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.

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 →

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.

The Detroit Red Wings revealed their roster for the 2021 prospect tournament in Traverse City on Wednesday, and, since that time, there’s been some discussion regarding the expectations for the top prospects taking part in the tournament.

As Shawn Horcoff suggested to The Athletic’s Max Bultman, however, the tournament is something more akin to a “showcase” this year: the teams engaged in the tournament will either play in 3 or 4 games over the course of the 5-day event, and there’s been no indication as to how the winner of the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup will be determined.

From the Red Wings front office’s perspective, the lack of playoff games is much less relevant to the process of acclimating their prospects to a peer-vs-peer, high-level tournament’s worth of play so that “the kids” can hit the ice running prior to the hustle and bustle of the longest training camp (6 days) in over a decade.

Continue reading An examination of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament roster →

The worst days of fundraising, for me, aren’t the days when little to nothing comes in; they’re the days when money has to go out in order to prepare for the trip.

Today I had to make a big Amazon order, in no small part to purchase medications, laptop accessories for the Zoom calls we’re going to be doing in TC; I went out to get my dry cleaning picked up, plain old have my hair cut, fix my watch, and I began the process of stocking up on groceries and stuff to afford me the opportunity to camp out in my hotel room and keep costs to a bare minimum while I’m in Traverse City.

The long story long is that we’re now approximately $300 short of the halfway mark, hotel-wise, and I still need to raise about $100 to get up the road to Traverse City.

I’m trying damn hard to remind myself that this is an expensive trip (which it is), so the outlay of cash is just part of the process of getting up there, and I’m trying to be as penny-wise as possible in terms of supplies and groceries, but we are where we are–near the halfway point of the fundraiser…

And, as my therapist pointed out a couple of days ago, the one thing I’m not doing is actually “getting paid” for doing my work over the next two-and-a-half weeks. Everything I’m raising goes to expenses, and I try to break even…

Hell, I’m even skipping my cousin Dan’s 40th Birthday Party today because I don’t want to accidentally be exposed to COVID on accident because I’ve committed the next two-and-a-half weeks to you, and I simply cannot take the risk of jeopardizing my trip for the sake of socializing with a family I have barely seen for a year-and-a-half.

Those are the stakes, and I signed up for this, so I have to be careful.

Anyway, we’re still raising funds, 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 yes, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

Of prospect-related note:

In the Finnish Liiga, Eemil Viro finished at -1 with 1 shot in 20:13 played during TPS Turku’s 3-2 loss to Ilves;

Otto Kivenmaki finished even with 1 shot in 13:20 played in the Lahti Pelicans’ 6-3 loss to IFK Helskini;

In the SHL, Albert Johansson finished at -1 with 2 shots on goal in 15:56 played as Farjestads BK won 4-3 in a shootout over the Vaxjo Lakers. Jesper Eliasson served as Farjestads‘ back-up goaltender;

Simon Edvinsson had an assist, a shot on goal and finished at +1 in 20:24 played as Frolunda HC lost 4-2 to Brynas.

#SHL
Frölunda 4-2 loss:
– Edvinsson 0+1, +1, 1 SOG, 20:24 ice time
– Niederbach 0+0, +/- 0, 2 SOG, 8:36 ice time
– Söderblom 0+0, -1, 1 SOG, 7:54 ice time
– Dower Nilsson was the extra forward, no ice time
#LGRW pic.twitter.com/u7REeGBLKK

— Red Wings Prospects (@DRWProspects) September 11, 2021

Frölunda loses their SHL opener by a score of 4-2, but a strong first game by Simon Edvinsson with 20:24 played, 1 assist and +1.
Niederbach – 08:36, 0 points, +0
Söderblom – 07:54, 0 points, -1
Dower Nilsson did not get any shifts #LGRW pic.twitter.com/AY7sxS0Ite

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 11, 2021

Also for Frolunda: Elmer Soderblom had a shot but finished at -1 in 7:54 played; Theodor Niederbach finished even with 2 shots in 8:36 played; and Liam Dower Nilsson didn’t hit the ice as he dressed as the 13th forward;

And William Wallinder did not play in Rogle BK’s 3-2 win over Orebro Hockey.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted an article in which Red Wings goaltending prospect Carter Gylander, who plays for Colgate, compares goaltending to golfing:

“I think you have to have a lot of mental toughness for lots of sports, and especially with the position of goalie,” Gylander explained. “One bad goal, or a slow start to a game, you’ve got to be able to shake that off and just worry about the next save, the next shot. So being able to have a short memory is pretty important.

“That ties in with golf as well. If you’re having a couple of stretches of holes where you bogeyed or triple-bogeyed, then you’ve got to kind of recuperate and get back at it.”

Gylander is also of the opinion that there are comparisons in the relationship involving a goaltending tandem that are similar to the golfer-caddie dynamic on the links.

“It’s nice to have a goalie partner as well,” Gylander said. “It’s kind of like a caddie. He’s on the bench and he’s giving you words of encouragement.

“If you get a little bit heated, or whatever the case might be, having those conversations in TV timeouts to keep your head straight really helps to settle you down.” 

Continued

Dobber Hockey’s Ian Gooding discusses fantasy hockey players who are “on the bubble” for keeper leagues this upcoming season, and Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi is on his list:

Tyler Bertuzzi: Bertuzzi might have been on the verge of a breakout last season with five goals and seven points in his first nine games. Yet we’ll never know if that would have happened, as a back injury sidelined him for the rest of the season. His point production has gradually increased over the past three seasons, from 0.50 PTS/GP in 2017-18 to 0.64 PTS/GP to 0.68 PTS/GP to 0.78 PTS/GP in his injury-shortened 2020-21 season.

One reason that I like Bertuzzi is that he should remain a fixture on the top line with Dylan Larkin. Not just because Larkin helps him, but also the other way around. Larkin had seven points in the nine games that Bertuzzi was in the lineup, but he struggled to just 16 points in 35 games afterward. Bertuzzi has been a regular Larkin linemate for three seasons, so don’t expect that to change.

On average, Bertuzzi has been drafted at around pick 150 in Yahoo leagues. However, I feel strongly that he should be drafted in more than 10 percent of leagues. Don’t let the fact that he plays for Detroit deter you from drafting him. I realize he’s also a player that has been covered by other writers, but I have him here because he’s also a bubble keeper that I personally like to the point where I’ve kept him on my roster.

Continued; I call Bertuzzi “the straw that stirs the drink” for the Red Wings’ forwards for good reason. He’s perhaps the best forechecking forward that the Red Wings have had in a long time; his competitive level of play yields winning puck battles in one-on-one and out-manned situations, and we all know that he goes to the front of the net and stays there when the Wings have possession of the puck.

All of those attributes add up to a player who may not necessarily drive puck possession, but someone who still makes those around him better.

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a mailbag article this morning, and, among his questions and answers are the following notes:

Q: Seems like most of the roster spots are decided even before camp. Is there someone who might surprise in camp and steal a job from a veteran, other than maybe (Joe) Veleno? I’m thinking either (Lucas) Raymond or (Jonatan) Berggren. What are their chances? – C.J.

A: On defense, their top eight is set (Danny DeKeyser, Filip Hronek, Nick Leddy, Gustav Lindstrom, Jordan Oesterle, Moritz Seider, Marc Staal and Troy Stecher), so their goaltending (Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic).

There could be an opportunity at forward for a waiver-exempt player to step up and grab a job with an impressive camp and preseason.

Veleno might be in the best position based on his experience, which includes a five-game stint in Detroit at the end of the season. But Mitchell Stephens might have the best chance to emerge from the preseason as the fourth-line center.

Berggren, selected only three spots after Veleno in 2018, is someone to keep an eye on. He had a breakout season in Sweden’s top men’s league (12 goals, 33 assists in 49 games for Skelleftea). His speed and offensive ability could provide a spark if there is an opening at wing on one of the top three lines.

Berggren, 21, is two years older than Raymond and further along in his development. Raymond missed a significant chunk of the season with Frolunda due to elbow surgery and likely will need development time in Grand Rapids, as will Berggren in all likelihood.

Continued

Ottawa Senators Wunderkind Tim Stuetzle spoke with the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch regarding his summer spent training in his hometown of Mannheim, Germany; Stuetzle is a pal of Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider, who moved to Mannheim as a teenager to play in the Adler Mannheim’s system. So, per Garrioch, we receive a glimpse into the Summer of Seider:

Stuetzle skated with Detroit Red Wings prospect Mortiz Seider, who was selected No. 6 overall in 2019 and played 49 games with the club’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids last season, along with winger Marc Michaelis, who was signed as a unrestricted free agent and suited up for 15 games with the Vancouver Canucks in 2020-21.

They were on the ice most days with a skills coach and a goaltender working on their games to get ready for camp. The last month or so that group has gotten bigger to include some injured players from Mannheim along with players from the German national team that were preparing for their season as well.

He said he has always been the kind of player who didn’t like taking much time away from the ice.

“I started skating really early, having fun and playing three-against-three,” Stuetzle said. “We had a group of about eight guys on the ice and sometimes a little bit less. Mannheim had to focus on (its) season and their training camp because the season started for them (Friday) and I’m just watching the game right now. I’m here in Ottawa to skate with the guys and today was my first day on the ice and we had a lot of fun.”

Continued; it’s good to know that Seider and Stuetzle were busy working on their skills and skating with professionals.

My understanding is that Seider is a lot like Dylan Larkin in that he’s a bit of a “rink rat” who’s hard to get off the ice or away from the rink for extended periods of time.