somewhat competitive. 

Should the Red Wings remain on the outside looking in, they’ve maintained the ability to be flexible. Outside of Chiarot and Copp, all of the Red Wings’ signings on Wednesday were for two years or less at decent cap numbers. They’ll be movable.

The absolute worst possible thing for Detroit this upcoming season would be to enable an environment where Dylan Larkin is staring up into the rafters of Little Caesars Arena in the midst of a third seven-goal loss in two week’s time. Putting your best players through that ringer year after year starts to take a toll. I’m fairly certain that won’t be an issue in 2022-23, regardless of where Detroit finishes in the standings.

But make no mistake: The Red Wings are trying to make the playoffs next season. All things considered, I’d say their chances are likely somewhere between possible and probable. But if they don’t get in, they’ve built themselves a nice safety net in the process. 

Continued

Going into tomorrow’s 2022 summer development camp finale–a set of 3-on-3 games which will be streamed on DetroitRedWings.com starting at 8 AM–the Detroit Red Wings’ prospects have focused on skill development, both on and off the ice.

Under the tutelage of skating coach Brodie Tutton, skill development coaches Dwayne Blais and Kevin Galerno, goaltending coach Phil Osaer and the balance of the Wings’ personnel in attendance (including assistant director of player development Dan Cleary, jack-of-many-trades Niklas Kronwall and Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon), the prospects’ on-ice focus during Day One, Day Two and Day Three squarely lay upon improving skating, puck-handling and overall on-ice skills.

Off the ice, the 37 participants (Simon Edvinsson was still absent as of Wednesday), the prospects have been working with director of sports science Mike Barwis to learn how to work out properly and rest and recover from exertion, team nutritionist Lisa McDowell to learn about nutrition, and the Wings’ prospects have engaged in courses to learn to deal with both the print media and social media, they’ve talked to a sports psychologist…

Continue reading Impressions from the fourth day of the Red Wings’ 2022 summer development camp

WXYZ’s Brad Galli reports on the Red Wings’ free agency moves, via a 3-minute video:

Here it is in Twitter form:

The Red Wings opened free agency addressing needs. Steve Yzerman didn’t waste time.

Detroit signed Andrew Copp, David Perron, and Dominik Kubalik to build legitimate scoring depth, and Ben Chiarot and Olli Maatta to bolster the blue line. Our coverage on @WXYZDetroit: pic.twitter.com/SqUx7A9gF7— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) July 14, 2022

Long-time Detroit hockey scribe and The Russian Five author Keith Gave made an astute observation via a Tweet-within-a-Tweet from one Darren Pang, who’s both Steve Yzerman’s childhood friend and the Bally Sports St. Louis hockey color commentator:

See you down the road @DP_57 It is always a pleasure hot-stoving, talking hockey or golf. Good luck with @DetroitRedWings and take good care of the fellas there. https://t.co/G7V2CaxsnH pic.twitter.com/quTq6dlPR7— Darren R Pang (@Panger40) July 13, 2022

Rest assured that Steve Yzerman did his due diligence on David Perron with a phone call to Darren Pang, his lifelong buddy. The two grew up together in Napean, Ontario and remain close friends. Which may explain why the Wings’ GM is importing so many players from St. Louis. https://t.co/M8bCOLeSoL— Keith Gave (@KeithGave) July 14, 2022

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a notebook article this evening which discusses comments made by Andrew Copp, David Perron and Ben Chiarot during their initial appearances as members of the Detroit Red Wings, and this note about Chiarot surprised me:

Defenseman Ben Chiarot is returning closer to home. Chiarot grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and currently lives in Kitchener. He also has plenty of relatives in Windsor, just across the bridge. So, this was pretty much returning home.

“It’s good for me with a young family, there’s a number of factors that played into it,” Chiarot said. “I grew up in Hamilton and it was hard not to follow the Wings when they were winning a Stanley Cup every couple of years. There are a lot of Wings fans in my area, and good memories watching them back then.

“Once I knew Detroit was interested, and my agent and Steve were able to work out a deal, that was a pretty easy choice for me. A team that’s on the rise, built by Steve Yzerman, and then a place close to home for my family. It’s a great spot for me.”

Chiarot’s physical style could blend well with NHL rookie of the year Moritz Seider, who could be Chiarot’s defensive partner.

“An impressive young defenseman,” Chiarot said. “He does kind of everything real well. Plays a physical style which you don’t see a ton of anymore with young guys coming in, with an edge. Moritz doesn’t back down out there. He was a fun guy to watch this year and I’m looking forward to getting out there with him.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Max Bultman wraps up a couple blog entries dedicated to the Red Wings media corps’ assessments of Detroit’s free agency moves with a thoughtful column regarding the direction of the team:

Make no mistake, even on a day the Red Wings signed five players in free agency — including at least three likely to play in the top half of their lineup — Yzerman didn’t abandon his first principles as Detroit continues to rebuild. But after signing Andrew Copp, David Perron, Ben Chiarot, Olli Määtä and Dominik Kubalik, it’s clear the Red Wings aren’t sitting around waiting, either. Detroit made big plays at free agency’s opening bell and now may actually have the pieces to turn a real corner under new head coach Derek Lalonde.

“It’s well known around the league that it’s a young, up-and-coming team,” Chiarot said Wednesday afternoon, explaining his interest in Detroit. “I think today, with all the additions that the team made, it just makes it an even more exciting team. Steve Yzerman builds good teams. I think everyone knows that.”

That wasn’t the only reference to Yzerman’s importance. Perron mentioned how getting a call from Yzerman “catches your attention right away.” After Yzerman’s storied career as a player, and more recently, success building the foundation for a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion in Tampa, it’s easy to understand why.

So far in Detroit, though, Yzerman’s team-building process has been rather slow and methodical. Even last summer, when Yzerman traded for Alex Nedeljkovic and Nick Leddy, the pushes have been incremental at best.

And make no mistake: Wednesday’s moves don’t make the Red Wings instant favorites for the playoffs next season. But this also wasn’t just adding at the margins.

Continued (paywall)