A trio of quick takes from Detroit Hockey Now

Of note from Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen and Bob Duff:

  1. In the “odds” department, Duff suggests that Alex Nedeljkovic is a decent bet to earn a Vezina Trophy with the Wings, in the parlance of sports betting…

Oddsmakers at online sportsbook BetMGM appear to share Yzerman’s optimism. They’ve established Nedeljkovic as the co-eighth betting choice to win the Vezina Trophy this season. Both Nedeljkovic and Tuukka Rask are opening at odds of +1400. Rask is currently seeking a new contract. Expectations are he’ll rejoin the Boston Bruins at some point this season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning is the +600 favorite. The odds on Nedeljkovic are only slightly longer than that what bettors can get on former Vezina and Hart Trophy winner Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens (+1200).

Among those assigned longer Vezina odds than Nedeljkovic are Stanley Cup winner Jordan Binnington (+2200) of the St. Louis Blues, former Wing Petr Mrazek (+1800) of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Robin Lehner (+1800) of the Vegas Golden Knights, two-time Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky (+2700) of the Florida Panthers and Carter Hart (+3200) of the Philadelphia Flyers.

2. Duff also discusses offer sheets in his daily “Duffer’s Dabbles”…

The Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet drama has concluded. Are there any other NHL teams that might consider going the offer sheet route with a restricted free agent? Pittsbugh Hockey Now contemplated this issue and came up with a short list of likely candidates.

Detroit Red Wings RFA forward Givani Smith was among those who made the list. It’s purely speculative and the Wings certainly have the salary cap space to match any offer made to Smith but it is intriguing, considering he’s the only Red Wings player left without a contract.

3. And, among Kevin Allen’s “Ten Facts Guaranteed to Make a Detroit Red Wings Fan Feel Old“…

Nicklas Lidstrom hasn’t played an NHL game in nine years and he still might be better than anyone on the Red Wings’ defense.

Chris Chelios turns 60 in January.

Dylan Larkin was 11 months old when the Red Wings ended a 41-year old drought by winning the 1997 Stanley Cup.

Scotty Bowman hasn’t coached the Detroit Red Wings in 19 years and he’s 87 now.

The Hockey News’s Larkin discusses the Wings’ uphill battle

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin chose Monday afternoon to issue a gloomy forecast for the Detroit Red Wings for both the present moment and years to come:

For now, there is no Pavel Datsyuk-caliber of forward on the horizon for Detroit. There is no Nicklas Lidstrom-quality of defender, either. That’s as much a compliment about Lidstrom and Datsyuk as it is a negative comment about the prospects Detroit has in its development system. Sure, they have bright lights such as forwards Jakub Vrana, Tyler Bertuzzi and Robby Fabbri, and defensemen Moritz Seider and Filip Hronek to indicate the cupboard isn’t completely bare, but they remain a longshot at best to earn a playoff berth. And maybe that’s for the best in the bigger picture; does anyone envision them winning a playoff round this season? What they need is more high-end young skill, and you don’t get that by finishing eighth or ninth in the Eastern Conference. You have to go through more pain, and five years of pain clearly hasn’t been enough to position them as a team to keep your eye on.

Yzerman proved in Tampa Bay that he could build a champion, but the situation in Detroit isn’t nearly the same as it was when he started out his managerial career with the Bolts. He has the full confidence of Wings ownership, but all the confidence in the world doesn’t matter if you don’t have the assets to back it up. And as it stands, they don’t look capable of making that competitive jump into the mix with the bonafide Cup frontrunners. You know that has to gall Yzerman, but what can he do? He was a superhero on the ice, but that doesn’t translate to team-building. His reputation is among the best in the league, but that doesn’t mean squat through an 82-game season.

Continued

A pair of Tweets of note: Logo games and ‘breakfast break’ with Jordan Oesterle

From the Red Wings:

  1. Via the Red Wings on Twitter, hockey analyticist JFresh of EliteProspects asked fans to rank the NHL’s best logo, and…

2. And this comes from the Red Wings:

Update: Let’s go for three Tweets of Note:

ECHL announces that their officials will work the Red Wings’ prospect tournament

From the ECHL:

The ECHL announced on Monday that eight ECHL on-ice officials, along with Manager of Officiating Operations Stephen Thomson, will work the 2021 NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan from Sept. 16-20. This marks the ninth consecutive tournament that ECHL officials have worked games.

Debuting in 1988 with four teams, the NHL Prospects Tournament will feature five clubs this year – Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Thomson will be responsible for the selection and scheduling of the officials for each game of the tournament and will assist any playing or rule situation that takes place during the tournament. The officiating staff for the tournament includes four referees and four linesmen.

“I would like to thank the Detroit Red Wings for trusting us with managing the officials for such a highly regarded prospects tournament,” Thomson said. “The Wings and staff at Centre Ice do a phenomenal job of hosting, and with the absence of the 2020-21 tournament, we all can’t wait to get back up to Traverse City.

“This will certainly be a highlight on each of the officials’ resumes and an experience they won’t forget,” Thomson continued. “The opportunity to officiate these players competing for NHL roster spots is invaluable to the officials’ development and will be a good challenge for them as they kick off their 2021-22 season.”

Continue reading ECHL announces that their officials will work the Red Wings’ prospect tournament

Detroit Hockey Now’s Allen offers prospect tournament picks to pluck roster spots

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only article in which he examines the prospects taking part in the Red Wings’ prospect tournament who have the most to gain in terms of attempting to sway Detroit’s brass in the process of earning a roster spot with the big club at some point this season.

Allen offers a few surprise names on his list of seven possible additions:

Joe Veleno: It seems like he can play in the NHL now. The question is whether he would benefit from playing in Grand Rapids for part of this season. The other question is where he will play in Detroit? Would he replace Michael Rasmussen as the No. 3 center and Rasmussen shifts to the wing? Or would it be the other way around? We know he will be a solid NHL player. The question we need answered is how much Veleno will be able to score at the NHL level? Could he eventually be a No. 2 center or do we pencil him in as a No. 3? Veleno turns 22 this season. He’s already played 54 American Hockey League games, a full Swedish season and five NHL games.

Chase Pearson:  Don’t be shocked if Pearson ends up on Detroit’s fourth line this season. But if there are no injuries in training camp, he will have to ‘wow’ coaches to make the team in training camp.

…

Wyatt Newpower:  With Seider already penciled in, there’s no spot on the Red Wings’ defense. But in training camp, young defenseman will be vying for the opportunity to be the call-up if there are injuries. Newpower’s positive is that he is 6-foot-4, skates well enough and competes hard.

Continued (paywall)

Sunday Fund-day

As of Sunday, September 12th, we’re just short of the halfway mark in terms of fundraising for the hotel bill, and I’m heading out grocery shopping to prepare for two weeks of camping out in said hotel room in Traverse City, so the get-up-to-TC fund is going to need some replenishment.

We’re doing great thus far–with the Paypal account at $800 of the $2,100 hotel fundraising goal (it’s up from $2,000 due to extra taxes this time around) and the Venmo account at $200, but Venmo money’s heading toward grocery shopping today, so that’s going to be the issue in terms of trying to raise another $120 or so to for gas, snacks and food to get me up to Traverse City.

The margins are tight, but they’re always tight at this time of year, and with my dry cleaning and other non-food supplies paid for, we’re inching closer to a real halfway mark with two days to go till I head up on Tuesday, and the first half of the hotel bill comes due.

Then we work on second-half fundraising to ensure that I can come home on the 29th instead of taking a job at the hotel 😉

If you’re willing to lend a hand, you can use Paypal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com, and yes, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

Thanks again for your readership and time.

Kulfan’s five ‘impact players’ include Danny DeKeyser

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a rare non-subscriber-only article on the News’s sports page today, discussing 5 players who Kulfan believes may make decisive contributions to the Red Wings’ 2021-2022 campaign. Among them are the following:

Danny DeKeyser — With DeKeyser it’s not about offense. But the defenseman should return to the overall game the Wings have relied on from him for the last nine seasons.

DeKeyser struggled early last season recovering from back surgery that cost him all but eight games during the 2019-20 season.

It took a while, and DeKeyser, 31, was held out of the lineup for a brief time to get healthy and stronger last season.

The rest worked. When DeKeyser returned, he gradually built to the point where he more closely resembled the player he’s been.

There will be a stiff fight for playing time on defense, and DeKeyser isn’t assured of a big minutes or even a spot in the regular lineup.

But given more time this offseason to get healthy, it wouldn’t be surprising to see DeKeyser return to the type of player he’s been throughout his career.

Continued with four more players; the estimate was that DeKeyser would need a full year to recover from his back surgery, and a return to “full strength” would bode well for the Wings.

A bit of a ramble regarding Moritz Seider’s probable readjustment to NHL-sized rinks

When I posted my initial assessment of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament roster, I’m sure that you noticed that Moritz Seider isn’t taking part in the tournament.

As Pro Hockey Rumors’ Zach Leach notes, that’s by design, as Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff told The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

The Detroit Red Wings are looking forward to prodigious defenseman Moritz Seider developing into a leader for their club in the future. Yet, he was nowhere to be found on the team’s roster for the upcoming Traverse City Prospects Tournament. However, Red Wings Director of Player Development Shawn Horcoff tells The Athletic’s Max Bultman that this is actually an endorsement of Seider’s position in the organization rather than an indictment. Although Seider has yet to see any NHL action, Detroit is so confident in his ability to make the roster this season that they did not feel they needed to use a roster spot on him in the development tournament. “With Moritz, he’s played two years of pro now – he spent a full year in Grand Rapids, spent a full year over in Europe playing,” Horcoff explained. “Frankly, there’s some younger players that we wanted to see on the (Traverse City Tournament) roster and we just wanted to make sure that Mo was ready to go for main camp.”

Now Leach suggests that Seider is a lock to make the Red Wings’ NHL roster out of camp, but I’m going to be a sticky wicket here, and suggest that the Wings will in fact not hesitate to place Seider in Grand Rapids if he has any trouble readjusting to North American ice after a season spent in Sweden with Rogle BK.

Continue reading A bit of a ramble regarding Moritz Seider’s probable readjustment to NHL-sized rinks

Prospect round-up: ‘L-D-N’ does the J20 bounce

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, we’re reminded that Wings 2021 draft pick Liam Dower Nilsson is going to be bouncing between the Swedish Under-20 league and the SHL as the 18-year-old prospect is slowly eased into the men’s team’s lineup:

#SweU20
– Dower Nilsson 0+0, +/- 0, 1 SOG, 4 PIM in a 4-2 win#LGRW— Red Wings Prospects (@DRWProspects) September 12, 2021

Dower Nilsson spent Saturday sitting on the bench as the 13th forward during Frolunda HC’s season-opening 4-2 loss to Brynas. He’s not likely to earn a lot of playing time with the men’s team, but he’s slated to practice with the men’s team and attempt to break into the lineup…mostly.

Because Frolunda’s J20 team is located in the same rink, Dower Nilsson skated as the 1st line center for Frolunda’s J20 team in their 4-2 win over Farjestads BK on Sunday, finishing even with a shot on goal and taking two penalties. He also went 7-and-3 in the faceoff circle.

When there are breaks in the SHL season, it’s highly likely that Dower Nilsson will end up bouncing back and forth between the SHL and J20 leagues, and if he doesn’t play a ton with the men’s team, the same is true for fellow Wings prospect and Frolunda HC teammate Theodor Niederbach.

Elmer Soderblom and Simon Edvinsson, the other Frolunda Wings, are more established on the men’s team, with Soderblom having spent a good chunk of last season as the 13th forward (Frolunda likes to ease their prospects into the men’s league lineup in that spot).

The Wings’ prospects are somewhat consolidated this season as the aforementioned quartet of Wings draftees are playing for Frolunda; Jesper Eliasson is slated to be the back-up for Farjestads BK, where Albert Johansson earns regular minutes on the blueline, and William Wallinder is going to play for Rogle BK, though he’s already played a game at the J20 level.

Only Albin Grewe is an outlier, skating for Ilves Tampere of the Finnish Liiga.

The Wings’ other Swedish prospects, Jonatan Berggren, Victor Brattstrom and Lucas Raymond have all come to North America to ply their trades here.