The Malik Report

Red Wings prospect Eemil Viro and Team Finland attempted to build upon their 2-and-0 record in Group A as they faced the 1-and-2 Slovaks at the World Junior Championship on Sunday.

Finland played both today and will play tomorrow (against Canada) ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinals, so the Finns were hoping that the Slovaks wouldn’t extract too great a cost in terms of energy and physicality–two aspects of the game which the Slovaks provide in earnest.

Slovakia was playing in their final “round robin” game, and are more or less destined to battle Canada in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.

Finland routed Slovakia 9-3, going 5-for-7 on the power play (including a major penalty against Slovakia), and Eemil Viro did not earn any power play time, just a bit of PK time on the Slovaks’ ONE power play, so he finished with 2 shots and an even plus-minus rating in 15:55 played.

In terms of the game’s narrative…

In the 1st period, Simon Latkoczy started opposite Juha Jatkola in goal, and puck drop occurred at 2:08 PM EDT.

Continue reading Red Wings at the WJC: Finland routs Slovakia 9-3; Viro plays 15:55

The Hockey News’s Steven Ellis posted a meaty profile of Red Wings prospect and Team Sweden defenseman Simon Edvinsson, and it’s a great article:

“He’s like a walking bulldozer. When he wants to, he can make you disintegrate with just a stride or two. Nobody on the planet wants to go 1-on-1 with him.”

That’s just one scout’s opinion on Simon Edvinsson, the 6-foot-6 hulking blueliner from Sweden. He was drafted sixth overall by Detroit in 2021, and with Calder Trophy Winner Moritz Seider already in the lineup, he’s not far from giving the Red Wings one of the most feared 1-2 defensive duos in the NHL.

It pays to be bad in some cases. And the Red Wings aren’t far away from escaping the bottom.

“Congrats to Detroit,” Swedish coach Tomas Montén said with a smile after Sweden’s victory over Switzerland to open the 2022 World Junior Championship.

Edvinsson signed his NHL entry contract back in April, and all signs point towards the big blueliner playing a key role on the team’s blueline this season. So it was especially interesting that he chose to play for Sweden’s junior team during the unusual summer world junior tournament because while many other NHL-bound players decided to skip out — Shane Wright, Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky, Owen Power and Cole Perfetti come to mind — Edvinsson saw value in heading back and representing his country. Sweden holds a perfect record through two games and is one of the favorites to win gold.

Continued

The Hockey News’s Jason Chen posted a list of players that he believes will give fantasy hockey poolies an advantage as sophomore NHL players, and he mentions both Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond…

While severely underestimating Seider’s potential:

Moritz Seider, D, Red Wings: The Wings were one of the most improved teams over the summer and Seider will be a hot commodity, especially in keeper leagues. He already offers up Victor Hedman-like upside as a multi-category contributor and a borderline top-20 defenseman. Draft him and never look back.

Lucas Raymond, RW, Red Wings: Raymond’s 23 goals was one off the rookie lead but he’s arguably the best goal scorer in his class, ahead of both Caufield and Arthur Kaliyev, two of the better shooters. Raymond had dual-winger eligibility last season and could do the same this season. Even if Raymond struggles and gets dropped from Dylan Larkin’s line, Detroit’s added depth ensures that he still has quality players to play with.

Continued; yeah, okay, Seider’s a “borderline top 20 defenseman” after posting 50 points in 82 games as a 20-year-old rookie.

Now 21, Seider is getting bigger and stronger this offseason–as is Raymond, whose 23 goals and 57 points are nothing to sneeze at. While I’ll grant you that Seider has to earn something like talk as a top-10 NHL defenseman, or a Norris Trophy candidate, in an NHL full of Cale Makars and Adam Foxes, I’m confident that, sooner than later, we’ll be talking about Seider in those conversations.

FYI:

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TICKETS ON SALE SOON! Stay tuned to get WWP Night event+game tix (w/ special discount)! #LGRW pic.twitter.com/g3i8bQqdGU— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) August 14, 2022

As always, a portion of the proceeds from every ticket sold will benefit the @JDanielsFund – shoutout to the @DetroitRedWings for helping to make this happen!— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) August 14, 2022

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen has written a subscriber-only article which discusses 5 reasons why the Red Wings’ power play should be improved this upcoming season. Among his comments:

David Perron Factor: David Perron, signed this summer as a free agent, is a proven playoff performer. He scored 11 power play goals last season. His St. Louis Blues ranked second on the power play last season. To put that into perspective, consider that no member of the Red Wings owned more than six power play goals.

He has scored 33 power play goals over the past four seasons, which ranks 23rd in the NHL. In that same time period, Dylan Larkin has 19 PP goals. That ranks 85th.

Perron has always had a power play knack, an understanding of how to find seams in the defensive coverage. He offers a quick release and an accurate shot. Perron is going to help.

Continued (paywall)

If you’ve followed the blog over the summer, you’ve already seen Moritz Seider in the gym at his personal trainer’s place in Mannheim, but NHL.com posted a Tweet which highlights Seider hard at work:

Moritz Seider’s been putting in that WORK this offseason. 🏋️

(🎥: IG/kings360.sports) pic.twitter.com/HqDcAoxYwW— NHL (@NHL) August 14, 2022

I’d imagine that Seider’s also skating on the ice when the Adler Mannheim aren’t on the ice preparing for their 2022-2023 DEL season.

It’s “Super Sunday” at the World Championship as a triple-header’s worth of games will include Red Wings prospects:

Team Finland vs. Slovakia @ 2 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network…

Eemil Viro plays for Finland…

Czechia vs. Latvia @ 6 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network…

Jan Bednar plays for Czechia...

Team Sweden vs. Team USA @ 10 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network…

Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder play for Sweden; Carter Mazur and Red Savage play for Team USA.

Former Red Wings forward Johan Franzen engaged in an incredibly lengthy conversation with HockeySverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist, who published a novella of an article as part of his “Old School Hockey” series.

The vast majority of the interview with the 40-year-old Franzen consists of discussions regarding his hockey upbringing in Landsbro, Sweden, his attempts to break into the pro game, his status as an incredibly shy human being and, eventually, his career in Detroit.

This time, however, there’s no mention of that certain former coach who is definitely not on Franzen’s Christmas card list, and the interview concludes with a health update from the big goal-scorer, who has suffered greatly from post-concussion issues over the past couple of years.

It sounds like Franzen has finally turned a corner in his attempts to recover from the most debilitating parts of his post-concussive symptoms, but he’s not anywhere close to 100%, and he may never get back to that point.

Anyway, what follows is a rough translation of the pertinent part of the interview, which is in Swedish:

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Johan Franzen speaks with HockeySverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist

Red Wings prospect Elmer Soderblom is 21 years of age, and we tend to think of him as particularly experienced because big Elmer (6’8,” 249 pounds) has played parts of three seasons with Frolunda HC of the SHL, but last season was Soderblom’s first year exclusively spent at the SHL level.

Soderblom’s somewhat limited professional experience means that he’s probably going to need a stint in Grand Rapids before he comes up to the Red Wings at some point soon, for the sake of acclimating Soderblom to the rigors of North American hockey.

He’s never played on the smaller rink (NHL rinks are 200’x85,’ and international rinks are 200’x100′), he’s never played at NHL pace, and he hasn’t really battled with players who are just as big and strong as he is.

After Lucas Raymond’s performance last season, he’s certainly proven that anything is possible in the prospect development department, but Soderblom will probably require a little bit of patience from Red Wings fans.

The need for patience with Big Elmer is the focus of an article by Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff this morning:

Continue reading DHN’s Duff discusses Elmer Soderblom’s learning curve

A middle-of-the-night note from a sleep-deprived blogger: Sportsnet’s Courtney Jacobson picked the website’s “3 Stars” from Saturday’s World Junior Championship action, and Red Wings prospect Carter Mazur earned 3rd star honors:

3rd Star: Carter Mazur, USA: It appears that a day of rest following their 7-1 victory over Switzerland did nothing to squander the momentum of the United States. They came out of the gate swinging and continued relentlessly, completing a staggering 7-0 win over Austria.

Team USA’s leading goal scorer Carter Mazur collected two more in the second period, scoring goals five and six to secure the blowout victory.

With his family in attendance, the Red Wings prospect scored his third goal of the tournament point-blank after a forced turnover in the offensive zone by Thomas Bordeleau.

His second goal of the afternoon came less than a minute later on the power-play, where Mazur ripped it from the bumper position off another feed from Bordeleau.

Following this two-goal performance, Mazur retains his spot as number two in tournament scoring, second only to Canada’s Mason McTavish. He’s tied with linemate Bordeleau for points leaders on Team USA, each tallying six.

Continued; Mazur’s development into a potential top-six forward has been a pleasant surprise. Here’s hoping his ascent continues.