The Malik Report

Former Grand Rapids Griffins and Toledo Walleye forward Alden Hirschfeld spoke with Griffins play-by-play announcer Bob Kaser for nearly 20 minutes in the Griffins’ latest “Blasts from the Past” video:

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek filed a mailbag article this afternoon, and he leads off the article with a question as to how the Tampa Bay Lightning may allow the Detroit Red Wings to “help” Tampa Bay clear some salary cap space:

In your opinion, what moves will Tampa have to do to get cap compliant before the start of the season? Tharajan G

Given the combined cap hell and NTC and NMC contracts of the Lightning, I do not see how they get out of this especially given the fact that Brayden Point is the only big contract with no movement restrictions. How many big players will go and will they get much in the way of a return? Jeffrey M

If this were an easy problem to solve, it would have been solved already. The fact that it’s still lingering points to the obvious issue: Teams understand the financial corner the Lightning are in and aren’t about to let them wiggle out of it easily. After signing RFA Mikhail Sergachev to a three-year, bridge contract this week, the Lightning are almost $2 million over the salary cap, with two more RFAs (Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak) still to sign. I believe it goes one of two ways for HM Julien BriseBois – either two intermediate-level tweaks or one exceedingly bold move.

The obvious first landing place for any of Tampa’s salary-cap headaches is Detroit, run by Steve Yzerman, the former Lightning GM, and the manager responsible for many of the contracts currently on Tampa’s books. For those who don’t follow it closely, Tampa has three middle of the lineup forwards with no-trade clauses (Ondrej Palat, Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson) and a fourth, Alex Killorn, with a modified no-trade. Of the four, the Lightning presumably value Palat the most. Truthfully, all four are probably overpaid for what they’re producing, which becomes a greater issue in a flat cap world. I see Palat as a likely survivor of the salary-cap purge to come. Johnson is 30, has four years left at $5 million and was waived earlier this year (and there were no takers). So, you’ll need both a sweetener to move his contract and permission from the players’ camp. Complicated, but not impossible.

In a perfect world, I would try to move not just one, but two of the remaining contract headaches (preferably Johnson and Killorn) to Detroit, and be prepared to surrender both a first-round pick and a quality young player to get the Red Wings to bite. Detroit would probably jump on that deal if that quality young player were Cernak, who is highly valued around the NHL. Tampa obviously wouldn’t want to pay that high a price. Sometimes, as an organization, you’re trapped and have to make hard choices. By solving all your financial problems in one fell swoop, you take your medicine, but you also create the necessary flexibility to operate with a little breathing room, as you pursue a Stanley Cup defence.

Continued (paywall)

The NHL Coaches’ Association posted a quick clip of Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill speaking to younger coaches regarding several topics, including having empathy for his players, his superstitions and his biggest embarrassment:

Of prospect-related note on a busy Friday:

In the Belarusian Hockey League, Kirill Tyutyayev posted 2 assists, finishing at +1 with a blocked shot in Yunost Minsk’s 5-1 win over Metallurg Slobin;

In the ICE Hockey League, Michael Rasmussen scored a goal on 4 shots, finishing at -1 in the Graz99ers’ 6-3 loss to KAC;

Jesper Eliasson served as the back-up in the Red Bull Salzburg’s 5-3 win over AV19 Fevervahr;

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki scored a goal on 3 shots, finishing even and winning 33% of his faceoffs in 16:09 played as Assat Pori lost 6-5 in overtime to Jukurit. Kasper Kotkansalo finished at +1 with 2 shots in a massive 26:07 played for Assat.

This clip comes from Dana Wakiji on Twitter…

Via The Athletic’s Max Bultman on Twitter, Rakapuckar’s Henrik Leman reports that Theodor Niederbach will be playing center on Lucas Raymond’s line (between Raymond and Simon Hjalmarsson) after former Red Wings prospect Jan Mursak had to bow out of Saturday’s game vs. Djurgarden due to a positive coronavirus test.

This is an interesting development given that Frolunda has been bringing the 18-year-old Niederbach along slowly on the men’s team as he dominated in Junior-20 league action, but now that the J20 league is suspended due to coronavirus concerns, Niederbach is getting his first big chance to succeed at the SHL level.

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a profile of Red Wings 2020 draft pick Alex Cotton, an “overager” defenseman who blossomed after being passed over in the 2019 draft:

Cotton was Detroit’s ninth pick, selected 132nd overall. He said the Red Wings were the first team that talked to him during the season and they kept in touch throughout the year.

“I knew they had a lot of interest and it’s a perfect spot for me,” he said.

Still, after being bypassed in the 2019 draft, Cotton took nothing for granted.

“Being drafted this year was such an unbelievable feeling when I saw my name, all my emotions kind of flew out of me at the same time,” Cotton said. “Not getting picked last year kind of motivated me even more to go this year.”

Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper saw highlights of some of Cotton’s goals and called his big year “exciting.”

“Alex was a good interview, had a real good self-assessment of where he’s at as a hockey player and what he needs to improve on and that’s impressive for an 18-, 19-year-old kid,” Draper said. “He’s that defenseman that has the ability to produce offense.”

Continued

The Score’s Matt Teague issues “NHL offseason grades” to each and every one of the Atlantic Division’s 16 teams, and he gives the Red Wings fairly high marks for a busy “summer’s” worth of additions and subtractions:

Several longtime regulars won’t be back with the Red Wings after Detroit took a few more offseason steps on its slow ascent back to contention.

With the old guard out, general manager Steve Yzerman shifted his attention to the team’s young nucleus. Yzerman locked up goal-scorer Mantha to a four-year deal, gave Fabbri an extension, and inked Bertuzzi for one year to keep his RFA status intact next offseason.

The Red Wings also wisely landed a second-round pick for taking Staal‘s expiring contract from the Rangers. The 33-year-old won’t necessarily improve Detroit’s chances of winning, but his veteran presence could go a long way for the club’s young core.

Bringing in Greiss to play alongside Jonathan Bernier gives Detroit a respectable tandem in goal, though it remains to be seen how successful the German puck-stopper will be without the Islanders’ strong defensive system in front of him.

Overall, the Red Wings took care of their in-house talent and added some veteran pieces that should make the team more competitive than it was in 2019-20.

Grade: B+

Continued;

The Athletic posted three items of Red Wings-related note this morning.

1. First, The Athletic’s Max Bultman asks Red Wings fans to fill out a semi-annual fan survey as to the state of the organization;
2. Next, James Mirtle offers a set of “Future Power Rankings” for the 2023-2024 season, ranking the Wings 6th overall (I can’t post the photo describing the Wings’ rankings, but Mirtle’s commentary tells the story:

This one almost slipped under the radar. Pavel Datsyuk’s signature deke-and-score goal vs. Marty Turco battles Evgeny Malkin for the latest round of Sportsnet’s “The Greatest: Goal of the 21st Century’s” “Round of 8”:

Sportsnet’s Mark Spector discussed the AHL’s “Return to Play” plan with AHL president Scott Howson, and at present, it doesn’t sound like the AHL’s status is any clearer than that of their parent league’s situation:

While the NHL tries to put a number on just how much money they are willing to lose while pounding a rounded version of the 2020-21 season through an increasingly square hole, its primary development league is waiting patiently for a turn at Commissioner Gary Bettman’s negotiating table.

And you can probably guess what they need to talk about.

“It’s got to make sense,” began Scott Howson, the AHL’s new president and CEO. “If we’re able to play it’s going to be more about player supply and player development this year than anything else. Without fans in the buildings, it’s certainly not going to be about any meaningful revenue. So yes, we’re going to want to know what the NHL is doing before we finalize what our plan is going to be.”

By “what the NHL is doing,” Howson means any number of things. For one, if the NHL doesn’t play, the AHL will not play either.

But Howson will also have to know how the NHL plans to support the 12 AHL teams (out of 31) that are not owned by an NHL club. What is the NHL is doing about the three Western Canadian teams with farm clubs in the U.S. — Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in Utica, Stockton and Bakersfield, respectively — and how are they supposed to call players up with a 14-day, cross-border quarantine in place?

And while we’re asking, how can a minor league as ticket-dependent as the AHL weather a season that may pass without a single ticket being sold? Not without a lot of help from the NHL, that’s how.

Continued; remember, the Red Wings do not own the Grand Rapids Griffins, so, for the Griffins to play, the Red Wings are going to have to offer some sort of assistance…