Detroit Hockey Now’s Brown on William Wallinder, who’s skating on borrowed blades

Red Wings prospect and Rogle BK defenseman William Wallinder skated with borrowed equipment at today’s session of the Wings’ 2022 summer development camp, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown noted in an evening notebook:

Detroit Red Wings defensive prospects William Wallinder and Shai Buium have taken different paths as they continue their climb through the Red Wings pipeline. Wallinder’s literal route to Detroit, however, was disrupted by the airlines.

“Our flights got cancelled and we lost our baggage,” Wallinder explained for his delay into Detroit’s development camp. “I borrowed skates and the rest is new equipment.”

In spite of that, it hasn’t taken away from Wallinder’s short time in camp.

“It’s a great experience to be here,” Wallinder said. “It’s fun to meet all of the guys. Maybe we’ll be teammates in the future. It’s good to meet them.”

Wallinder is a 6’4 defenseman and idolized players like Niklas Kronwall growing up, someone who is now directly involved in his development in his role as special assistant to Detroit GM Steve Yzerman. What has Kronwall helped him with so far?

“Everything in my game, all the small details,” Wallinder replied.

Continued, with more about both Wallinder and Shai Buium…

Khan’s notebook: On Marco Kasper’s Red Wing education

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a notebook article discussing the comments made by Marco Kasper to the media on Monday, as Kasper attends Detroit’s 2022 summer development camp:

Days after being selected eighth overall, Kapser is absorbing as much information as he can this week during development camp at Little Caesars Arena.

“Skating, skills – and all the meetings, like with nutrition, just take in all that stuff,” Kasper, a 6-1, 187-pound center, said. “Details, on the ice, off the ice, too. It’s good what we learn here and right now we’re working on the ice on skating and all that. Just want to get better at the details and for sure get stronger and faster.”

Red Wings management, led by general manager Steve Yzerman and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper, followed Kapser closely in the months leading up to the draft, impressed by his competitiveness and determination as a 17-year-old playing against men in the Swedish Hockey League, as well as his skills.

Daniel Cleary, Detroit’s assistant director of player development, was in Rogle watching Wallinder, the team’s second selection in 2021, when Kasper caught his eye.

“I saw a few games, liked what I saw,” Cleary said. “Coincidentally, it just happened to work out like that. I love the Rogle program. We’ll have three guys there next year (Kasper, Wallinder, Theodor Niederbach).”

Continued

Jeff Blashill discusses joining the Lightning, reflects on his time in Detroit

Former Red Wings head coach and now Tampa Bay Lightning assistant coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media for 12 minutes this evening, both discussing joining Jon Cooper’s staff in Tampa and reflecting upon his time in Detroit:

The Red Wings’ beat writers took note of Blashill’s remarks, starting with the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

Continue reading Jeff Blashill discusses joining the Lightning, reflects on his time in Detroit

Kulfan ponders the Red Wings’ free agent possibilities

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan has posted a notebook article in which he discusses the Red Wings’ probable free agency moves:

[Detroit’s] $31 million [in] cap space looks huge, but remember there are upcoming big contracts with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi beginning with the 2023-24 season, and before too long, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond.

But [GM Steve] Yzerman is intent on finding more help for the nucleus of players that has been here through much of the rebuild, along with simply improving upon several disappointing recent seasons.

“We want help for Dylan (Larkin), Tyler (Bertuzzi), Filip Hronek,” Yzerman said. “They’ve been here a few years, Dylan and Tyler particularly. We want to surround them with some better players. We watched the positive impact some of our younger guys (Seider, Raymond) had this year. We’d like to add to that, and continue to move forward.

“If there’s a player that can make what we feel would be a significant impact, we’re not afraid to do that in free agency. If we can find a player that fills a hole and the contract makes sense, whether it’s a one-year deal or a long-term deal, we’ll do it.”

As in the previous few years, term of the contracts might be a key issue with any free agent the Wings pursue. They are nearing the end of their organizational rebuild, but still aren’t quite at the point of signing long-term deals with older players who they would be saddled with just as they pursue playoff berths. There are plenty of things for Yzerman to consider.

“What’s the cost of acquiring that player? Does the cost of acquiring that player make sense for where we hope to be in three or four years or are we just spending a whole lot of money and are not going to be much different in three or four years, whether that player is here or helped get us there,” Yzerman said. “Is there a more efficient way to get there at the end of the day? We weigh it all and that’s for short-term and long-term contracts.”

Continued

Scotty Bowman leaves the Hawks

This is an intriguing Tweet from one William Scott Bowman:

Per TSN:

As a head coach, Bowman won a record nine Stanley Cup championships. He won five with the Montreal Canadiens (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979), one with the Pittsburgh Penguins (1992) and three with the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998 and 2002).

The 88-year-old Bowman also won five Stanley Cups as an executive with a team’s front office. He was director of player development for the 1991 Penguins, consultant with the 2008 Red Wings and his most recent role of senior advisor of hockey operations for the Blackhawks’ championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015 that featured his son Stan as general manager.

He ranks second all time for most Stanley Cup victories by a player, coach or executive with 14 behind Jean Beliveau’s 17.

With 1,248 wins in the regular season and 223 in the playoffs, Bowman won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach in 1976 and 1977 and is the only NHL coach to lead three teams to Stanley Cup victories.

Bowman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1991 and Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2003. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2012 and received an Order of Hockey in Canada award in 2017.

Link of note: Detroit News’s Guralnick posts 60 more summer development camp pictures

I’m posting a link and that’s it because it’s worth your time: The Detroit News’s intrepid photographer David Guralnick was here at Little Caesars Arena today, and he posted a 60-image photo gallery from the Red Wings’ summer development camp. He even snagged a picture of Derek Lalonde and his oldest son watching the proceedings.

Photo gallery: Red Wings prospect camp continues with new coach Derek Lalonde stopping by to take a peek. https://t.co/PZiDnrUR2m pic.twitter.com/h3VfGgLeUq— David Guralnick (@DavidGuralnick) July 12, 2022

Tweets of note: Wings say ‘hello’ from Day 3; Nedeljkovic on ice

Back to work. ?#DRWDC pic.twitter.com/WwWNo8cvYT— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 12, 2022

Some goalie without a jersey number working with the coaches. Kind of small. Vaughn pads. Toque mask. Long hair. Goes by “Ned.” pic.twitter.com/HZ0tb3moL9— George Malik (@georgemalik) July 12, 2022

Nedeljkovic skittering across the crease. pic.twitter.com/LJrXRIqBPy— George Malik (@georgemalik) July 12, 2022

Nedeljkovic has been VERY cautious in terms of moving across the crease. He suffered a “lower-body injury” which caused him to miss the World Championship, and I get the feeling that it involved core muscle surgery.