The Malik Report

Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis offers a list of his “most interesting goaltending battles” of the 2025-2026 season:

Detroit Red Wings

John Gibson and Cam Talbot

The Red Wings traded for Gibson at the 2025 NHL Draft, giving them what should be an upgrade over Lyon. And the timing is good, too. Despite missing the start of the season – and thus losing the starter’s gig to Lukas Dostal – Gibson battled back to post some of the best numbers of his 12-year NHL career. At his best, Gibson is fully capable of stealing games.

But was his 29-game clip last year legit? Can the Red Wings be fully confident in him? Or will 38-year-old Cam Talbot have something to say about that? Talbot was great in stretches last year, with his numbers in December suggesting he’d be a good fit for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He can be a bit hot-and-cold, but when he’s hot, Talbot can be lights out. He’ll want to secure as many starts as possible and prove he can still be Detroit’s No. 1 – but Gibson will be a tough nemesis. Either way, it’s a solid duo.

Continued

Shap Shots’ Sean Shapiro compiled a panel which ranked the Detroit Red Wings’ roster from 23 to 1 today, and here are a few of his rankings:

3. Moritz Seider, RHD

Average Rank: 2.42

Highest Rank: 1

Lowest Rank: 3

My Rank: 3

It’s hard to believe Seider is only 24, because between his body of work and the discourse surrounding his usage, you’d think he was already a 10-year NHL veteran. Seider is one of the rocks on the Red Wings defense, and his game has been forced to mature in the most difficult situations — how many times have the Red Wings now signed a veteran that’s failed to make his life easier? If he can add a bit of offensive pop, like he had in the final five games of the regular season, his name will come up more when people start discussing the NHL’s top-20 defenders.

2. Lucas Raymond, RW

Average Rank: 2.28

Highest Rank: 2

Lowest Rank: 3

My Rank: 2

Raymond isn’t just an elite young player, he’s a superstar in waiting. Give him a better supporting cast, and I believe he could be a 100-point player this season. Watching Raymond thrive at the international level only makes me more bullish on that, when he plays with elite players, he becomes a driver that pushes others along the wing.

Continued (paywall)

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson compiled a list of 10 NHL players who Richardson believes will become star players this upcoming season, and Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson makes the list:

Simon Edvinsson, Detroit Red Wings

A promising performance by Simon Edvinsson was among the few bright spots in another disappointing season for the Detroit Red Wings. After totaling four points in 25 games over the previous two years, the 22-year-old defenseman had 31 points in 78 games with a team-leading plus/minus of plus-12.

The sixth-overall pick in the 2021 draft, Edvinsson’s emergence as a potential top-line defenseman was much-anticipated by Red Wings fans. His performance last season while logging 21:07 minutes of ice time per game suggests bigger things to come.

At 6′ 6″ and 209 pounds, Edvinsson towers over his opponents. He also has the all-around skills to dominate play. Given his age, he still has plenty of time to grow his game.

Edvinsson’s solid play gives the Red Wings some options. They can put him on the first pairing with Moritz Seider to form one of the best young pairings in the league, or they can have him play on the second pairing to spread skill among their top four.

Continued

It’s that time again.

I didn’t think that it was appropriate to ask last week so that we could have a quiet pre-camp week, and I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask when I had my anxiety attack last Saturday. But training camp starts this Thursday, and I’m going to be putting in four twelve-to-fourteen-hour days for the blog’s sake (with Aunt Annie’s permission, given that I’m her caregiver)…

So it’s time to do some fundraising again. Aunt Annie and I are simply trying to pay the bills. I’m gonna be honest in stating that it isn’t easy to get by while we’re paying down debt and just trying to make things work as the grocery bill balloons; I’m sure that you’re experiencing the latter phenomenon as well.

I’d love to start saving for a new laptop as it’s badly needed after five years’ worth of service, but Operation Potato will have to wait for now. Right now, we need to survive, and and I need to make sure that you receive a good training camp’s worth of content.

This is just the reality of having a blog with no ads. We have to fundraise to get by.

Continue reading Pre-camp fundraising

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye posted an article from THN’s yearbook, in which Jared Clinton profiles Red Wings goaltender John Gibson at significant length:

IN AN IDEAL WORLD – and some might suggest in a just one – John Gibson wouldn’t have such a big chip on his shoulder. There’s even an argument that he shouldn’t have one in the first place. After all, by just about any measure, Gibson has had a charmed career.

But at his introductory press conference as a new member of the Detroit Red Wings, Gibson couldn’t help but repeat that this is an opportunity to show that he has plenty left in the tank. Five times, he hit on some variation of that theme. He brought it up when talking about what excites him about heading to Hockeytown. He brought it up when he talked about his fit in the Red Wings’ lineup. And he brought up again when talking about leaving Anaheim.

With that last one, Gibson wasn’t striking an aggrieved tone or tenor. Not necessarily. The truth, however, is that the 32-year-old’s departure from the Ducks, with whom he has spent every moment of his big-league career, has been a long time coming.

For the past few years, Gibson’s name has been grist for the rumor mill, whether in-season or during the dog days of summer. There were moments when it seemed close. There was the moment when a public statement had to be made denying that he had demanded out of Anaheim. But what has long seemed fait accompli is now a reality. After more than 10 years, he’s on the move from the white-sand beaches of Southern California to the blue-collar Motor City. “It’s tough being in one place for so long, and you’ve got to say bye to a lot of close friendships with people within the organization and outside the organization,” Gibson told reporters. “But me and my family are ready for the next chapter. I still feel like I’ve got a lot left to prove.”

See? There Gibson goes, hinting at some unfinished business and sounding more like an upstart itching to make a name for himself than the well-credentialled keeper he is. And that phrase – “a lot to prove” – is going to come up again in these next 1,000-plus words. But maybe that’s because there’s something to it.

Continued

The Score’s John Matisz posted a list of his 10 people under the most pressure going into the 2025-2026 season, and no list of NHL players and executives would be complete these days without the Detroit Red Wings’ general manager:

Steve Yzerman

Armed with the so-called Yzerplan for rebuilding an Original Six franchise, Yzerman is about to embark upon Season 7 as the Red Wings’ GM.

Detroit has yet to make the playoffs, and it’s a coin flip if the skid ends at nine years given the competition for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Yzerman’s job should be hanging in the balance, but then again, he’s a franchise icon who’s ostensibly mastered the art of tempering expectations.

Detroit’s forward group is roughly NHL average. Its blue line is one gigantic question mark beyond cornerstones Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson. Goaltending’s been upgraded through the John Gibson acquisition. Todd McLellan, meanwhile, can flex his coaching muscles in his first full season.

Continued; I’m not going to bag on Yzerman like Steve Dangle did, and I’m going to emphasize the truth here: Steve Yzerman’s seat may be warm this season, but he is under absolutely no danger of losing his job as long as Marian and Christopher Ilitch are in charge of and/or own the team.

Has Yzerman been too cautious in terms of making trades to attempt to build a more competitive roster? For sure, 100% certain in my opinion.

Has he made some strange moves (see: the Jake Walman trade)?

Yes, of course. But has he swung and missed on free agents? That’s hard to say given that we don’t know which players were available to him to begin with.

Has he had to tear down Ken Holland’s team before beginning to build his own roster and slate of prospects? Again, 100% certain there. And that probably set what might be a 10-12 year rebuild back a couple of seasons.

Now do the fans deserve better, especially given that ticket prices have increased, and that non season ticket-holders have to buy a stupid 5-game plan in order to see Sergei Fedorov’s jersey retired? You bet. Chris Ilitch’s Red Wings are not Mike Ilitch’s Red Wings, and the customer service and guest experiences need some rebuilding, too.

But that’s not on the GM. And the Red Wings’ GM has assembled a significant pool of prospects with both the ability to improve the team and the ability to be traded in order to build the team through the trade market.

The Red Wings certainly need another top-six forward and another top-four defenseman as the 2025-2026 season progresses. This year’s roster still needs a lot of things to go right if they are to leapfrog Ottawa and Montreal for a playoff spot.

But there is hope in Detroit, there are hard-working players and prospects, and the management team didn’t get suckered into dropping a first-round pick, a prospect and a roster player for a Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust this past offseason.

It’s up to the coaches and management to prove that the Todd McLellan effect sticks as of Thursday, and this team is going to have to avoid its month-long swoons, especially in February and March, in order to build a more consistent team that doesn’t bleed points away as the compressed Olympic schedule places unprecedented pressure on the Wings to perform better over far more limited periods of time.

But that’s what hockey is all about, and the pressure is on Yzerman, his management team, the coaches and the players to finally buck the experts’ expectations and finally at least be playoff-relevant all season long. That’s on everybody, and there’s more than enough pressure to go around.

The Athletic’s NHL beat writers named their best players as assessed to have participated in the NHL’s rookie tournaments, including one Red Wings player from the 2-game Prospect Games slate between Detroit and Dallas:

Nate Danielson, C

Danielson is such a smart player. He’s constantly in the right spots defensively, where he has a strong defensive stick, and is an easy-to-notice puck transporter and distributor as well. The question with him often comes down to whether his production will match his visual impact, and this weekend it largely did. Danielson scored a pretty goal and had an assist in two exhibition games against the Stars, getting off to a nice start to his preseason. He also looked a bit thicker, which will serve him well as he looks to win a job on the Red Wings to begin the season. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall); Danielson’s earned accolades from beat writers all over the place this preseason, and now it’s up to him to prove the experts right.

USA Today’s Mike Brehm assesses the improvements made (or the lack thereof) by the NHL’s 32 teams this morning, issuing letter grades for every team. He affords the Red Wings the benefit of the doubt:

Detroit Red Wings – B

Gibson should upgrade the Red Wings’ goaltending, an offseason priority. They dealt disappointing forward Vladimir Tarasenko and added depth up front with Mason Appleton and James van Riemsdyk. Is it enough to get to the playoffs? Probably not on its own, but a full season of midseason replacement coach Todd McLellan could help.

Continued; the Red Wings still need to add a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman, but those moves may not happen until the upcoming season’s trade deadline.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff profiles Red Wings prospect Shai Buium, suggesting that the 22-year-old defenseman remains a “work in progress” per comments made by Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson:

Buium, 22, shows 68 games of AHL competition on his resume. He’s still adjusting. But the Red Wings also see plenty of progression in his journey.

“Defensively, he was better last year, so we expect just a more complete player,” Watson said of Year 2 projections for Buium. “He was in our lineup virtually and basically every single game, and then we expect that again.”

There are other expectations in mind for Buium.

“Can he take his offensive numbers to another level?” Watson asked. “You know, that’s going to be a question that we’ll have for him and see if he can do that.

“But the biggest thing is play without the puck and understanding the reads on the rush. When to pinch, when not to pinch. And we’re looking forward to working with him and hopefully continuing to develop him into an NHL defenseman.”

Continued

DobberHockey’s Eli Feldman posted a column discussing 5 skaters who are “multi-category” fantasy hockey stars, and Moritz Seider leads his list:

Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings

Few young defensemen have made as immediate an impact in the NHL as Moritz Seider. Since breaking into the league in 2021-2022, the Wings have leaned on Motown Seider in every situation, and he’s responded with the poise of a seasoned vet. He logs heavy minutes against top competition, matching up with opposing stars while driving play the other way.

Seider’s offensive game is as steady as they come, having recorded between 42 and 50 points in each of his four NHL seasons thus far. What makes him truly indispensable, however, is the edge with which he plays. Mo closes gaps with authority, never shying away from contact. His 212 hits ranked fifth among defensemen last season, and his 181 blocks ranked seventh.

Anchoring the Red Wings’ backend, Seider’s stellar blend of minutes, offense, and grit is pure gold in banger leagues.

Continued; Seider’s had his ups and downs, but he’s always showed up for the team (at least in my opinion). And I like the “Motown Seider” nickname.