The Malik Report

The Free Press’s Helene St. James has filed a mailbag article, and among her questions and answers is this note about the Wings’ likely first-round pick:

HSJ: From people I talk to in the organization, Evan Bouchard appears to have slight edge over Noah Dobson. It was interesting at the the combine, of the top defensive prospects I interviewed (Bouchard, Dobson, Hughes and Adam Boqvist) — Bouchard sounded the most confident he can help an NHL team as soon as next season. Now, it is just up to the player, of course, but still, he clearly feels he’s ready for another level after posting 25 goals and 62 assists for 87 points in 67 games with London in the Ontario Hockey League. 

St. James continues, and in my opinion, it’s very close between Bouchard and Dobson, but Bouchard is older and more physically mature.

MLive’s Ansar Khan wrote an article discussing the Red Wings’ rebuild some 10 years after the Wings last won a Stanley Cup and 21 years to the day the team ended its 42-year Cup drought by winning the 1997 Stanley Cup championship:

Building from the ground up through the draft is the strategy. They made several trades to accumulate 11 picks this year, including seven in the first three rounds. They have nine selections in 2019, including an extra second-rounder.

“That’s the blueprint for our future,” [Christopher] Ilitch said on April 7, when announcing [GM Ken] Holland’s two-year contract extension. “It’s going to be a process, we’re all going to need patience, but (Holland) has the skill and the experience to lead us through that process again.”

Holland said they’re not starting from scratch. They have a good core of young forwards in Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi. They’re high on 2015 top pick Evgeny Svechnikov. They believe 2017 top pick Michael Rasmussen can make the leap from juniors to the NHL next season.

More than anything, they need to upgrade their defense, if not with a star, at least with one or two stronger top-four, mobile, puck-moving defensemen. They hope 2016 top pick Dennis Cholowski and Filip Hronek, their top defenseman this season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, are ready to move up in the next year or two.

They also need a goaltender. Jimmy Howard is 34 and has one year remaining on his contract. If he’s re-signed for a year or two, it would be more of a stopgap measure until they can identify their next franchise goalie, whether it’s someone in their system, someone they’ve yet to draft or someone they’ll acquire through trade.

Khan continues, mostly reiterating the concept that the Red Wings’ attempt to rebuild without completely tanking is going to be difficult and probably long.

Roster-wise, I would suggest that the Red Wings have a few prospects who could develop into stars on defense and in goal, but player development is key in that department, and that’s where Daniel Cleary, Shawn Horcoff, Griffins coach Ben Simon and Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson come into play. The Red Wings rather desperately need a couple of prospects to jump the developmental curve, and that’s up to both the players and their mentors.

According to the Traverse City Record-Eagle’s Jake Atnip, Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City has finished upgrading its facility to NHL standards, affording the rink the ability to hold the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and main training camp in September…

But the rink is still attempting to raise funds to pay for the renovations:

“We are lucky that half of the $220,000 was covered by Traverse City Tourism and obviously we have raised some of the money,” [Centre ICE executive director Terry] Marchand said. “The great thing is that I was able to borrow money. We had to borrow the money to pay for this.”

Cherryland Co-Op allows members to borrow money with up to a 10-year payback with no interest. Marchand is happy they were able to take advantage of the program, but hopes to raise enough money to offset the loan.

Centre Ice took out a $100,000 loan from Cherryland to cover the rest of the renovation, and raised $37,344 of that so far. A donation deadline at the end of Training Camp in September could get those numbers even closer.

The arena will need to dish out another big chunk of change soon, Marchand said.

“We’ve got another thing going on right now that a lot of people don’t know about,” Marchand said. “We have a thing called an ammonia chiller back in our compressor room and it is a huge chiller. That and the compressors are what make it possible to have ice. We thought we were going to get another five years out of it and it is failing. We are right in the process in the next 30 days of replacing that, which is $200,000.”

Continued, and you can visit Centre ICE’s fundraising page if you’d like to give a hand.

Per MLive’s Brendan Champion:

Sorry Vegas, Detroit isn’t giving up the Hockeytown title anytime soon.

According to a study released by the personal finance website Wallethub on Wednesday, June 6, the Motor City is the second-best place for hockey fans in the United States. It trails only Boston, according to Wallethub.

To arrive at its rankings, a panel of sports experts from around the U.S. ranked 73 U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators of a good hockey city including ticket prices, stadium capacity and performance level of each city’s teams.

Detroit, which is obviously bolstered by the Detroit Red Wings and their 11 Stanley Cups, finished No. 1 in the NHL rank.

Continued

According to Crain’s Detroit Business’s Jay Greene, Olympia Development of Michigan and Ilitch Holdings are set to build a sports medicine center in concert with the Detroit Medical Center to serve the Red Wings, Tigers, Pistons and public at large:

Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard appeared on 97.1 the Ticket’s Jamie and Stoney show on Wednesday morning, appearing for over 20 minutes:

Update: Among 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burtchfield’s highlights of the interview:

On Wednesday, Howard spoke to the importance of keeping the tandem of Holland and Blashill in tact.

“I think it’s key,” he told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. “You see the teams that constantly, constantly struggle in the NHL, they’re constantly blowing things up. A GM’s getting fired or a coach is getting fired. When you have that turnover, when you see organizations that are struggling, it’s just because of that, because the players are constantly getting used to new aspiraitons, whatever that GM or coach wants out of them.

“To be able to have Kenny and Blash still here, as a player we know what they expect from us. It’s on us to go out there night in and night out and get the job done.”

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Henrik Zetterberg today, and Zetterberg informed her that he plans on playing for another season:

Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg is preparing to play at least one more season.

Zetterberg left his return open-ended when the regular season ended in April, saying he’d need to evaluate whether his health, especially his back, could continue to hold up. It appears he’s confident it can.

“I’m in training and looking forward to a better season,” Zetterberg told the Free Press Wednesday. He’s back in his native Sweden, where he spends the offseason along with his wife and their son.

Continued

From WXYZ:

Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard is hosting the Howie’s Home Run Derby on Friday, June 22 at Legacy Center in Brighton.

The event will be broken up into four age groups, 8-11, 12-15, 16-18 and 18+. Tickets are $10 at the gate and if you want to participate in the event, it costs $35. All participants will receive a Jimmy Howard Foundation.

For more information, including tickets, click here.

Here’s Howard on WXYZ…

 

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill appeared on Arthur J. Regner’s “Red and White Authority” podcast on Tuesday…

And Dana Wakiji posted some of the highlights of Blashill’s interview this morning:

Continue reading Blashill discusses the youth movement with Regner

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. This is more of an essay than an article, but I dig it, so: the Free Press’s Phoebe Wall Howard penned a case for Detroit sports fans to root for coach Gerard Gallant’s Vegas Golden Knights:

Continue reading Two Things: Praise for Gerard Gallant and a bit about Dan Renouf