The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a locker room clean-out day article today, and it’s expertly-timed: the Grand Rapids Griffins desperately, desperately miss Tyler Bertuzzi…

But the wiry forechecking forward also desperately needs to add some extra muscle to his listed 6,’ 190-pound frame (subtract 10 or 15 pounds, and you probably get a better handle on Bertuzzi’s weight class) to better compete for pucks in corners and win physical battles along the boards.

Bertuzzi and Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with Kulfan regarding the trade-offs involved in choosing to give Bertuzzi, the outgoing AHL playoff MVP, more time in the gym instead of more time in the AHL:

“The positive in this case is he gets at least an extra month of getting after it in training,” coach Jeff Blashill said when the Red Wings broke for the offseason. “My (advice) to him was you have to get bigger, stronger, faster. Find a strength and sprinting coach that can help you do those things. Get a skating coach that is going to help you get that much quicker. If he can do those things, he’ll be that much a better player next year.”

It was obvious listening to Bertuzzi the final days of the regular season, going to Grand Rapids would be just fine.

Certainly it wouldn’t feel like a chore or demotion. The Griffins have a tight group, and Bertuzzi has quite a few friends he communicates with.

“I still have a lot of good buddies down there,” Bertuzzi said. “It stinks obviously not going down to battle with them in playoffs, but I kind of want to focus on a good summer and coming back to training camp ready.”

Bertuzzi has been limited the past two summers while recovering from grueling Griffins playoff runs.

“I’ve been kind of hurt to start the summer and that kind of delayed training,” Bertuzzi said. “Last year we made a long playoff run and I was hurt. This is a big opportunity for me to take advantage of a long summer in the gym.”

Kulfan continues, and I know that one of Bertuzzi’s off-season injuries was an infected hand from a tooth-incurred cut suffered during the Calder Cup Final, and it was fairly advanced at the time.

He played with far more injuries than the sore wrist that prevented him from skating last September and October, and because he plays so hard, I get the feeling that the Wings were worried that he’d get banged-up simply by default if he participated in an AHL playoff run.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings director of European scouting and former Frolunda Indians board of directors member Hakan Andersson to stoke the Rasmus Dahlin fire…

“He’s good at everything,” Andersson told the Free Press. “He has great size, he is a great skater, he has very good hands. He’s extremely smart, and he has very high dedication. There is a lot to like.”

Andersson, the Wings’ director of European scouting, served on the board of directors of the Frolunda hockey club in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 2013-17. During that time he saw Dahlin move from the organization’s junior hockey team to the highest division, the Swedish Hockey League.

“I’ve seen him lots over the years,” Andersson said. “I know how dedicated he is. I know how hard he works.  He has no weaknesses.”

And, to his credit, Andersson cautions against the suggestions that Dahlin is going to turn a lucky franchise around all by himself:

“Over the years, how many first overall picks have come in right away and transformed a team?” Andersson said. “Connor McDavid is a highly skilled player, and the Oilers still don’t make the playoffs.

“People want to compare Dahlin to Lidstrom. Lidstrom in his draft year played in the junior Swedish hockey league. This guy played in the top league in his draft year and on the national team. That doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into a better career. He is not the first player at 17-18 years of age to be better than Lidstrom. Lidstrom, the year after he was drafted, he played in Sweden still and his numbers were not that exciting. Now, very few guys look back and say they had a better career than Lidstrom.

“It takes time. Dahlin is very good at a young age, for sure. He has taken some big steps the past few years. I think whoever drafts him, you hope you are drafting a world-class defenseman.”

St. James continues, and I’m relieved that SOMEbody is willing to suggest that Dahlin isn’t the next Hockey Jesus.

Update: Here’s a bit more from Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff:

Continue reading HSJ speaks with Hakan Andersson regarding Rasmus Dahlin

The AHL posts a “Morning Skate’s” worth of notes and stats regarding each and every one of its playoff teams’ respective series, and I usually don’t share these.

Given that the Grand Rapids Griffins are on the ropes heading into tonight’s game (down 2-1 in a Best-of-Five series; tonight’s game starts at 7 PM EDT on ESPN 96.1 and the AHL Live), there are some stats that stick out:

Continue reading The AHL’s ‘Morning Skate’ reveals some unpleasant Griffins stats

This is pretty cool, per the NHLPA:

Congratulations to Ted Lindsay, the pioneer of our original Players’ Association, on being chosen to receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Oakland University! https://t.co/fOgtHdtVE9 pic.twitter.com/vAiGcPUsh6

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) April 26, 2018

Here’s Oakland University’s press release:

Continue reading That’s (honorary) Dr. Terrible Ted Lindsay

This is pretty cool, per the Toledo Walleye:

TOLEDO TAKES ECHL BEST ICE FOR THIRD YEAR

The ECHL announced that the Toledo Walleye are the 2017-18 recipient of the league’s Best Ice Award. It is the third consecutive year that Toledo has received the award.

“Jesus Rivera and his team raised the bar for consistently producing the highest quality ice surfaces for the Walleye and visiting teams to play on,” said Toledo Walleye Head Coach Dan Watson. “The Huntington Center hosts concerts along with hockey during our season. Jesus and his crew take great pride in being able to turn the arena from a rink to a concert and back to a rink in record time, and in award-winning style. We know that every time the players step out onto the ice at the Huntington Center, it is ready to go to produce a great product. We are fortunate to have them on our team.”

The winners are determined in a vote of ECHL coaches, focusing on those arenas and staffs that provide the best playing surfaces in the league, including the quality of the ice, temperature of the building and surrounding dasher board system.

“Our game is predicated on having a playing surface of the utmost integrity so that our players can perform at their highest level and our fans enjoy quality entertainment,” said ECHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst. “This award recognizes the hard-working crews in our league who pride themselves on ensuring that the athletes in the ECHL will have the best ice to perform on.”

 

The Athletic’s Katie Strang reports that Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Vili Saarijarvi will draw in for tonight’s must-win game against the Manitoba Moose (7 PM EDT on ESPN 96.1 FM and The AHL Live), and Colin Campbell will return from his suspension:

Vili Saarijarvi draws in on D tonight for Dennis Cholowski; Colin Campbell, having served one-game suspension last night, in for Borkowski as Griffins aim to tie the series up in Game 4 vs. Manitoba Moose.

— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) April 26, 2018

Cholowski was good on Wednesday, but Saarijarvi has more pro experience; Campbell is a key cog in the Griffins’ penalty-killing machine.

MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Wings player development assistant regarding the NHL Draft Lottery, which will take place this Saturday, and Khan reveals that the draft lottery is going to be painfully slowly revealed to the public:

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland will be on stage for the event, when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly reveals the selections live on NBC before and during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal series between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks (8 p.m.). The teams selecting fourth through 15th will be revealed in reverse order at 7:30 p.m. The teams selecting first through third will be revealed during the second intermission.

Daniel Cleary, the former Red Wings forward and current player development assistant, will represent the team backstage when the drawing takes place. He and the 14 other club reps will be sequestered, their cell phones taken away, so they will not be able to communicate the results with anyone.

“I’m excited. I think everyone should be excited,” Cleary said. “It would be a huge moment to win. There’s a lot of talented players. I’m going to try to bring some Irish luck.”

Cleary said he’s bringing his rosary beads blessed by Pope John Paul II.

Khan continues, and again, the Red Wings will have an 8.5% chance of earning the #1 overall pick and a 26.5% chance of drafting in the top three.

The Buffalo News’s John Vogl confirms:

The NHL Draft Lottery is undergoing another change. It’s meant to draw out the suspense, but it could also end it early for the Buffalo Sabres.

Sportsnet announced Thursday that it will unveil Saturday night’s lottery results throughout the course of the evening rather than all at once. Picks 15 through 4 will be revealed during “Hockey Central Saturday,” which goes on the air at 7:30 p.m. on NBC, CBC and Sportsnet. The top three picks, conducted via the lottery, will be announced during the second intermission of San Jose- Vegas playoff game that starts at 8 p.m.

So the No. 1 pick won’t be revealed until the 9:30 p.m. range.

By virtue of its last-place finish, the Sabres hold the best odds (18.5 percent) of landing the first overall pick. They could also drop to second, third or fourth if teams below them win the lotteries.

If three lower-seeded teams win, the Sabres will pick fourth and will know their fate before the Sharks and Golden Knights face off. If Buffalo makes the top three, it will have to wait through the opening two periods.

 

The Athletic’s Craig Custance took note of Jimmy Howard’s presence at the Red Wings’ unveiling of a “play space” at Children’s Hospital in Detroit on Wednesday, and Custance chose to mark the occasion by wondering aloud whether the Wings might want to move Howard in the final season of his contract:

Part of the appeal is an expiring contract. Goalies are such a risk that finding a starter without term remaining on his deal is an alluring asset. In 176 games over the course of the last four seasons, Howard has a .912 save percentage that is slightly below the league average but consistently in that range. With Howard, you know what you’re getting and that’s something. Down the stretch this season, he was often the only reason the Red Wings were competitive in games, part of the reason fans were rightly upset he was still getting starts in the final weeks on a team that needed better lottery odds more than it needed points in the standings.

The other part of Howard’s appeal is a weak free-agent market for goalies. The Coyotes removed the most intriguing name from consideration by signing Antti Raanta to a three-year contract worth $12.75 million. Carter Hutton had a good year for St. Louis, finishing with a .931 save percentage in 26 starts, but he’s played 40 games only once in his career. Jonathan Bernier may have saved Colorado’s season with stretches of strong play, but he also really likes it there. It wouldn’t be surprising if he stayed with the Avalanche.

Custance continues (paywall), and my question regarding this thought experiment is pretty simple: if the Red Wings trade Howard, who would the Wings use as their starting goaltender?

As much as I think Jared Coreau is a fine athlete and good fellow, he hasn’t proved himself ready; Tom McCollum’s ceiling may or may not be limited to the AHL, and Matej Machovsky’s decision to go home to the Czech Republic left the Wings in a bit of a bind because none of their other prospects–Filip Larsson, Kaden Fulcher, Keith Petruzzelli and Joren van Pottelberghe–aren’t anywhere near NHL-ready.

It’s arguable that the Wings could string together enough wins to be mediocre with one of the free agent back-ups out there, but I don’t see the team trading Howard unless it’s able to replace him immediately. That would take a 1-for-1 deal of some sort, and if we’re talking about the Islanders, Jarslav Halak and Thomas Greiss aren’t upgrades over Howard.

Update: Filip Larsson signed his letter of intent to play for the University of Denver on Thursday afternoon.

Red Wings prospect Filip Larsson missed half of his USHL season with the Tri-City Storm due to a groin injury, but Larsson believes that he needs to keep moving forward.

Larsson told the Kearney Hub’s Dan Zielinski that he will  begin his college career at the University of Denver next fall:

“(Detroit) supports me with my choice and thinks it’s a great choice. They wanted me to go to college.”

Larsson sat out 17 games with the injury and missed 11 games competing with Team Sweden in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. Larsson missed a total of 30 games this season.

Despite missing significant time, Larsson was the USHL’s top netminder this season. His .941 save percentage is the highest-ever in a single season in USHL history, while he finished second all-time with a 1.65 goals against average.

“I played a lot and in every game I could,” Larsson said. “I felt like I developed a lot and think that I have made great progress here. My stick handling and adjusting from the bigger ice has helped me get a lot better.”

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ 6-3 loss to the Manitoba Moose included the debut of Dennis Cholowski, who acquitted himself well during limited duty as the team’s seventh defenseman.

Peter J Wallner of the Grand Rapids Press spoke with Cholowski and Griffins coach Todd Nelson regarding #44’s first pro game and first pro playoff game:

“I thought he did fine … maybe a few jitters here and there but he made some plays out there,” Nelson said. “When you have seven defensemen, sometimes it’s hard to get in a rhythm but with what happened, after we scored our first goal, I dropped down to five, so he got some ice there.

“But I think it was just a situation where he was kind of thrown into the fire, (we) wanted to see what he could do, but I thought he was fine.”

Cholowski wasn’t on the ice for the fights, but the 20-year-old acknowledged a different level of play from juniors.

“It’s a little more chippy. It’s pro hockey,” he said. “The guys are bigger, they’re older and they want to play hard. You’re getting slashed, you’re getting whacked, you’re getting hit, cross checked. So, I got to get used to it and give some of it back.”

Next season, Cholowski is expected to be a regular on the Griffins’ blueline next season. For the rest of the playoffs, though, he will be learning as much as possible.

“It was good,” he said when asked to evaluate his performance. “Obviously, wish I could have done a little more to help the team out to win. Down the line, I think I’m going to have to impose my will a little more and skate with the puck a little more and make strong plays.

Wallner continues, and here’s his interview: