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.

DetroitRedWings.com: Lalonde on adding Boughner to the mix

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills about the addition of NHL veteran and NHL head coach Bob Boughner to the coaching mix as an associate coach and assistant who will help the defense:

“He’s coached a Norris Trophy winner and Stanley Cup winners,” Lalonde said about Boughner last Friday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. “A huge piece, ecstatic. What makes me more excited is he probably had other options. I think he liked not only where our young D-core is and where it could be, but him being part of developing them in where our organization is and was.”

Boughner, who was Detroit’s 32nd overall pick in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, spent parts of the last three seasons as head coach of the San Jose Sharks and was at the helm of the Florida Panthers from 2017-19.

The NHL coaching and management tree is a tight-knit group. Lalonde took advantage of his relationships to do his homework on Boughner, and came away impressed

“I talked to (Dallas Stars head coach) Pete DeBoer about him, and I felt like Pete wanted to put his hands through the phone and slap me to hire him ASAP,” Lalonde said. “That’s how strongly he felt about him as a coach and how he’d be a really good fit for us.”

Lalonde said talks with Boughner began over the phone and quickly progressed leading up to the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

“We were fortunate enough to have real positive talks throughout,” Lalonde said. “We sat here the other day and said ‘listen, let’s try to get on this.’ And Steve did, amongst his many other things going on.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Gentille offers salary cap rankings

The Athletic’s Sean Gentille offers a set of salary cap rankings from best to worst in the NHL, and he says this of the Red Wings’ cap situation:

Detroit Red Wings

2022-23 salaries: $51,478,889
RFAs estimate: $2.5 million
Dead money deals: Justin Abdelkader buyout ($2.305 million), Richard Panik retained ($1.375 million), Frans Nielsen buyout ($500,000)
Notable unsigned UFAs: Sam Gagner, Thomas Greiss, Marc Staal
Problem contract: None
Projected cap space: $28,564,486

The Red Wings, for all intents and purposes, could spend their summer figuring out their approach to the futures of 2023 UFAs Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi. Of the three players they sent qualifying offers on Monday, Filip Zadina is the relevant piece — whether it’s to hold, cheaply extend or flip for another team’s change-of-scenery RFA. Only new goalie Ville Husso and Robby Fabbri are signed for more than two seasons. The team’s other two cornerstones — Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond — each just finished the first year of their entry deals.

There’s also more than enough space for Steve Yzerman to add an actually relevant player or three, if he wishes. Those could be short-term deadline-flip plays, or they could be legit pieces for the next good Red Wings team. Max Bultman went over 10 solid options, starting with Ondrej Palat.

Continued (paywall)

The Athletic’s Shapiro blasts the ‘Original Six tank,’ Yzerplan included

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The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro blasts Original Six teams for having the luxury of “tanking” today, and while he focuses on the Chicago Blackhawks, who are clearing their decks of talent in an obvious tank job, he does not have kind words for the Detroit Red Wings, either.

He offers this take on the hiring of Derek Lalonde and the heralded Yzerplan…

When Derek Lalonde was introduced as the Red Wings’ new coach he and general manager Steve Yzerman practically tempered any playoff hopes to an icy chill. Winning in Detroit isn’t part of the plan this year. The “Yzerplan” has long-term visions, and frankly, the Yzerplan is just slow-roll tanking with a catchier name.

And he offers this take on the Wings and Hawks’ respective situations…

Original Six teams can be bad and still matter, especially in a sport that puts tradition on an extreme pedestal. These legacy brands, even when terrible, are still the financial behemoths of the NHL. They sell more merch, they get better placements on national television, and they drive more revenue through sponsorship and television rights than any of the 26 NHL teams that entered the NHL after them.

It might have been embarrassing when the Blackhawks’ sellout streak came to an end. It was bad when the Red Wings literally changed the color of the seats at Little Caesars Arena because of the unsightly appearance of a less-than-full building, but lagging attendance for the Original Six teams isn’t tanking their bottom line as it would in, say, Nashville or even Colorado.

“The Blackhawks will still be one of the richest teams in the NHL this season,” one NHL team president said. “They’ll still make a ton of money. The Red Wings make double on their TV deal than I ever will. That’s just the reality of it. My GM has to put people in seats for my owner to be happy. It’s not fair, but sports aren’t fair.”

And he notes the following:

In places like Chicago, Detroit, and Montreal there are more of you [fans are] held by the mental captivity of hockey fandom and you can’t escape so you’ll still care, and that extends to your local area’s sports talk radio stations, columnists, and local television broadcasts.

Media coverage of a team is a reflection of the market, and how packed or empty a press box is when a team is playing poorly is a pretty good indicator of whether that team’s owner has the ability to actually tank without serious consequence.

The moral of the story is Chicago and Detroit will be fine. Their respective GMs will keep their jobs because the tank is understood and accepted as a part of the process where relevance doesn’t hinge on winning or losing. Other teams don’t have this luxury. Winning is required to drive relevance, and being in that soft middle and being close to the playoffs every year in a loser point system is more of a certainty than hoping a tank will pay off with a championship a decade from now.

Continued (paywall);

ESPN’s Shilton, Wyshynski suggest that the Wings shore up their depth in free agency

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski posted a MASSIVE free agency primer on ESPN.com’s Insider page today, assessing what each and every one of the NHL’s 30 teams should/might want to accomplish over the course of free agency. Here’s what they have to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

Key players hitting UFA: None
Key players hitting RFA: D Jake Walman, RW Filip Zadina, F Mitchell Stephens
Cap space: $31,021,111

What they should do: General manager Steve Yzerman already checked a big box by trading for the rights to pending unrestricted-free-agent goaltender Ville Husso and subsequently signing him to a three-year, $14.25 million contract. That gives the Red Wings an excellent goalie tandem of Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic for the next few seasons.

Detroit’s primary area of need now is on defense. Veterans Danny DeKeyser and Marc Staal are both pending UFAs, and should they move on elsewhere, Yzerman will be eyeing different depth players for the back end, with a potentially larger role also going to Jake Walman if he remains in the fold. You could see Yzerman going for someone like Will Butcher or Olli Maatta, or perhaps Ian Cole. Those are capable second- or third-pairing defenders who can support and provide stability for the team’s top defensive talents like Moritz Seider. And they could be signed to relatively inexpensive, short-term contracts for the rebuilding Red Wings.

Similarly, there’s room for Detroit to boost its forward depth with some seasoned names like Bryan Rust or Calle Jarnkrok. They’re strong two-way players who can set an example for some of Detroit’s young players with enough offensive upside to be consistent contributors.

While the Red Wings are still charting their new course — under new head coach Derek Lalonde to boot — it’s all about staying low-flash in free agency.

Continued (paywall; read it if you can); it would be incredibly ironic if the Red Wings picked up the 30-year-old Jarnkrok as a free agent.

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