Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only article which reveals a unique detail from Red Wings history, from Red Wings advisor Jimmy Devellano:

“Mike Ilitch and I understood we were in the entertainment business,” Devellano said. “I was big on that. I signed all kinds of guys at the end. Anything to be able to make a big announcement, to shake things up. Some were OK and some were not. You had to sell tickets.”

Devellano, still with the Red Wings organization as a senior vice president, was just trying to keep fans and media interested until he could build through the draft.

Recently, Devellano told Detroit Hockey Now that even tried to lure Mike Bossy out of retirement.

“He had retired because of a bad back,” Devellano said. “His career was cut short.”

Bossy retired at age 30, after being limited to 67 games in 1986-87. He scored 50 or more goals for nine consecutive seasons before being limited to 38 in his final season.

According to Devellano, he saw Bossy a year or two later when he was working for Quebec Nordiques’ television. That’s when he hatched the idea of signing him.

Continued (paywall), with the reason that Bossy declined the Wings’ offer…

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins, this might indicate that the Red Wings are looking to call up some players:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday signed left wing Max Humitz and defenseman D.J. King to professional tryouts.

A second-year pro, Humitz totaled five points (3-2—5) and two penalty minutes in eight appearances with Grand Rapids in 2020-21. The Livonia, Mich., native began this season with the Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL and recorded two goals in their season opener against the Toledo Walleye. Through three games, Humitz has two points (2-0—2) and a plus-one rating.

King hails from Scottsdale, Ariz., and has spent the previous three seasons in the OHL with Hamilton and Saginaw. The defenseman bagged 24 points (7-17—24) and 140 penalty minutes in 104 appearances at the junior level. King made his pro debut on Oct. 23 with Fort Wayne and is yet to register his first point through two outings.

King’s father Derek also played with the Griffins from 1999-01 and 2002-04, totaling 203 points (73-130—203) in 264 games to rank fifth on the team’s all-time scoring list. The IHL’s regular-season scoring champion from 2000-01 remains the Griffins’ career playoff scoring leader with 41 points (16-25—41) in 46 games. When D.J. makes his debut with Grand Rapids, they will join Chris (2008-09) and Jake (2018-19) Chelios as the second father-son duo to have played for the Griffins.

As you know by now, this is my least favorite thing to post about, but this blog doesn’t have ads, paywalls or commercial sponsors, so:

If you’re willing to lend a hand as I try to pay off the taxes on the condo for the aunt (we’ve made a great dent in that so far, about $500, but there’s a long way to go to pay off the $1,200 bill as my “gift” to AA), earn enough money to purchase a new cell phone ($500), and save up for a couple of trips to Grand Rapids, I would greatly appreciate your support.

This is “a little blog that can,” and it does so through the financial contributions of its readers. Any denomination is appreciated; I promise to continue working my tail off to deliver as much content as possible as the Wings play 10 more games over the course of 16 nights.

November is crunch time, schedule-wise, up until Thanksgiving, and we’ll see what happens in terms of being able to post some more meaningful prospect updates and maybe even some player grades, time permitting.

So 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 you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

As always, thank you for your time and your readership.

The Red Wings just posted a two-minute video profiling prospect Jonatan Berggren:

The Grand Rapids Griffins forwarded this message to their email list this morning:

The American Hockey League today announced the following suspensions:

Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Luke Witkowski has been suspended for two (2) games as a consequence of a cross-checking incident in a game vs. Milwaukee on Oct. 30.

Witkowski will miss Grand Rapids’ games Friday (Nov. 5) at Iowa and Saturday (Nov. 6) at Rockford.

Springfield Thunderbirds forward Tanner Kaspick has been suspended for one (1) game as a consequence of an interference incident in a game vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Oct. 30.

Kaspick will miss Springfield’s game Friday (Nov. 5) vs. Hershey.

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton posted a set of power rankings this morning, and she offers her take on a pleasant conundrum for Red Wings fans–debating whether Lucas Raymond or Moritz Seider has been more impactful as a rookie (thus far):

23. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 22
Points percentage: 0.500
Upcoming schedule: @ BOS (Nov. 4), @ BUF (Nov. 6), vs. VGK (Nov. 7), vs. EDM (Nov. 9)

Lucas Raymond (rookie). The Red Wings are off to their best start in years, and it’s been powered (in large part) by their top freshman. Raymond leads all NHL rookies in goals (four), 5-on-5 points (seven) and total points (nine) through nine games, and is second among rookie forwards in average ice time (16:07). And he has a flair for the dramatic too: Raymond has already scored his first NHL hat trick.

Continued; I’d go with Seider over Raymond, by a nose…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James offers a set of 10 thoughts on the Red Wings’ first 10 games today, and among here thoughts are the following items:

Rated rookies: [Lucas] Raymond and [Moritz] Seider are garnering early talk for the Calder Trophy, the rookie of the year honor awarded by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Players from the same team have finished as Calder finalists before  most recently in 2014. That year, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lightning finished behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Likewise, in 2008, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks finished in the top three, with Kane winning. The last time two Wings were finalists came in 1948, when forward Jim McFadden beat out teammate Red Kelly on defense.

…

In the Nick of time: What a difference defenseman Nick Leddy has made. He’s an excellent skater, plays with a lot of calm and makes good decisions with the puck. He has added an offensive dimension to a blueline that sorely lacked it. Leddy came to the Wings in the offseason from the New York Islanders, who were in a bind because of the expansion draft. Yzerman took advantage by sending a draft pick (2021 second round) acquired in 2020’s Andreas Athanasiou deadline. That trade has yielded Leddy plus the returns in the original deal: veteran forward Sam Gagner and prospects Theodor Niederbach and Sam Stange.

Net gain: Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic are forming a nice, dependable tandem in the crease. Greiss, who struggled at the start of the last season, has provided steady goaltending. Alex Nedeljkovic seems to be gaining his footing as he adjusts to coming over from Carolina. After giving up seven goals in the season opener, Nedeljkovic has a .930 save percentage and 2.22 goals-against average in five appearances.

Continued (paywall); as St. James notes, the Wings’ special teams are still an issue, and not a good issue…

The Associated Press’s Stephen Whyno penned an article discussing the NHL’s rebuilding teams this morning, and his analysis of the Red Wings’ efforts in building a 4-4-and-2 record serve as the “lede” for the article:

Last week, Jeff Blashill tried to go to the same restaurant where he had dinner in March 2020, before the NHL season shut down. He found the windows to be boarded up.

The reminder of how many things have changed over the past 19 months was followed the next day by his Detroit Red Wings coming back to win a game they likely would have lost at any other time over the past two years. It showed their longtime coach how far the team has come.

“We’ve been in situations where we’ve found our way to wins and I think that breeds confidence,” Blashill said. “I think we have some guys that have matured over the years in terms of living through some of that. As hard as some of those moments are to live, you hope you grow, and a number of our guys have grown even through some of the difficulties we faced.”

Rebuilding is a difficult time in any professional sports league, and the opening weeks of the NHL season show just how different things can be. The Red Wings added talent and no longer look like the league’s doormat. The Buffalo Sabres are showing what good coaching can do for a young team, while the Ottawa Senators are a stride behind Detroit in hanging with better opponents.

…

Detroit is a good blueprint. A few years removed from a roster purge, the Red Wings are showing the fruits of picking high in the draft with rookies like Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider contributing to morale-building victories.

“You can see it with some of these young guys that they’re gaining a feel for the league,” veteran Red Wings forward Adam Erne said. “We’re confident in each other. We’ve had some young guys coming in, we still do, but every game and every season that goes by is huge for experience and confidence.”

Continued with a weekly notebook’s list of notes…

My apologies for this one sliding under my radar: the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that Toledo Walleye forward John Albert was named the ECHL’s Player of the Week on Monday:

Walleye forward John Albert, who notched a hat trick in just his second game in a Toledo uniform Friday, has been named the ECHL’s player of the week.

Albert scored three goals and had an assist in the Walleye’s 10-1 win at the Iowa Heartlanders. He followed that performance with a goal and an assist in Toledo’s 5-2 victory over the Heartlanders on Saturday.

Albert finished the two games against Iowa with four goals, two assists, and a plus-minus rating of plus-6.

The Cleveland native is tied for the ECHL’s early lead with five goals and is tied for fourth with seven points in three games.

The 32-year-old veteran was brought in by coach Dan Watson to provide leadership and experience. Watson said Albert also plays a smart two-way game and will be a valuable contributor to the offense.

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a column discussing the Red Wings’ 3-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night, noting that Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and defenseman Danny DeKeyser were completely dissatisfied with their team’s effort against the struggling Canadiens, who still sit at 3-and-8 after last night’s game vs. 4-4-and-2 Detroit:

“You have a chance to come out and have a great third period against a team that’s come off a West Coast trip, that lost a player early with (Jonathan) Drouin, and we didn’t come close to mustering the effort we need to have in order to win the hockey game,” Blashill said. “I think we’ve worked hard to develop an identity as a team that’s hard to play against, and tonight we weren’t.”

The Red Wings have lost twice in 10 days to a struggling Canadiens club (3-8-0), getting outscored 9-1.

“It’s a tough building to play in. It’s a momentum building,” DeKeyser said. “They came out right from the first shift and kind of tilted the ice. We weren’t able to really push back at all. We didn’t have enough shots, didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net, made it too easy on them.”

The Red Wings last week came back from 0-2 deficits to defeat Washington and earn a point in an overtime loss to Florida. That same urgency was lacking on this night.

“We had a whole bunch of players not even close to what they’re capable of, so we didn’t create any pressure on their D at all, in the third especially,” Blashill said. “We didn’t create a lot of chances. In the third we had zero. To me, it’s inexcusable. We got to find a way to make sure we’re way better than that.”

Continued; here’s hoping that, this year, anyway, the players heed their coach’s words.