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New York Times
15-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What I think, and what I know, about the Red Wings as offseason nears
The Detroit Red Wings' final home game of the season ended with a 6-4 win over the Dallas Stars Monday night, sending off their fans with at least a decent taste in their mouth after what's been a trying season. There are two more games left on the schedule, as Detroit heads to New Jersey and Toronto to close out the season, but already, the offseason storylines are coming into view. Advertisement Here's what I think and what I know about the Red Wings as the season winds down — and the summer intrigue picks up. With another assist Monday, Marco Kasper is up to 35 points this season — with 28 of those points (including 16 goals) coming in his last 40 games, since Jan. 10. That's a nice rookie season, and an excellent close to it, with a second-half scoring rate that translates to a 57-point pace. And just as important, he's made that surge while driving play to the tune of a 55 percent expected goals share in that span entering Monday, with some of the toughest minutes on the team. He's thrived between Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane. That's the profile of a legit second-line center. Consider, for example, the players in that role for two of the best teams in the league: Atlantic Division foes Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. The Panthers' 2C is Sam Bennett, who is in the middle of a career-best scoring season with 51 points, and has spent the last four seasons between a 53-58 percent expected goals share. The Lightning have Anthony Cirelli, an elite defensive center who is wrapping up his first-ever season with more than 50 points (currently 58) and driving play at an elite 61 percent expected goals share, but has historically lived between 51-56 percent. Cirelli's usage is slightly tougher than what Kasper has seen over the last three months, but the Red Wings rookie saw some legitimately tough competition in putting up those numbers. Kasper still has a lot to prove to show he can truly keep up that production and play-driving combination over a full season. He's not there yet. But he's showing potential over a half season now, and that's highly encouraging. One reason Kasper's breakthrough has been so important for the Red Wings is they weren't getting much offense outside their big four: Kane, DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. Advertisement Raymond leads the team with 78 points, and Larkin and DeBrincat are tied for second with 68 each. Kane, who missed 10 games to injury, is at 58. After that? Defenseman Moritz Seider has 43, and Kasper's 35 points make him the next-highest-scoring forward. That's a huge drop-off. Now, no team is going to be made up of all 20-goal scorers or forwards regularly topping 40 points. And some of Detroit's top forwards need to score more than they did this season too. But the Red Wings need to be able to count on more offense from their bottom six next season, especially without superstars at the top of the lineup to lean on. The Dallas team they beat Monday — which should compete for the Cup — has a leading scorer with only 81 points, but they have seven forwards (and a defenseman) with more than 15 goals. Detroit has five. There's already considerable money tied up in that bottom six going into next season, but the results this season weren't enough. That means the Red Wings need to either find a way to get more out of the group they have, or find a way to shake it up. With two games left, the Red Wings are likely to finish with not just the league's worst penalty kill this season, but potentially one of the five worst since the league began keeping track in 1977-78. By now, you're likely aware of this. Could an average penalty kill have gotten them into the playoffs? It's possible. League average this season looks like it will finish at about 78 percent, compared to the Red Wings currently sitting at 70 percent. That's about 14 fewer goals allowed over the season. That difference potentially getting Detroit into the postseason depends on which games you subtract those goals from. But there were certainly some games where the penalty kill was especially costly. Advertisement On Nov. 8 against the Maple Leafs, Toronto beat Detroit 3-1 on two power-play goals (on only two tries) and an empty-netter. Less than three weeks after that, on Nov. 29, the Red Wings gave up three power-play goals on four chances to the Devils in a 5-4 regulation loss. And two days later, Vancouver scored two power-play goals in less than a minute en route to a 5-4 win in overtime. And then there's March 10 against Ottawa, when the Senators won 2-1 in regulation while scoring both of their goals on the power play — though Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark and his 48 saves were more the story of that game. That's seven potential standings points swinging the other way in games largely decided by the penalty kill. Detroit is currently six points back of the wild card. Reading all that, perhaps there's an impulse to pin the whole season on the PK. That would be far too convenient. As bad as Detroit's penalty kill is — and it's been bad — they also entered Monday's games as a bottom-10 team in five-on-five expected goals for and against per 60 minutes, and 31st in actual five-on-five goals per 60 as well. They are a deeply flawed team, in ways that far exceed the average of 3:34 per game in which they were shorthanded. So while Todd McLellan, Trent Yawney and company will certainly have to spend time this offseason working on ways to fix that unit, it's really just the tip of the iceberg for a team whose only real positive differentiator was its power play. Speaking of that power play, it was indeed the best thing the Red Wings have had going for them this season. With two games left, it's converting at a 27.3 percent rate, good for fourth in the NHL. That's a real weapon, and much in the same way the penalty kill cost Detroit games this season, the power play certainly won them some. Advertisement And Kane, operating from the right flank, was a big reason why. He has 12 power-play goals this season, and that's his secondary asset to the unit — the complement to vision and playmaking from the flank. That alone is reason enough to bring him back — you don't want to jeopardize your one major strength as a team — and his chemistry with Kasper and DeBrincat late in the year looked effective at five-on-five too. And, to top it off, his feel for the big moment is something the Red Wings need more of, not less. Kane has seemed to like it in Detroit the last two years, and the Red Wings would be wise to make sure they keep him. It's been an issue for a couple years now, and it's something that keeping Kane doesn't help with. He finds pucks around the goal mouth reasonably often, but he's not going to be digging many pucks out in the corners or making his presence felt on the forecheck. One reason Kasper's emergence was so important was that he does those things, which are the less-heralded components of creating offense. Detroit is going to need more of that, especially in their top six. That's one of the reasons Detroit's five-on-five offense fell short this season. It's great to be able to sling passes east to west and score off the rush, but when goals are hard to come by, it's those heavy elements that often make the difference, whether it's creating an extra opportunity or jumping on a rebound to catch a goalie scrambling. We may never get the full story for why the Red Wings' top two scorers, Larkin and Raymond, were as quiet as they were after the 4 Nations break. But I have to think at least part of it was losing Kasper, who moved off their wing to center the second line when Andrew Copp went down after doing a lot of that dirty work on their line. Those two need to drive the team's offense, to be sure, and that means doing more than they did in some of those crucial March games. But finding a player who can bring those hard elements to their line, while still thinking the game at their level (and ideally with some pace) would help them do so — and make Detroit tougher to play against in the process. Advertisement This one probably goes without saying, as Detroit's playoff drought stretches to nine years while Larkin approaches his 29th birthday and DeBrincat is now within two years of unrestricted free agency. But we'll say it anyway: the Red Wings can't afford to let this drought continue to drag. And that's about more than a frustrated fanbase. Detroit is risking becoming the next Buffalo, where losing becomes too familiar and young players arriving to the team don't know what it looks and feels like to play winning hockey. McLellan seems to be setting a good standard, which is important, but actually winning is what will ultimately make that standard sink in. The Red Wings don't need to pull a Nashville and throw huge contracts at as many big names as they can this summer — that obviously didn't go well — but finding one or two real fits in important roles would go a long way. I would prioritize Los Angeles' Vladislav Gavrikov, a shutdown defender who has distinct familiarity with McLellan and Yawney. Certainly there are some free agent forwards to consider as well, whether it's Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, Brock Boeser or Nikolaj Ehlers, or perhaps someone else via a trade. They may only be able to make a truly big swing at one position. But whether it's one of those players or someone else, what the Red Wings can't do is just run this back and expect internal improvements to take care of everything. This team needs more of a jolt than that. Free agency, of course, is not a one-way street. Teams can be interested in all the big names they want, but if that interest isn't reciprocated — or another team simply outmaneuvers you — then a team trying to be aggressive can end up looking like they just sat July 1 out. Or, perhaps worse than that, it can lead to a panic move. I don't know what exactly happened in last year's free agency for the Red Wings, but coming out of it with Vladimir Tarasenko as their main addition looked iffy at the time and even worse in hindsight — Tarasenko delivered just 11 goals for Detroit while making $4.75 million for this season and next. He's a buyout candidate just nine months later. Was Tarasenko their Plan A? Plan B? Plan C? I'm not sure. But whatever the case, Detroit will have to make sure that they aren't left scrambling if their top target doesn't come their way. (Top photo of Marco Kasper: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Red Wings' winning weekend sets up ‘biggest game of the year': 5 thoughts
DETROIT — For weeks now, looking ahead to this weekend on the Detroit Red Wings' schedule was a cautionary exercise. The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers — two of the league's best (and toughest) teams — represented all the reasons the Red Wings couldn't afford to squander other games. And when Detroit squandered nearly its entire March mired in losing streaks, this weekend set against two powerhouses started to look like a potential nail in their coffin. Advertisement Instead? Both teams brought banged-up (and frankly, watered-down) lineups into Detroit, and the Red Wings handled their business. After all the dread, Alex DeBrincat was able to look ahead to Tuesday's game in Montreal and accurately say: 'It's probably the biggest game of the year.' Now, just how meaningful it will look in hindsight remains to be seen. Detroit's win Sunday pulled them back within four points of the Canadiens for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot for about an hour before Montreal's win in Nashville pushed the mark back to six. That's still an awfully steep hill to climb, and Detroit's path to the postseason is still a significant long shot. But with a game in hand and that head-to-head contest still remaining, the Red Wings can at least keep their dreams alive another day — which is more than looked possible a week ago. Some thoughts on how they did it, and what it would take to actually pull off this late push. 1. Let's start with who wasn't on the ice this weekend, because it's a pretty relevant detail. Carolina played the Red Wings without Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov in Detroit's 5-3 win on Friday. Florida took the ice without any of Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart or Gustav Forsling — not to mention Aaron Ekblad, who is serving a 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the league's Performance-Enhancing Substances Program. That's a whole lot of talent missing, particularly on Sunday. So it was certainly a different look taking on the defending Stanley Cup champions. And yet the Red Wings aren't going to question that too much, considering they're desperate for every single point right now. To hear it from Todd McLellan, too, that kind of lineup dynamic can work both ways in a game. 'What often happens is the workers get an opportunity,' McLellan said. 'They've been waiting, and I thought their workers really worked tonight. Made it hard on us to execute plays. There wasn't a lot of — and if I say this, I mean it respectfully to all the players in the game — there was less skill in the game, so there was more scramble plays, there was more sticks that just touch pucks, there was more scrums and standing over it. Less execution. And sometimes that's hard to play.' Advertisement Along those very lines, this was not the Red Wings' prettiest game. As McLellan put it, 'I think we have better.' And if they're going to go into Montreal and actually make things interesting Tuesday, they're going to need better. But in a game they basically had to win, they'll take it regardless. 2. The biggest reason the Red Wings won Sunday was a simple one: Cam Talbot. Talbot stopped 32 of 33 shots, including a pair of spectacular saves late — first with his paddle on Jesse Puljujärvi, and then stretching across to stop an Anton Lundell one-timer from the right circle. It looked a lot like the save Talbot had made on Boston's Casey Mittelstadt late in the final seconds last weekend, and it kept the game from going to overtime. 'It's just desperation,' Talbot said. 'Get as much of body as I can to the other side of the net, make the save. Luckily it fell right underneath me and I was able to cover it up and not give them a second chance.' Sunday was the fourth consecutive game Talbot has started, and the fifth straight he's played in after coming on in relief for Alex Lyon against the Ottawa Senators. In those five games, he has an absurd .945 save percentage — a huge step up from where he had been since the 4 Nations break, when he had just an .869 save percentage from Feb. 22 through March 22. So, what's McLellan seeing now from his goaltender? 'When Petr (Mrazek) came in, and Alex (Lyon) went in and had a couple starts or couple runs, Talbs had a chance to work on his game and he got rested,' McLellan said. 'And now he looks fresh, he looks focused, his game is on. So perhaps that helped him. But whatever it is, we're going to need him to keep doing it.' There's no doubting that. For all the issues the Red Wings have, goaltending is the one thing in hockey that can cover it all up. And while Detroit will have to be careful in how much they try to ride the 37-year-old Talbot down the stretch, he's yet to give them a reason to look elsewhere in this current run. Advertisement 3. There have been a few promising stories for the Red Wings this year, from Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson's emergence as rookies to Lucas Raymond setting a new career high in scoring (75 points and counting), but no player has been as consistently impactful for Detroit as DeBrincat. DeBrincat scored his 35th goal of the season Sunday, a power-play blast set up by Raymond, right on the heels of an even better look that he missed. His 35 goals are the third-most he's had in a single season, and while his career high (41, twice) will be hard to reach with only six games to play, threatening 40 is not out of the question for him. It's already a nice jump from the 27 goals he scored each of the last two seasons, and while DeBrincat feels he's gotten 'a lot more puck luck' this season, there's more to it. 'I think just consistency in my play,' he said. 'I think I had quite a few dips in my play last year, and you know, this year just trying to do a better job of being consistent, just work hard even when it's not going in, and find a way to get to the net and put them in. … Sometimes you can play your best game and not score, and sometimes you can play your worst game and have two or three. So, sometimes you need the luck on your side, but I think that work ethic is really what drives everything.' It shows. DeBrincat has been noticeable nearly every night this season, whether he's scoring or not. He even fought 6-foot-3 Andrew Peeke recently to stick up for himself after a hit, surely giving some spark to his team. 'Sometimes in some of those scorers, there's a cheat element and not a total commitment to the return to your own end play,' McLellan said. 'I don't see that with Cat. I think it's there all the time.' Trading for DeBrincat two summers ago was the most effective non-draft move Steve Yzerman has made as Red Wings GM, and while it's not always easy to replicate a hometown RFA coming available, DeBrincat's success in Detroit should only reinforce the value of such big swings going into this summer. 4. Two goals on Sunday was enough to win, but finding more five-on-five offense continues to be a pain point for these Red Wings. DeBrincat's goal came on the power play, which has kept Detroit afloat all season, and J.T. Compher's goal to make it 2-0 came less than 30 seconds after another power play had expired. Advertisement It's beating a dead horse, perhaps, but even in low-scoring playoff-style games, the Red Wings can't expect to get by that way too often. There are some obvious culprits they've needed more from all season — particularly Vladimir Tarasenko and Jonatan Berggren, neither of whom registered a shot on goal Sunday. But even beyond that, Detroit's top six is going to need to break through more outside the power play too. Dylan Larkin has now gone eight games without a goal, and only had one shot on goal Sunday. Larkin has seemed to be battling through some kind of injury since the 4 Nations, and McLellan recently said Larkin had been 'dinged up' even before that, describing Larkin as 'pushing through' now. That certainly helps put Larkin's quieter offensive stretch in context. 5. This Detroit team has been streaky all year — and going back to previous years, too. They lost 11 of 14 to put themselves into this precarious situation in April, but they've also had two seven-game win streaks under McLellan. With points now in four straight, they seem to have righted the ship from that March collapse. But now the key is to keep it going without getting too intoxicated by a couple of wins against undermanned teams. 'You just have to channel that energy the right way,' Talbot said. 'You can't get too high, you can't get too low, you have to kind of stay even-keel. But you can also take the momentum from this game and just keep trying to build and build and build. And the confidence that comes with the wins, you just want to continue to play with that confidence.' If they can do that Tuesday, their playoff dreams will start to look a little more plausible. (Top photo of Michael Rasmussen and Mackie Samoskevich: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Red Wings mailbag: Is there a silver lining to this season? Plus draft, free-agent targets
For a brief window Saturday night, the Detroit Red Wings' 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins brought them within a point of the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot. But after wins by the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens, that gap is back up to three points with nine games left. That's still possible to overcome, but it will take a huge push in Detroit's final nine games, especially against the NHL's toughest remaining schedule. Advertisement That difficult path — as well as Detroit's woeful March — has fans already starting to think big-picture about the season, and thinking ahead to how to improve upon it, in this month's mailbag. Note: Questions have been edited for clarity and length. Any insight into what is going on with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond? Both aren't tearing it up since the 4 Nations and the wings need them to pop. Are they gassed? Are teams defending them better? Is it all due to inconsistency on their other wing since Marco Kasper went to 2C? What's the best way to get them firing again? — Max T. Detroit's top two forwards have been quieter than usual since the 4 Nations Face-Off. In 18 games since the break, each has five goals, and Larkin has 12 points total and Raymond has 14. That's not terrible, but it's not what the Red Wings have grown accustomed to getting from those two. Their underlying numbers are a little more positive: The Red Wings have generated 52.5 percent of the expected goals with Larkin on the ice at five-on-five in that span and 57 percent with Raymond. Those are both good numbers. And their individual expected goals numbers aren't far off their season averages — Larkin is at 1.16 individual expected goals per 60 since the break, compared with 1.31 on the season, and Raymond's are identical to his season average at 0.99, according to Evolving Hockey. That's all important context. And yet, watching them, I agree: They just haven't looked like they have the same pop night to night. As for why, though, I haven't been able to get much illumination when I've asked. There's some reality to not getting the same rest as everyone else over that break. The rotating cast of linemates is a factor, too. I've also wondered whether they're just pressing. But whatever the reason, Detroit's going to need more from two players who are so important to what they do. Advertisement 'Everybody's games kind of ebb and flow, and they've had some nights where they have been productive,' coach Todd McLellan said recently. 'They've had nights where they've had great scoring opportunities and it hasn't gone in. And then they've just had some dry nights. If it's one of the first two nights, we have to live with that. The dry nights where there's not much going on, we have to find ways to get them to be catalysts. 'There's pressure on both of them, of course. They're looked at as our offensive leaders, and leaders overall. And at this time of year, that pressure can be immense, so they have to handle that as well. But expectations are high for the pair, and for them as individuals.' Why is our penalty kill historically bad? Basically, what is so wrong with it that two head coaches could not figure out? — Frank Y. The Red Wings have tried multiple looks on their penalty kill this season, so it would be arrogant of me to think I had an answer none of those coaches could find. Shayna Goldman and I took a stab at analyzing it earlier this season before the coaching change, but even since then, Detroit has changed things further. The results have been the same: Detroit's 68.5 percent success rate on the penalty kill is the second worst on record since the league began keeping track in 1977. With nine games left, there's a chance it ends up as the worst ever, with the current low-water mark 68.2 percent by the 1979-80 Los Angeles Kings. 'Here's what I know, is the team's gone through transition systematically,' McLellan said. 'And I think it's not just when we came (in), I think it was prior to that they tried something and then went to something else. That random jump from one to another can be — yeah, you're trying to solve a problem, but it can also create doubt in players' minds. Like, we're on to our third look, and they begin to doubt any of them. So we're in that situation right now.' Advertisement McLellan did add, 'When we are in structure, we're doing a lot of the right things,' but thinks they can be better around the crease on rebounds, deflections and tip-ins. He feels they've been burned on 'scrambles.' There's also one more layer to it, though: Detroit's .791 short-handed save percentage is the worst in the league, and the only one below .809. The expected goals numbers are still bad — 9.67 xGA/60, fifth worst in the league — but that wide gap in save percentage might be the difference between bad and historically bad. Compared to last season's final push, it seems we are further out AND putting up less of a fight. Have we improved as a team from last season? Our star production and PP improved, but am I wrong to say we have taken a big step back on the ice? Matching last season's 41 wins is a long shot, but that isn't the full picture. Are there silver linings here? I'm lost. — Stephen H. Well, they certainly have taken a step back in the standings. With nine games remaining, the Red Wings are at 74 points, which means they would have to win all nine to top last season's 91 points. On the ice, certain areas have improved (such as the power play, which has gone from good to elite), but the penalty kill — which was a top-15 unit last season — has given all of that back. Most of all, Detroit is feeling the lack of depth scoring this season compared with last, especially at five-on-five. That was to be expected with the Red Wings needing more cap space to extend Raymond and Moritz Seider but still stings. It doesn't help that their primary free-agent signing, Vladimir Tarasenko, has just 30 points — 17 fewer than David Perron finished with last season. In terms of silver linings, it's probably the key roles young players such as Marco Kasper, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson are playing and succeeding in. Kasper is up to 15 goals. Edvinsson has been a clear top-four D and was outstanding with Seider when the two shared the top pair. Johansson has gotten better as the year has gone on and looks like an NHL regular. At some point, all of those players were going to have to adjust to the league as rookies, and they've done that. So that's the positive: They're all easy projections into next season's lineup. Advertisement But it will be about adding more firepower to the lineup and getting more out of the players who will be back for next season. Assuming we have no chance at Mitch Marner, can you tell us one free-agent target that could work out? — Michael W. One name I'm curious about is Vladislav Gavrikov, the left-shot defenseman in Los Angeles. He has familiarity with McLellan and Trent Yawney from their time with the Kings, and as of Sunday afternoon, Gavrikov had the fifth-best five-on-five expected goals against numbers in the NHL (1.84 xGA/60) among defensemen who played at least 500 minutes. He'll be 30 this fall, but that's the nature of free agency, and a top pairing of Gavrikov and Seider has the potential to be one of the league's most stout — capable of truly succeeding in the kind of tough minutes Detroit tends to feed Seider. And, it would allow Detroit to slot Ben Chiarot down the lineup against more manageable matchups, potentially on a pair with a young defenseman such as Johansson or top prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Gavrikov will have a real market, to be sure. He won't be cheap. But what he's been in Los Angeles is exactly what Detroit needs — and having the same coaching staff that helped establish that Kings defense group could help make it possible. Though he hasn't been as good as last year, I feel like Patrick Kane still adds a distinct element of stickhandling and flair that'd be impossible to replace. If he leaves Detroit after this season (which I'm assuming he will if the Wings don't make the playoffs), how does Detroit go about replacing his production? — Matt J. I wouldn't be quite so quick to assume Kane will leave depending on whether they make or miss the playoffs. He has seemed to like being in Detroit, and for someone with a young family, there's an appeal to stability. Playing with Alex DeBrincat is a great selling point, too. But, if the Red Wings were to have to replace Kane, they'd have their work cut out for them. The overall production (52 points in 63 games) is a big part of that, but the key is really about the left-shot playmaking on the power play. Kane has been outstanding in that spot, with 27 of his 52 points coming on the power play, including 12 goals. He's one of the biggest reasons that unit has been as good as it has, and to be honest, I don't know whether there is a replacement for that. His vision as a playmaker is all-time caliber. Detroit needs another top-six difference-maker regardless of whether Kane stays or goes, but losing him would only up the stakes to find that kind of player — whether by trade or free agency. I don't have a robust list of names yet, but that'll be a focus of offseason coverage to be sure. How would you pitch Detroit to FAs? What do you think it is about Detroit that would resonate with today's players more than another team/city beyond pure dollars? — Jack V. Detroit has a few things working for it. It has arguably the league's best facilities, at Little Caesars Arena, especially with its attached practice rink. It's a historic hockey market with passionate fans but without quite the same fishbowl effect as a Montreal or Toronto. It's an easy place to live, weather aside, especially for young families. And though the Red Wings can't sell recent success, they do have a team that should be on the cusp of the playoffs — and the potential payoff when it eventually happens. Advertisement You saw what it looked like for the Tigers when they finally broke through, let alone for the Lions. The Pistons are experiencing that breakthrough right now. The city is desperate for postseason hockey and ready to be all in when it arrives. That's the framework of a pretty solid pitch. Michael Misa is the prospect I envy in this draft. The high-end, clear-cut first-line player that could put down all the questions we have about an elite scorer. Since we won't have the opportunity to draft him, do you think there is another player in the 5-10 range the Wings should target as having a similar potential? — Avery L. Well, probably not quite at Misa's level, considering he just finished putting up two points per game to lead the OHL, but there are players in that range who would bring some of the offense the Red Wings need. This class has a good number of players in the top-10 range who fit the Red Wings' needs and profile. Six of those players (Misa, defenseman Matthew Schaefer, and forwards Caleb Desnoyers, James Hagens, Porter Martone and Anton Frondell) seem sure to go before Detroit picks. There are still a couple of more forwards who would be outstanding fits for the Red Wings in the 8-12 range, though. One is Jake O'Brien, a playmaking center with some size who put up an assist per game this season in the OHL. Victor Eklund is a different style, but he's a high-motor Swede who plays with a lot of pace and has a fantastic shot that helped him produce against men in the Allsvenskan. I could easily imagine him looking good next to Dylan Larkin in a couple of years. There's also Roger McQueen, who once looked like he could be part of that top group but has had an injury-plagued season. Those injury issues give plenty of pause, but McQueen is a 6-foot-5 center with real skill, and that gives him plenty of upside — if you can stomach the injury risk. Some other forwards could go around that range whom Detroit could consider, including Justin Carbonneau, Carter Bear and Lynden Lakovic, as well as a few D — Kashawn Aitcheson, Jackson Smith and Radim Mrtka — but O'Brien and Eklund are two forwards I'd expect to go between 8 and 10 who strike me as natural fits for Detroit.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ducks' Zegras Suspended Three Games for Late Hit
On Monday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Trevor Zegras has been suspended for three games for interference on the Detroit Red Wings' Michael Rasmussen during Sunday's game. No penalty was called on the hit and Rasmussen left the game due to injury and did not return. The reasoning for supplemental discipline from NHL Player Safety is that the hit was interference, it was late, it caused an injury and there was significant head contact—combined with the force of the hit—on the play. This is Zegras' first suspension. He will miss Tuesday's road game against the Buffalo Sabres along with Thursday and Saturday's home games against the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks. In his absence, the Ducks may recall one of their top scorers from the AHL in Sam Colangelo, who has had several NHL stints this season. Colangelo has 35 points in 37 AHL games this season and leads the San Diego Gulls in goals with 19. He was also named to the AHL All-Star Game. Losing Zegras for three games while pushing for a playoff spot is a big blow. His creativity with the puck is an element that the team misses when he isn't in the lineup, so how they fare in and adapt to his absence will be key.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ducks' Zegras Suspended Three Games for Late Hit
On Monday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Trevor Zegras has been suspended for three games for interference on the Detroit Red Wings' Michael Rasmussen during Sunday's game. No penalty was called on the hit and Rasmussen left the game due to injury and did not return. The reasoning for supplemental discipline from NHL Player Safety is that the hit was interference, it was late, it caused an injury and there was significant head contact—combined with the force of the hit—on the play. This is Zegras' first suspension. He will miss Tuesday's road game against the Buffalo Sabres along with Thursday and Saturday's home games against the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks. In his absence, the Ducks may recall one of their top scorers from the AHL in Sam Colangelo, who has had several NHL stints this season. Colangelo has 35 points in 37 AHL games this season and leads the San Diego Gulls in goals with 19. He was also named to the AHL All-Star Game. Losing Zegras for three games while pushing for a playoff spot is a big blow. His creativity with the puck is an element that the team misses when he isn't in the lineup, so how they fare in and adapt to his absence will be key.
