The Malik Report

The Detroit Red Wings acquired Tampa Bay Lightning center Mitchell Stephens, a 24-year-old righty, for a 6th-round pick this morning, and the Red Wings’ beat writers are weighing in regarding the pick-up.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggests as much…

The Detroit Red Wings found their likely replacement for Luke Glendening when they acquired Mitchell Stephens from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Stephens, 24, started last season as the Lightning’s fourth-line center until he suffered a serous knee injury.

He is a right-shot, which the Red Wings need. He didn’t play during the Lightning’s Stanley Cup run last season, but played with the team during the 2019-20 run. Stephens has appeared in 45 games for the back-to-back Stanley Cup-champion Lightning over the last two seasons, totaling seven points (3-4-7) and 10 penalty minutes.

MLive’s Ansar Khan, in an article summarizing the Wings’ depth signings, offers this regarding Stephens…

Mitchell Stephens, center: Detroit traded its 2022 sixth-round pick to Tampa Bay for Stephens, selected 33rd overall in 2015 under Steve Yzerman’s watch. Stephens (5-11, 190) appeared in seven games for the Lightning (no goals, one assist) this season and 38 games in 2019-20 (three goals, three assists), when he also played in seven playoff games (one goal) on a Stanley Cup-winning club. The 24-year-old right-handed shooter had a goal and seven assists in four games with AHL Syracuse, for whom he has played in parts of six seasons. He played 3½ seasons with the OHL Saginaw Spirit. He has one year remaining on his contract and will be a restricted free agent next summer.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan comes out and says it plainly…

Stephens was a 2015 second-round draft pick of the Lightning while Yzerman was still GM of that organization.

Stephens played junior hockey in Saginaw and London of the OHL, and in 209 games had 73 goals and 87 assists (160 points) with 92 penalty minutes.

Stephens would appear to be in the hunt for a job on the Wings’ bottom-six forwards, what with the losses of Darren Helm and Luke Glendening to free agency.

Sportsnet agrees…

Stephens, 24, struggled to find a role on a deep Lightning squad. He has appeared in just 45 NHL games over the past two seasons, including seven last year. He is signed for one more season at an AAV of $737,500.

On the rebuilding Red Wings, Stephens will slot into a hole created by the departure of depth centre Luke Glendening, who signed with the Dallas Stars in free agency.

And so does WDIV’s David Bartkowiak Jr.:

He played just seven games with the Lightning this past year, spending a large portion of the season injured. He returned at the end of the season with the Crunch.

With the departure of Luke Glendening, Stephens is ostensibly stepping in to fill the role of 4th-line center and penalty killer. Stephens boasts a 53% conversion at the faceoff dot in his career (45 games). It’s a small sample size, but still impressive.

The Grand Rapids Griffins brought back forward Turner Elson on an AHL deal…

UPDATE: The Griffins have signed Turner Elson to a one-year AHL contract. #GoGRG

More Info >> https://t.co/pS7S5QLBfe pic.twitter.com/cfPpDlYidR— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) July 30, 2021

And they did the same for Hayden Verbeek, who was not qualified by Detroit:

UPDATE: The Griffins have signed Hayden Verbeek to a one-year AHL contract. #GoGRG

More info >> https://t.co/pU6kWSJ0og pic.twitter.com/7aY6jKcs5g

— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) July 29, 2021

For the 14 seasons Helm played in Detroit:

WDIV’s David Bartkowiak Jr. filed his weekly “Dear Red Wings” column this morning, discussing the Red Wings’ free agency moves, and both Bartkowiak and I would like to see the Wings “ride lean” this season:

We knew Wednesday was going to be the start of a wild NHL free agency period. It’s ongoing as I write this Friday morning. So far, Yzerman has been relatively conservative in his approach. He has improved the Red Wings roster, no doubt, but he still has $31 million in cap space. He has so many options. He does have key restricted free agents to deal with, too. There is no reason to think the Red Wings won’t sign RFAs Bertuzzi, Adam Erne, Jakub Vrana and Filip Hronek. The question is how much cap space do all of these contracts actually eat up? And for how long?

Personally, I’d love to see this team go into the 2021-22 season with a relatively wide amount of cap space still. Keep some options open for now. I don’t think there is any reason to dish out huge contracts yet. I want to see the young players try to form a solid core in Detroit. I want to see who can crack the lineup, who can prove his value and who wants to earn a new contract. There are a select few Red Wings under contract beyond 2022.

At this point, the move to get goalie Alex Nedeljkovic is the biggest of the Red Wings offseason.

Continued; with six restricted free agents to re-sign, the Wings won’t have $31 million in cap space, but once Bertuzzi, Hronek, Vrana, Erne, Smith and Pearson re-signed, the Wings should still have a fair amount of cap space to bank away for a rainy day, and in this “flat cap” world (at least for a couple more years), that’s smart management.

More than a few Red Wings partisans on Twitter, Facebook and this humble blog have reacted to Darren Helm’s departure for the sometimes-despised Colorado Avalanche, after 14 seasons with the Red Wings organization, with a simple, “So what?”

That’s understandable. Helm, now 34, was playing as 4th line forward on Detroit’s roster last season, and the rivalry with the Avalanche sure isn’t what it used to be…

But I can speak for everybody who reacted to this free agent departure with heartbreak, and I can do it quite simply: sometimes fans’ emotional investments in players are greater than the sum of their on-ice contributions, and for many fans of the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions, Darren Helm was that last connection to the Wings’ salary cap-era Cup.

There is nothing wrong with the Helm fans losing their Gord-dang minds over a past-his-prime player signing with a historical but not present-day rival. This is how fandom works–sometimes we invest an enormous amount of time, energy and effort into following specific players, and losing their services stings.

Rather than bashing Helm for being a bit player whose absence may very well make the Wings more competitive (which is certainly a valid observation regarding the Wings’ departures of Helm, Abdelkader, Glendening, Ericsson and other 2008-Cup-Era-or-Thereabouts players), I would ask that those of you who don’t feel much sympathy for those shook up by the “changing of the guard” on Steve Yzerman’s Red Wings team to remind yourself that roster turnover isn’t always business in the hearts of sentimental fans.

Hockey is not a business for everyone, and some fans love their “washed-up Wings.” There’s nothing wrong with that. Give them their time and space to grieve as you prepare to move on to the next chapter in Red Wings history.

This is an interesting depth signing, as the Wings pick up a 24-year-old, right-shooting center for depth purposes:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today acquired center Mitchell Stephens from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Detroit’s 6th round pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft. pic.twitter.com/m0SSZvwwzV— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 30, 2021

TRADE: Tampa has traded C Mitchell Stephens to Detroit for a 2022 6th round pick— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) July 30, 2021

this is 4th line C competition— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) July 30, 2021

yzerman selected stephens 2015 second round, 33rd in tampa https://t.co/vdWO7oIjdH— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) July 30, 2021

#tblightning trade Mitchell Stephens to Detroit, likely making room for Perry. https://t.co/94jDxnAwzU— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) July 30, 2021

Our former captain is coming home #LGRW x #SoarWithUs? https://t.co/C3iILscd0S— Saginaw Spirit (@SpiritHockey) July 30, 2021

Update: Here’s the Wings’ press release:

Continue reading Red Wings acquire grinder Mitchell Stephens from Tampa for a 6th round pick

The Detroit Red Wings signed Luke Witkowski to a two-year contract yesterday, and the move left some Red Wings fans scratching their heads.

Do the Wings really need an enforcer at the NHL level in this day and age? Are the Griffins going to miss Dylan McIlrath’s status as a deterrent that badly?

When Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke with the media yesterday, he had this to say to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff regarding Witkowski:

“He’s rugged, hard nosed,” Yzerman said of Witkowski. The Holland, Michigan-born player made his NHL bow playing for Yzerman from 2014-17 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. After leaving Detroit, Witkowski returned to the Lightning organization, although he spent the majority of the past two seasons in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch.

Detroit’s Grand Rapids farm club is Witkowski’s likely destination, although his ability to add unique qualities leaves him in with a chance to find a place with the Wings.

“He’s a great person, a great leader,” Yzerman said. “And again, the versatility. He gives us some depth to play here, to play in Grand Rapids. Great leadership and tough as nails.”

Duff continues; put bluntly, in the AHL, it’s still smart to have a player who’s known for his fisticuffs on your roster, and Witkowski’s ability to slot into the NHL as an injury replacement, at both forward and defense, makes the 31-year-old useful in his role.

Great news from a leadership standpoint for the Griffins and Red Wings’ youngsters:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today agreed to terms with defenseman Brian Lashoff on a one-year contract. pic.twitter.com/9QroBFcmkH— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 30, 2021

The Captain is back!

More info >> https://t.co/miuQ1hOZWf pic.twitter.com/bxL0RsWMt9— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) July 30, 2021

Update: Here’s the Lashoff press release:

Continue reading Red Wings re-sign Grand Rapids Griffins captain Brian Lashoff for one year

Last night, the Red Wings’ beat writers surveyed the comments made by Wings GM Steve Yzerman during his annual post-free agency press conference.

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes that the GM made the following statement regarding his young players‘ chances of making the team out of training camp:

“For our younger players, if they come to training camp and do well, earn a spot, that’s great,” Yzerman said. “What I’m not necessarily doing is leaving spots open just to hand it to one of the younger players or hand it to them by default. We’re still looking at a few things. Not so much on the back end or in goal, but up front, looking at a few things to potentially add one more player, possibly two. For our young guys that have a chance to crack the lineup, we would rather they simply are better than the players that we have.

“I am kind of talking out of both sides of my mouth. If a young guy can play, great. I don’t want to leave a spot on the roster open to just hand it to anyone, but I’m also not going to sign a free agent, feeling oh, we have a hole, let’s just plug it. I want a guy who can serve a purpose.”

Continued; I have no problem with the concept of not affording roster spots to young players as “placeholders.” Yzerman and coach Jeff Blashill have duly noted that the NHL is not a developmental league.

While Ken Holland’s old concept that you don’t bring players up until they’re “over-ripe” no longer applies, you want any young player who’s brought up from Grand Rapids to be put in a position to flourish on the roster. You don’t want them to struggle to stay out of the press box–when they’re struggling, it’s better to have them in GR.

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke with the media earlier this evening, addressing Detroit’s draft class, the team’s free agency moves, the offseason as a whole (Yzerman says that the team may still add a forward or two on the free agent market), and the respective statuses of Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin as they recover from injuries:

Afterward, the Red Wings’ beat writers examined Yzerman’s 27-minute media availability, and focused upon several topics covered by the Wings’ GM.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan offered this take on Yzerman’s remarks as a whole…

“I hope we’re better,” Yzerman said Thursday during a Zoom call. “It’s the day after the first day of free agency. For the most part, every team sits back and you look at your board and you think you’re a better hockey team. We’ll have some younger players playing bigger roles and sometimes that can be a challenge. Our back end is a little stronger. It’s a little more mobile and maybe we’ll get a little more offense out of it.”

The Wings acquired defenseman Nick Leddy and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in trades (dealing forward Richard Panik, the rights to free agent goalie Jonathan Bernier and draft picks). They lost defenseman Dennis Cholowski to Seattle in the expansion draft, then picked eight prospects in the entry draft, including two first-rounders (defenseman Simon Edvinsson and goaltender Sebastian Cossa) with huge potential.

And in the first two days of free agency, the Wings re-signed forward Sam Gagner, signed defenseman Jordan Oesterle (Dearborn Heights/Dearborn Divine Child) and locked up forward Pius Suter.

Signing Suter, 25, late Wednesday to a two-year contract worth $6.5 million ($3.25 million cap hit, per season) solidified the Wings at the center position. It potentially makes this a better offensive team.

“Having Suter there with a (healthy) Tyler Bertuzzi, and we get a little more offensive output from everyone, I hope that translates to wins,” Yzerman said.

Kulfan continues; Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Yzerman’s remarks regarding the status of captain Dylan Larkin…

Continue reading Red Wings’ beat writers survey Steve Yzerman’s free agency press conference