The Malik Report

The Athletic’s Harman Dayal listed a set of 10 potential breakout candidates for the upcoming season, and Jakub Vrana cracked his list…

Jakub Vrana, LW, Detroit Red Wings

There are pros and cons to playing on a bad team from an individual production standpoint. Sure, there will be little help around you and the power-play unit you’re on probably won’t have enough weapons to score often but opportunities will at least be abundant.

That last part will be welcome news for Jakub Vrana. Since the 2018-19 season, only 12 NHL forwards have scored five-on-five points at a more efficient rate than the former Washington Capital.

It hasn’t always led to impressive counting stats in large part because he was stuck behind some elite forwards in Washington. Vrana never averaged more than 15 minutes per game in a single season in D.C. but climbed to over 17 per game when he suited up for Detroit. Those extra minutes paid immediate dividends as Vrana notched eight goals and 11 points in 11 games as a Red Wing.

Vrana obviously can’t be expected to score at that torrid of a pace — he shot 25 percent in those 11 games — but he should thrive nonetheless with the opportunity to spread his wings (no pun intended).

And Filip Zadina earned an honorable mention:

Filip Zadina, RW, Detroit Red Wings: Improving slow and steady, Zadina should get a bigger top-six opportunity this year. Breaking out may depend on Dylan Larkin’s health and how he fares upon return.

Continued (paywall)

From the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS RELEASE 2021 TRAINING CAMP ROSTER AND DAILY SCHEDULE  

… Sixty-Two Players Hit the Ice from Sept. 23-28 in Traverse City …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today released their training camp roster and schedule, comprised of 62 players who will hit the ice on Thursday, Sept. 23 at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich., for six days of camp before beginning their eight-game preseason schedule with a road game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

The Red Wings will bring 35 forwards, 20 defensemen and seven goaltenders to Traverse City to participate in daily on-ice practices. Following the team’s annual Red & White Game on Sunday, Sept. 26, the Red Wings will remain in Traverse City for two more days of practice before breaking camp to return to Detroit ahead of the exhibition slate, which is highlighted by home games against the Buffalo Sabres (Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m.), Columbus Blue Jackets (Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7:00 p.m.), Chicago Blackhawks (Monday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m.) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m.).

Continue reading Press release: Red Wings release training camp roster and schedule

The Athletic’s Max Bultman published a lengthy article today, discussing Moritz Seider’s time spent with Rogle BK of the SHL this past season:

Cam Abbott was squeezing in a workout one day last October when a young man arrived from the airport to meet him in the Rögle BK gym.

Abbott, the team’s head coach in the Swedish Hockey League, had a bit of background on this newly arrived player thanks to a connection on the team’s coaching staff: Rögle’s assistant coach at the time, Cory Murphy, had worked with Moritz Seider on the German national team in 2019, so Abbott knew he could expect a respectful kid and “one heck of a hockey player” who had been well-liked at his past stops.

But as Abbott and the 19-year-old defenseman talked, Seider started asking about something he had noticed in the gym: a leaderboard for one of the team’s internal challenges on the assault bike — a stationary air bike that adds resistance the harder the user pedals.

Seider’s interest was piqued.

“He jumped on the assault bike,” Abbott said, “and put himself in first place there on the board.”

Continued (paywall)

The Detroit Free Press is publishing a book called, Stanleytown: The Inside Story of How the Stanley Cup Returned to the Motor City After 41 Frustrating Seasons, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Red Wings’ 1997 Stanley Cup win. The Free Press posted an excerpt from writer Shawn Windsor this morning:

The elation lasted for days, weeks, heck, throughout that summer of 1997. You could hear it on the streets, where cars blared their horns. You could see it there, too, as drivers festooned their windows with flags of the Winged Wheel, flapping in the breeze, a red-and-white rainbow that stretched from the

Ambassador Bridge to the Mackinac Bridge and back.

Hockey might not have the broad appeal of football or even baseball, and we can debate where basketball falls into the mix. But on the June night the Wings clinched the Cup, after all the pain and disappointment and the finals sweep at the hands of the New Jersey Devils two seasons before, after all that, the Wings grabbed the hearts of everyone.

And made them whole again.

Continued

In news of good cheer (or the lack thereof), Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen has posted a list of questions for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams as training camps approach, and his take on the Red Wings’ biggest question is preceded by the now-familiar, “But the Red Wings are going to suck anyway”…

Detroit Red Wings: Which kids stand out?

With another year of misery expected, Wings fans can only hope for progress. Moritz Seider, the sixth overall pick in 2019, arrives and seems to have the inside track on a roster spot he still needs to earn. Is he a top-four guy right away? Joe Veleno and Jonatan Berggren, selected three picks apart from each other in 2018, are competing for a spot, but is there a chance both could make the team? And how sharp does Lucas Raymond look right away, even though we’re not expecting him to crack the NHL roster out of camp?

Continued; and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen offers this assessment of Jeff Blashill as he stacks up among the Atlantic Division’s best and worst coaches, ranking Blashill a solid 6th out of 8:

Jeff Blashill, Detroit Red Wings: My read on Blashill is that Yzerman thinks he has done a credible job with a rebuilding team. Not an exceptional job, not a poor job. A decent job.  But it feels like Yzerman expects to see more growth from this team under Blashill this season.

Misery and decency. I’ll take decency over out-and-out misery, please.

The Detroit Red Wings posted a 6-and-a-half-minute-long video in which Art Renger and Carley Johnston break down some of the main storylines going into training camp:

The Grand Rapids Griffins are retiring the jersey of Griffins great Michel Picard on February 19th, 2022, and Griffins announcer/VP Bob Kaser spoke with Picard regarding his time spent in Grand Rapids:

The Detroit Red Wings begin training camp on Thursday at Centre ICE Arena. This afternoon, MLive’s Ansar Khan has asked five pertinent questions regarding training camp, and now the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan is offering an article discussing 10 storylines to look toward starting on Thursday (it’s a subscriber-only story):

► 5. Playing time on defense 

There are plenty of NHL-caliber players and only six positions in the lineup, so the competition beginning in training camp will be intense. Seider, Nick Leddy, Filip Hronek and Marc Staal figure to man the top-four spots.

But, they will be pushed by Troy Stecher, Danny DeKeyser, Jordan Oesterle, Gustav Lindstrom and minor-league free agent Wyatt Newpower, who all at least figure to battle for the two spots on the third-pairing.

It’s a good situation to be in for Blashill, who might have some tough decisions to make on playing time. The Wings have more quality options on defense than they’ve had in recent seasons.

► 6. Welcome to the Wings

There will be plenty of new faces to welcome into the locker room and lineup this weekend in Traverse City.

Leddy, Suter, Oesterle, Stephens, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, and forward Carter Rowney are all players brought in during the offseason, as the roster again saw changes.

These next several weeks will be important for Nedeljkovic, as goaltenders, in general, have plenty to work on this time of year.

For Nedeljkovic, coming over to a new team, getting comfortable and familiar with the players in front of him, and getting acclimated again to tracking pucks will be vital during the exhibition season.

► 7. Who will wear the ‘A’?

The Wings will need to find replacements for alternate captains Luke Glendening (signed with Dallas) and Frans Nielsen (bought out).

There are plenty of options.

Veterans such as Staal (who wore the A on occasion last season), DeKeyser and forward Sam Gagner are all viable options. Each was, or has been, a respected veteran in the locker room in recent seasons and would be obvious choices moving forward.

Continued (paywall)

Per the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

The @ToledoWalleye will play two preseason games. They will play at Kalamazoo on Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. and then they will host the K-Wings at the Huntington Center on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7:15 p.m. https://t.co/oN8NfUuiHi— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) September 21, 2021

MLive’s Ansar Khan has posted a set of questions facing the Red Wings going into training camp on Thursday here at Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City. Among them:

What do Lucas Raymond and/or Jonatan Berggren need to show to earn an NHL roster spot out of camp?

The Red Wings lack skill and scoring ability, elements the two wingers bring from Sweden as they transition to the North American game. They need to produce in camp scrimmages and preseason games while showing they won’t be defensive liabilities.

The team’s top six projects to consist of Larkin, Bertuzzi, Filip Zadina, Jakub Vrana, Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri. For Raymond, the No. 4 pick in 2020, and/or Berggren, the 33rd selection in 2018, their best opportunity is to beat out a veteran like Vladislav Namestnikov or Sam Gagner on the third line. Bobby Ryan, who’ll be in camp on a tryout, could also figure in the mix. Raymond and Berggren will not play on the fourth line. Young, waiver-exempt players need to be playing decent minutes to remain on the Red Wings roster; otherwise, they will be sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins for further development.

Does Moritz Seider have a roster spot locked up?

More than likely, as further evidenced by his exclusion from the Prospects Tournament, but the organization will want to see him earn it in camp. Seider, 20, flourished last season with Rogle BK, being named the top defenseman in the Swedish Hockey League, and also earned top D-man honors at the World Championship, helping Germany reach the final four.

The big, righthanded shooter (6-3, 207) will be paired with a veteran left-shooter, likely Nick Leddy or Marc Staal. He likely will be used on the penalty kill but probably not on the power play right away.

Continued