The Malik Report

Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic was able to take part in a demo flight with the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels last weekend in Ypsilanti, MI:

The NHLPA released the dates for its salary arbitration hearings this morning:

The 2022 Salary Arbitration hearing dates have been set and will be held from July 27 to August 11.

Schedule available here: https://t.co/Lq2uy86sFr— NHLPA (@NHLPA) July 21, 2022

Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman’s hearing is scheduled for Thursday, August 11th.

Updated at 1:14 PM: Per the Red Wings on Twitter…

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today signed center Chase Pearson to a one-year contract.

Details: https://t.co/HB6Al6tuoM pic.twitter.com/4BbLOVDF1F— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 21, 2022

Pearson accepted his qualifying offer, a two-way contract ($917,831, $70,000 AHL). Requires waivers to be assigned to @griffinshockey Will be an RFA again next summer. https://t.co/i3HMwcbT6O— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) July 21, 2022

And, from the Red Wings’ PR department:

Continue reading Red Wings make Chase Pearson’s 1-year extension official

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski posted a massive article for ESPN+ readers today, offering off-season grades for every one of the NHL’s 32 teams’ post-2021-2022 season trades and free agency moves.

My ESPN+ subscription costs seventy bucks, so I’m going to share what Shilton had to say about the Red Wings, and leave the rest to you:

Detroit Red Wings

Key players added: D Ben Chiarot, C Andrew Copp, G Ville Husso, F Dominik Kubalik, F David Perron, D Olli Maatta
Key players lost: G Thomas Greiss, G Calvin Pickard, D Marc Staal
Remaining cap space: $10,296,111

Coach status: The Red Wings moved on from Jeff Blashill in April, ending his seven-year tenure as head coach. Detroit has since named former Tampa Bay assistant Derek Lalonde as Blashill’s replacement. Lalonde has never run his own NHL bench, but as part of Jon Cooper’s staff since 2018 he has helped to guide the Lightning to consecutive Stanley Cup championships. It’s a winning pedigree that would give most general managers confidence in Lalonde — including Steve Yzerman.

Overall grade: A

Yzerman has not messed around in free agency. Detroit had cap space to use, and he has given this group a great chance to be in the playoff mix this season.

Going after the rights to Husso was a good start. Yzerman traded for him from St. Louis and then got a three-year extension done. The Red Wings should have a terrific tandem now in Husso and sophomore Alex Nedeljkovic.

Getting Perron on a two-year, $9.5 million pact was nice work by Yzerman, too. Perron hit his highest goal total (27) in eight years last season and was a force in the postseason (13 points in 12 games). That’s a savvy veteran who, at 34, is also playing excellent hockey. Perron will be huge for Detroit on the ice and in the dressing room.

Continue reading ESPN’s Shilton and Wyshynski grade the NHL’s offseason moves for every team, Red Wings included

The Toledo Walleye signed fan favorite and prolific ECHL point-producer Simon Denis to a contract earlier this summer, and the defenseman spoke with WTOL 11 in Toledo regarding his hopes of bringing a Kelly Cup to T-town:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Red Wings free agent signing Dominik Kubalik in her morning column today, discussing the 26-year-old’s desire to “reset” after a rough couple of seasons in Chicago:

Part of the appeal for Dominik Kubalik was the opportunity to see if he can sync his revival with that of the Detroit Red Wings‘.

He has a 30-goal season to his credit, which is a major reason why Wings general manager Steve Yzerman signed Kubalik for two years and $5 million when the free agent market opened on July 13. Kubalik, who turns 27 in August, was part of a slew of free agents signed by Yzerman. 

“When you are on the phone with a guy like him, it’s always nice,” Kubalik said. “We had a good talk, and it helped me a lot to make the decision. I know what he has done in the past with Tampa and what he is doing now with the Red Wings. It’s exciting. I’m there to help. I’m hoping I can do much better than last year. I know it’s in me. I can’t ask for a better opportunity or higher motivation than I have right now.”

Kubalik (6 feet 2, 179 pounds) has 62 goals in 202 NHL games, but after a standout rookie season in 2019-20 (30 goals in 68 games), he hasn’t topped 17 goals in either of the past two seasons.

“First season, the chemistry with Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad was amazing and we started clicking,” Kubalik said. “Then we lost Saader (who was traded away in October 2020) and the second season, Toews was out. It wasn’t easy for me to find who I can play with, and I was up and down in the lineup. The second half of the season was much better. Last season, well, the season was up and down pretty much the whole year. We went on a losing streak and it’s hard to get back and get it going. That’s what happened to me — I had some good streaks and some bad moments in the season. Right now, it’s a fresh start and I’m very excited about the opportunity. Hopefully I’m going to start the same way I did in Chicago.”

St. James continues (paywall)…

EP Rinkside’s JFresh is something of an analytics wizard, and, this morning, the subscription website has offered an unlocked entry in which JFresh analyzes the free agency additions of three major players in the trade and unrestricted free agency marketplaces–the Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes, and Detroit Red Wings

JFresh’s analytical models suggest that the Red Wings will earn a much-better but out-of-the-playoff-mix 94 “projected standings points” this upcoming season, but he’s not particularly impressed by Steve Yzerman’s additions, nor the means by which Yzerman made the additions.

JFresh suggests that the Wings will only improve upon their moribund 2021-2022 season record by approximately ten points, despite the Wings’ additions of a significant number of secondary scorers, secondary defensemen and possibly a starting goaltender:

What do you do when your team has pretty much no middle-of-the-lineup players and a gigantic pile of cap space? Evidently, you simply buy yourself seven players.

General Manager Steve Yzerman‘s extreme patience while rebuilding the Red Wings has paid off in the form of at least one apparent franchise-level talent in Moritz Seider, but with the team having stagnated in the 70-74 point range for the most part since 2018 it did kind of appear as though the team was ambling along aimlessly.

Apparently, that time has come to an end. The Red Wings dumped a big pile of money on several solid free agents and essentially bought themselves a couple more wins in the short term.

He continues (I’m clipping the text as these articles are often re-locked; while I’m an optimist regarding the Red Wings’ level of improvement, I also believe that there’s still a youth movement going on, and I don’t know if that’s delusional at this point)…

Continue reading EP Rinkside’s JFresh analyzes the Wings’ free agency moves

Detroit Hockey Now posts its “Red Wings Daily” every day at 4:00 AM, and today’s topic is one Olli Maatta, who signed with the Red Wings (technically speaking) on July 2nd.

This morning, Bob Duff notes that Maatta asked former Red Wings and one-time members of the Los Angeles Kings Andreas Athanasiou (now with Chicago) and Troy Stecher (now with Arizona) about Detroit:

“Athanasiou, I’m pretty good friends with him,” Maatta explained. “He was there for a long time and he had nothing but good things to say about it – the organization and team-wise, the guys in there, the staff.”

Athanasiou wasn’t the only former Detroit player to sing about the praises of the Red Wings organization directly into Maatta’s ears.

“(Troy) Stecher was another one,” Maatta said. “And you talk a lot with your agent (J.P. Barry), about teams that are available and where you want to go.

“I heard nothing bad about Detroit. It was all great things. How exciting the team is, and they definitely want to be a contender. So I just want to be a part of it. It just felt right.”

Continued

The Green Bay Press-Times’ Greg Bates spoke to new Red Wings coach and former Green Bay Gamblers (of the USHL) coach Derek Lalonde about his hiring by the Red Wings, as well as his evolution as a coach:

When Jon Cooper hired longtime friend Derek Lalonde as an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Cooper foresaw the future.

“He said, ‘As much as I’ve accomplished in my career, I’ve never moved anyone on to become a head coach in the NHL,’” Lalonde said. “He told me, ‘You’re going to be that guy.’ He meant it, and he helped develop me these four years. We kept our eye on winning and team success, and it came to fruition.”

Lalonde, who coached the Green Bay Gamblers from 2011-14, was named the Detroit Red Wings’ new head coach June 30. Cooper is also a Gamblers product, coaching the team from 2008-10. The 49-year-old Lalonde is the 28th head coach in the storied history of the Red Wings — winners of 11 Stanley Cup titles.

“It’s exciting,” Lalonde told The Press Times. “It’s surreal at times, but it’s been like the rest of my career. It was never about becoming an NHL head coach or about the next step or getting to the next level – it was always about trying to be good at the job you’re at. Every step has taken care of itself where the phone kept ringing. It’s a huge responsibility because it’s the Red Wings, but it’s a huge challenge and honor.”

Lalonde offers this to Bates regarding the hiring process…

Continue reading Derek Lalonde speaks with the Green Bay Press-Times regarding his hiring by the Wings, time spent in Green Bay

WXYZ’s Brad Galli discusses whether the Red Wings might be interested in Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames via a video report:

The problem with acquiring Matthew Tkachuk is very simple: it’s going to hurt. He’s 24 years old (he turns 25 in December) and posted 104 points this past season (42 goals and 62 assists).

Acquiring Tkachuk would take an A-level NHL star, an A-level prospect and a first-round pick (at bare minimum). If vaccination status were no issue, it would be Tyler Bertuzzi + Simon Edvinsson + a 1st round pick, or something comparable. Without Bertuzzi, we’re looking at an alternate of something like Jakub Vrana + Jonatan Berggren + a 1st round pick + a sweetener.

You’re not going to get an asset like Tkachuk without making some sort of hole in your roster and/or prospect pool. It’s that simple.