The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects took part in a spirited 50-minute morning skate today at Centre ICE Arena, working on:

Breakouts, playing the puck through the middle of the ice instead of along the boards (a major sticking point for coach Ben Simon), warming up their goalies (I think Jan Bednar will get the nod tonight vs. Dallas) and generally working on producing more screens in front of opposing goaltenders, as well as more speed on the rush.

Tonight’s 6 PM opponent, the Dallas Stars’ prospects, are coming off a 6-2 loss to Toronto on Thursday, and they skated just before the Red Wings on Saturday as tonight’s game is the only game on the schedule at Centre ICE Arena on a college football Saturday, so it’s going to be packed, and hopefully well-watched on the Red Wings’ social media channels.

In terms of player assessments, there’s a very short turnaround between now and the game, so I’m going to keep my assessments short:

Continue reading Quick impressions from Saturday’s game-day skate at the Red Wings’ prospect tournament →

Of Red Wings prospect-related note from the SHL and the J20 league today:

In the SHL, Rogle BK won 5-4 in overtime over Brynas. In terms of Red Wings prospects taking part in the game:

Marco Kasper had an assist, a +1 and 2 shots on goal in 16:51 played, winning 70% of his faceoffs:

Marco Kasper regular season opener:

16:51 TOI, 2 SOG, 1 assist, +1, 70% faceoffs pic.twitter.com/obJhCp54Wy— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 17, 2022

Theodor Niederbach finished at -1 with 1 shot in 10:25 played;

And William Wallinder scored a goal on 2 shots, finishing at +1 in 22:38 played:

William Wallinder scores his 1st goal of the season, making it 4-2 Rögle #LGRW pic.twitter.com/YgceinjPIj— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 17, 2022

In Frolunda HC’s 3-2 shootout loss to Timra, Liam Dower Nilsson finished even with 1 shot in only 5:09 played;

And in the Swedish J20 league, in Leksands IF’s 4-2 win over Skelleftea AIK, Anton Johansson finished even with 2 shots and a penalty taken.

Update: Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Antti Tuomisto and TPS Turku had a rough day, losing 6-0 to Lukko, and Tuomisto finished at -2 in 23:41 played.

The Red Wings’ prospects held a morning skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. Dallas (6 PM EDT on the Red Wings’ social media channels), and after the skate, myself, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen and Bob Duff, The Athletic’s Max Bultman and DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills all spoke with Jeremie Biakabutuka and Cross Hanas.

Biakabutuka was forthcoming regarding his status as a life-long hockey player despite his connections to Michigan football, he discussed the fact that he feels almost intimidated sometimes by the caliber of players that he’s playing with, and he spoke about stepping up and making plays and finding his confidence alongside Eemil Viro:

Cross Hanas also spoke with us, discussing his self-appointed role as a playmaker after posting 60 assists (and scoring some highlight-reel goals) in the WHL this past season, trying those trick goals that worked for him, improving his defensive game and being a little edgy, too, and playing with 6’8″ Elmer Soderblom and 5’10” center Amadeus Lombardi on the Wings’ top line:

This is unique, via the Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa on Twitter: Rogle BK celebrated its Champions Hockey League title before kicking off today’s game vs. Brynas:

Rögle firar Champions League-titeln 🎶🏆 pic.twitter.com/0oEEQS1Y9V— C More Hockey (@cmorehockey) September 17, 2022

After the Red Wings’ prospects won a 5-2 decision over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday afternoon/evening, the Red Wings’ beat writers weighed in with several overnight or early morning-posted articles discussing the game’s events, and pertinent storylines, ahead of today’s 6 PM game vs. Dallas:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Riley Piercey’s four-goal performance..

Piercey scored in a variety of ways Friday – a deflection in the first period, a snipe in the second period and a breakaway and short rebound in the third. It is the first time he has scored four goals in a game at any level.

“I guess it was just one of those nights,” Piercey said. “Puck bounces were there. I capitalized on my opportunities when I had them. It’s just hockey. It’s just one of those games. I thought I did well.”

Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon, who is coaching Detroit’s prospects, said of Piercey: “Obviously a night like that you don’t get too often. I’m happy for him. Hopefully, that will breed some confidence and lead into training camp. Good for him having a good first game and let’s see what that leads to.”

The Red Wings face the Dallas Stars tonight at 6 (live-streamed at DetroitRedWings.com).

The Red Wings invited Piercey to development camp at Little Caesars Arena in July and he played well enough to earn an invite to the main camp.

“Now I’m just here trying to make a good name for myself,” he said.

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also took note of Piercey’s performance…

Continue reading Morning round-up: Regarding Riley Piercey, Elmer Soderblom and ‘where the Wings go from here’ →

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article regarding several points from the Red Wings prospects‘ 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday afternoon/evening, including this note about Elmer Soderblom:

Friday’s game was the first test for forward Elmer Soderblom, who is making his North American debut.

The 6-foot-6 forward is likely going to begin the season in Grand Rapids. But after a 21-goal season in Frolunda (Sweden) last season, expectations have grown for the 2019 sixth-round draft pick.

“They’ve told me they want to see (here) what I did in Frolunda,” said Soderblom, who had an assist and one shot with a minus-two rating against Columbus. “Just keep playing my (game) and add some physicality, play with my size even more. That’s what I have to do to be able to take a spot.”

Soderblom’s big body (6-foot-6, 220-pounds) was evident in the offensive zone, hanging around the net and especially blocking the view of goaltenders while stationed net-front on the power play.

“I’m pretty much the tallest guy on the ice often,” Soderblom said. “I just have to use it to my advantage and do the best I can.”

Continued

I just posted my impressions from the Red Wings’ 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 2022 Prospect Tournament, and The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a set of his own takes on Riley Piercey’s four-goal game, Simon Edvinsson’s North American debut, Sebastian Cossa’s game and the performances of Cross Hanas and Kirill Tyutyayev.

I’ll concur with his take on Edvinsson, who I critiqued based upon expectations as well:

Edvinsson might be the best all-around prospect at this tournament, so expectations are high. And on the whole, it was a pretty good first showing.

You might have ideally liked to see the defenseman take charge a bit more with the puck, especially early, but Edvinsson looked characteristically smooth, poised and effective on the back end for Detroit. He finished as a plus-2, killed penalties and, perhaps most importantly, looked quite good running the Red Wings’ top power-play unit. That’s not a role Edvinsson had much last season in the SHL or with Sweden at world juniors, but he made good decisions while doing so Friday.

Because Edvinsson has a legit shot at the Red Wings’ opening-night roster, he will probably be graded on a harsher curve at this event — whether that’s fair or not. And from that standpoint, he didn’t necessarily kick the door down in Game 1. But keep it in perspective: He played well in a decisive victory, and he continues to look like one heck of a prospect for the Red Wings.

“He’s very confident with the puck, he’s confident in who he is and how he wants to play,” said Griffins coach Ben Simon, who is running the Detroit bench at the tournament. “I thought he made some really nice stretch passes today, but again he moves pretty well — he moves very well for a bigger guy. He kind of floats on the ice.”

Continued (paywall)

The Red Wings’ prospects won a 5-2 decision over the Columbus Blue Jackets’ prospects on Friday afternoon/evening, and DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills wrote a superb recap with quips and quotes from Riley Piercey, Elmer Soderblom and coach Ben Simon:

Forward Riley Piercey, who made the Detroit Red Wings’ 2022 NHL Prospect Tournament roster as a free-agent invitee, made quite the first impression.

Piercey scored four goals for the Red Wings, who opened their three-game NHL Prospect Tournament schedule with a 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday afternoon in front of a packed Centre Ice Arena crowd.

“It was just one of those nights,” Piercey said. “The puck bounces were there, and I capitalized on my opportunities when I had them.”

Piercey, who earned 27 goals and 31 assists in 59 games last season for the OHL’s Flint Firebirds, said he wants to “make a good name” for himself in Traverse City.

“It’s the start that everyone hopes for and dreams for,” Piercey said. “To get that start was good, but we got the big win.”‘

Continued

The Red Wings’ prospects won a 5-2 decision over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Red Wings’ 2022 Prospect Tournament on Friday afternoon/evening. Riley Piercey, a try-out from Flint of the OHL, scored four goals; Drew Worrad had a goal and two assists; Pasquale Zito, Cross Hanas and Jeremie Biakabutuka all had 2 assists; and Sebastian Cossa (17 stops on 18 shots) and Andrew Oke (7 stops on 8 shots) split the win.

The Red Wings will try to flush this one as best they can and prepare for Saturday night’s tilt against the Dallas Stars (6 PM EDT at Centre ICE Arena, on the Red Wings’ social media channels), and I fully believe that Detroit has another gear to shift into come Saturday night.

Detroit’s effort against Columbus, while very solid in on the scoreboard, was somewhat inconsistent at times; players who had exactly one practice and no Friday morning skate under their belts looked about as familiar with each other as you might expect, and there were hiccups and a lot of over-playing the puck as a result.

I felt that, at times, the Wings got a little lucky here and there, especially when the Blue Jackets’ line of Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson and Mikael Pyythia all but ran ramp-shod in the Wings’ zone, but Detroit held fast and got better as the game went along…

And Riley Piercey had the game of his life, in front of a packed “owners’ box” of Wings executives and a mezzanine overflowing with scouts from 32 NHL teams and organizations across North America and Europe. He’s going to have to back it up on Saturday vs. Dallas and on Monday, when the Wings close out the tournament vs. Toronto at 11 AM.

If you missed it, the Wings have archived their live stream of the game…

Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings’ 5-2 win vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 2022 prospect tournament →

Sportsnet’s Justin Bourne posted a list of “pressing questions” for the Eastern Conference’s teams, and he offers the following regarding the Red Wings:

Did the Red Wings add enough to exit the group of tanking teams?

They sure added a lot of bodies, including *deep breath* David Perron and Andrew Copp and Ville Husso and Ben Chiarot and Olli Maatta and Mark Pysyk and Dominik Kubalik. And they were already excited about Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. So, I think it’s safe to say their goal isn’t a high draft pick this next summer. Will this be the team to catch one of the groups above?

Continued