The Malik Report

Grand Rapids Griffins broadcaster Bob Kaser speaks with one-time Grand Rapids Griffins captain Ed Patterson on the latest episode of “Blasts From the Past”:

MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman regarding the 25th anniversary of the Russian Five‘s debut against the Calgary Flames, on October 27, 2020:

“That was a wonderful time in Detroit,” Bowman said. “I didn’t play them together all the time; I was always fearful that because it was such a unique way to play, somebody’s going to figure out (how to defend them). They scored some spectacular goals. You look at the tapes now and see what they could do. They were great players. They gave our team something that nobody else had. Anytime you can have something unique, it’s a special group.”

The Red Wings defeated the Flames 3-0. Kozlov and Larionov scored goals, Fedorov and Konstantinov provided assists and Fetisov registered a team-high four shots on goal.

“They had practiced a couple of times before that and we announced we were going to play them as a unit,” Bowman, 87, said Tuesday in an interview with MLive. “Oh my God, they took over that game. We only played three lines at the time and they were playing every third shift. That was the start.”

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Per the Detroit Red Wings: The Word on Woodward is live as we welcome Scotty Bowman on the 25th Anniversary of the Russian 5’s debut against Calgary. Vladislav Namestnikov and Larry Murphy also join the show.

The show starts at 12 PM EDT:

This one is a learning experience for a would-be podcaster like myself: Luke of Empire Universe, an MMA and NHL-focused podcast, spoke with Red Wings prospect Kaden Fulcher for 26 minutes recently, and you can listen to his interview here:

You’ll need to crank up the volume as Fulcher’s voice is a bit muffled, but this is a solid interview with a “forgotten prospect.”

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski spoke with the commissioners of the ECHL, AHL and SPHL–three of North America’s most important minor pro hockey leagues–regarding their respective attempts to return to play in a coronavirus world.

I was particularly intrigued by AHL commissioner Scott Howson’s comments as they pertain to the Red Wings’ independently-owned AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Griffins need fans in the stand to make playing this season worthwhile, and right now, that’s hard to envision:

[What’s] harder to predict is who might be able to watch these games. The AHL averaged 5,538 fans per home game last season, led by Cleveland (9,043) and dragged down by Stockton (2,781).

“Just having some capacity for fans in the building is a big, big issue for us,” he said. “If we don’t have that, then that’s going to limit some teams on their desire and ability to play.”

Teams and arenas are already in communication with local governments regarding the potential to have fans at AHL home games next season, including discussions of what COVID-19 precautions they’ll need to take to make that possible.

“Right now, we have seven of our markets that can host, to varying degrees, people in the stands. We’re hoping that’s going to improve. But ticket sales are the largest economic driver in our world,” Howson said.

Another challenge: selling tickets, given that many people who normally would have sold them were laid off or furloughed when the season was paused and then canceled.

“Many of our teams have furloughed their revenue-drivers, their sales staff, because nobody’s thinking about season tickets right now. Some of our teams have kept staff on. There’s a wide variance of what teams have done,” Howson said. “A lot our teams are going to have to ramp up not just ticketing staffs but their whole staffs when we know when we’re going to start.”

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DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen offers a couple of intriguing possibilities for the Red Wings should the team jump on the trend of releasing “reverse retro” jerseys:

All is quiet around the Red Wings as we wait for news of Tyler Bertuzzi‘s arbitration ruling.  With that in mind, and with last week’s leak of several “Reverse Retro” jerseys across the league, I figured I’d take a look at what the Wings could wear as part of this program.

The Red Wings have never had an official alternate jersey, though they’re no strangers to one-off sweaters, with a throwback set from the 2009 Winter Classic, a “fauxback” set from the 2014 Winter Classic, a retro-inspired set from the Centennial Classic in 2017, and something else entirely for the 2016 Stadium Series.

Not much is known about the NHL’s new fourth jersey program.  Supposedly, every team will participate, regardless of whether or not they have a third jersey.  Additionally, the rumor is the program has been driven by the league and adidas, rather than the individual teams, and as such has some rules to be followed.

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Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva posted an article in which he discusses possible restricted free agent offer sheets that could be presented to 8 marquee RFA’s, and the following scenario is entirely possible within the realm of NHL operating parameters…but not very plausible, especially given Anthony Mantha’s recent injury history:

Anthony Mantha, Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings find themselves at an interesting place in their rebuild — not far enough along to make waves, but with enough seeds planted to cause them to be wary of committing money that may be needed later. That bring us to Anthony Mantha, the club’s 20th-overall pick from back in 2013. The big-bodied winger has three solid seasons on his resumé, finishing around 25 goals and 50 points for two seasons prior to 2019-20. Last season, he once again showed well for the portion of the season he was able to play, scoring at a 30-goal, 72-point pace (16 goals, 38 points through 43 games).

There’s no mystery about his value — he’s proven his ability to pot goals consistently at the highest level, and on a thin roster, no less. And he brings dominant size, clocking in at six-foot-five, 235 pounds.

As stated earlier, Yzerman’s club has the most cap space in the league, $18.7 million, with just RFAs Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi (who went the arbitration route), and Dmytro Timashov to sign. That means plenty of room to ink Mantha to a new deal, regardless of the number. But Yzerman is also fresh off playing a key role in building a winner in Tampa Bay, and no doubt understands the importance of making wise financial choices long before that contender cap crunch arrives.

Detroit has had a top-10 pick in each of the past four drafts (Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina, Moritz Seider, and Lucas Raymond). Dicey long-term deals to longtime Red Wings was the key issue when Yzerman arrived to begin his tenure as his old club’s GM. So, if a club with room targeted Mantha with a deal well above what Detroit felt was fair, would Yzerman match, or take the draft picks and focus on his future talent, with the team far from contending any time soon anyways? A deal in the $6.54–$8.73-million bracket could make things interesting in Hockeytown.

Continued; in theory, sure, that would be interesting, but the Red Wings have $18.738 million in CapFriendly-estimated salary cap space with which to re-sign Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmytro Timashov.

If someone is crazy enough to “off sheet” Mantha in a massive overpayment, yeah, the Wings may very well take the picks and run, but that’s not going to happen to begin with.

NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale posted an update on the prospects of note from Sweden’s SHL, and much of his column focuses on Red Wings prospect and Skelleftea AIK forward Jonatan Berggren.

Berggren has rebounded from back and shoulder injuries to post dominant numbers for Skelleftea this season:

“The biggest change and what I’m working on every day is trying to take the puck to the net and be more aggressive around the goalie,” the 20-year-old left wing told NHL.com. “I had a really long offseason, so I had time to really get stronger and faster. Now everything is feeling little easier on the ice than last season.”

Berggren (5-foot-10, 181 pounds), who was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round (No. 33) of the 2018 NHL Draft, is third in the SHL with a career-high 16 points (two goals, 14 assists) in 10 games. He possesses a game predicated on puck possession and speed, so confidence means everything.

“When you’re playing against men, and playing a really high level, [confidence] means even more,” said Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development. “He’s off to a good start, you can just see it in his play. He always had good hockey sense and poise, but even more so now.”

Berggren has had his share of adversity since being drafted by the Red Wings, sustaining a stress fracture in his back that limited him to 16 SHL games in 2018-19 and a shoulder injury that required surgery and six months of rehabilitation last season.

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NHL.com’s John Kreiser notes that today is an auspicious day in hockey history:

1995: The Red Wings under coach Scotty Bowman make history by playing five Soviet players (Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov and Vyacheslav Kozlov) as a unit during a 3-0 road win against the Calgary Flames. All five had played for the Central Red Army in the Soviet Union. The “Russian Five” become a fixture in Detroit and help the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in 1997.

The Red Wings brought Phil Osaer into the organization as the team’s full-time goaltending scout when Steve Yzerman rejoined the Wings’ roster, and the Ferris State Pioneer’s John Raffel posted a profile of the FSU alumnus:

Osaer played his college hockey at Ferris from 1998-2001. He was named the Bulldogs’ Team MVP and voted to the All-CCHA second team in 2001. He was seventh-round NHL draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 1999, Osaer went on to play 12 seasons of professional hockey. He earned call-ups with both the New York Rangers (2003) and Florida Panthers (2005) and later played in Europe. In 2011, he was the starting goaltender for the Norwegian Champion Sparta Warriors.

Ferris coach Bob Daniels called Osaer a goalie who was “very athletically gifted. He played in Europe for a long time. While he was in Europe, he went to the University of St. Andrew in Scotland to finish up his degree. I’m really proud of him for doing that.

“He’s now the full-time goaltending coach for the Red Wings. He has not worked with us (officially) as a coach. But what we’ve had is having him working with our goaltenders this year, getting on a Zoom call with them and talking about the mental approach to be coming goaltender at the elite level and how you have to train and how you have to have your mind right and how you go about your profession.”

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