Red Wings Sign Andrew Gibson To Entry-Level Contract
2023 second-round pick Andrew Gibson has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Red Wings beginning in 2024-25, per a team announcement. The 19-year-old defenseman will immediately report to AHL Grand Rapids, which leads Rockford 1-0 in their best-of-five Central Division Semifinal series.
Gibson will get his first taste of professional hockey for now, but the right-shot blue-liner will likely return to major junior play next season. He doesn’t turn 20 until February 2025, making him ineligible for a full-time assignment to the AHL. As he’s not expected to compete for an NHL roster spot just yet, the Red Wings will return him to the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds next season and slide the first year of his ELC to 2025-26.
The Ontario native is coming off a decent post-draft season. In 68 games with the Greyhounds, he finished seventh on the club in points with 44 (12 goals, 32 assists) and led them with a +36 rating. He added two assists and a +5 rating in 11 playoff games as the Greyhounds were eliminated in the second round by the Saginaw Spirit.
Gibson was taken 42nd overall by Detroit last year, slightly higher than the consensus heading into the draft. Elite Prospects gave him a “C” grade in their 2023 draft guide, praising his physical play, zone exit and passing abilities, and overall hockey sense. Offensive execution remained an issue for him this season, and he likely won’t be close to a top point-producer in the pros, but has the skill sets as a solid two-way man near the bottom of a lineup. He was one of three second-round picks Detroit had last year – the 42nd overall pick was acquired from the Blues in 2022 as part of the return for defenseman Nick Leddy.
If Gibson plays less than 10 NHL games next season as expected, his lone entry-level slide will take effect and delay his expiration until 2028.
Lucas Raymond To Play For Team Sweden In World Championships
- Joining many of his teammates and coaches for this summer’s 2024 IIHF World Championship, Chris Johnston of TSN reports that Detroit Red Wings’ forward Lucas Raymond will join Team Sweden for the international tournament. Raymond represents one of the best offensive options for Team Sweden after experiencing a breakout year during the 2023-24 campaign. In 82 games, Raymond scored 31 goals and 72 points, leading all Red Wings in scoring.
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Report: Jeff Petry Added To USA Hockey's 2024 World Championship Roster
- Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry has been added to USA Hockey’s roster for the 2024 IIHF World Championship, reports NHL Network’s Jon Morosi. The initial roster of 15 skaters, announced earlier this week, includes Red Wings teammates Dylan Larkin at center and Alex Lyon in goal. Petry, a right-shot, projects to serve third-pairing duties for now behind Seth Jones and Zach Werenski. He’s a candidate to be moved down the depth chart as the tournament progresses as players on teams eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs join their national teams partway through. The 36-year-old had a rough first season with his hometown team, posting three goals, 24 points and a -7 rating in 73 contests while averaging 18:47 per game. It was his worst offensive output since the 2015-16 season. He’s suited up for the U.S. at three prior World Championships, all as a member of the Oilers organization in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Derek Lalonde Among Four Named Team USA Assistant Coaches
USA Hockey has rounded out its coaching staff for the upcoming IIHF World Championship, announcing four assistant coaches to serve behind head coach John Hynes. The new additions include Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, Ottawa Senators associate coach Jack Capuano, Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach Ty Hennes, and U17 NTDP head coach Greg Moore.
Red Wings Notes: Offseason Plans, Sandin Pellikka, Goaltending
In his end-of-season availability for the press, the General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings, Steve Yzerman, had plenty to share about his team’s progress this year. After an 11-point bump from last season, the Red Wings tied for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with the Washington Capitals but were on the outside looking in due to the Capitals earning more regulation wins.
Being very non-committal about any dramatic changes coming to the roster, Yzerman did mention that forward Jonatan Berggren and defenseman Albert Johansson are already on the short-list to make the roster out of training camp for the 2024-25 NHL season (Article Link). A rumored trade candidate at this year’s deadline, Yzerman may be vocalizing his belief that Berggren is an NHL-ready talent, to boost his trade value to the 31 other teams.
Of the four forwards on the roster set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, Yzerman is giving strong consideration to extending veteran David Perron. Not quite the player he used to be throughout his tenure with the St. Louis Blues, Perron is a valuable locker-room presence and scored big goals during pivotal moments for the Red Wings down the stretch.
For the other three including Patrick Kane, Daniel Sprong, and Christian Fischer, there is a decent probability that none of the trio will be back in Detroit next season. Now that Kane has proven himself healthy, and Sprong has become a legitimate top-six caliber forward, they may have already priced themselves off Detroit’s roster for next year.
Other Red Wings notes:
- One organizational prospect who will most likely not leap to North America next season is Swedish defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka according to Max Bultman of The Athletic. Originally the 17th player off the board in the 2023 NHL Draft, Sandin Pellikka’s career projections took a massive jump this season as he scored 10 goals and 18 points through 39 games in the SHL. In international play, Sandin Pellikka famously scored two goals and six points in 10 games for Team Sweden at the most recent IIHF World Junior Championships, becoming one of the more impactful players in the tournament.
- In an article from Helene St.James of the Detroit Free Press, all signs are pointing to Detroit carrying three goaltenders on the roster once again next season. Given that the team already has Ville Husso and Alex Lyon signed into next season, the Red Wings could look to keep James Reimer around for a second year or look to the free agent market for a different option. The trio worked out mildly well for the organization throughout the regular season, as the Red Wings finished with a team save percentage of .897, good for 19th in the league.
Red Wings Reassign Zach Aston-Reese, Simon Edvinsson; Waive Austin Czarnik
04/18: Austin Czarnik has cleared waivers (Twitter link).
04/17: Detroit has also placed center Austin Czarnik on waivers for assignment to Grand Rapids, per CapFriendly. The 29-year-old mustered a lone assist in 34 NHL appearances this season, while tallying 26 points in 36 games thus far with the Griffins.
04/17: The Red Wings have sent forward Zach Aston-Reese and defenseman Simon Edvinsson back to AHL Grand Rapids. Detroit’s season ended last night with a 5-4 shootout win over the Canadiens. However, a Capitals win over the Flyers eliminated them from playoff contention and clinched the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot for Washington.
Edvinsson, the Wings’ top defense prospect along with countryman Axel Sandin Pellikka, ends his second NHL season with a goal and an assist in 16 games. Since he played nine games in 2022-23, he won’t be eligible for Calder Trophy voting next season and has lost rookie status. The 21-year-old may not have impressed with his point production, but he looked much more comfortable in major league minutes this year than last. His possession numbers reflected the improvement, posting a 47.7 CF% and 50.0 xGF% at even strength, up from 44.1% and 47.9% last season, respectively.
He’ll head back to the Griffins, who are second in the Central Division with a 35-22-8-4 record and have clinched a playoff berth for the first time in five years. Edvinsson leads their blue line with 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in 52 games. His 51 PIMs are tied with Aston-Reese for fourth on the team. It’s been a strong sophomore season in Grand Rapids for the 2021 sixth-overall pick, who came over from his native Sweden in the summer of 2022 after signing his entry-level contract.
Aston-Reese ends his campaign with just three NHL appearances, his fewest since making his NHL debut in 2017-18. The former bottom-six mainstay averaged just 5:09, failing to record a point with a lone shot on goal and three hits. Two of his appearances came down the stretch with a handful of injuries to Detroit’s depth forwards, but he was a healthy scratch in their season-ending back-to-back against Montreal. The 29-year-old has been effective in a middle-six role with Grand Rapids, notching 14 goals and 29 points in 59 games with a +4 rating. He’ll be a UFA this summer after completing his one-year, two-way deal ($775K/$300K/$350K).
Red Wings Sign Shai Buium To Entry-Level Deal
10:37 a.m.: Buium’s deal carries a cap hit of $925K, per PuckPedia. He’ll earn a base salary of $832.5K, a $92.5K signing bonus, and a minors salary of $80K each season.
9:48 a.m.: The Red Wings announced that defense prospect Shai Buium has signed his three-year, entry-level contract. The deal begins next season, although he’ll finish 2023-24 on an amateur tryout with AHL Grand Rapids. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Detroit selected Buium in the early second round (36th overall) of the 2021 draft. The 21-year-old turns pro after three seasons at the University of Denver, recording an assist in last weekend’s national championship game as the Pioneers won their record 10th NCAA title. He also won a championship with DU in his freshman campaign.
He doesn’t have the ceiling of his younger brother, 2024 projected top-10 pick Zeev Buium, but he’s still a legitimate prospect. He totaled 14 goals and 75 points in 120 games with Denver over the past three years with a +61 rating, including a standout 36-point, +33 rating campaign this year. The latter tied with Zeev for the fourth-best in the country, while his point total was good enough for eighth place. He was named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team in 2022 and took home conference Second All-Star Team honors this season.
A strong-skating puck-mover, Buium likely isn’t ready for NHL action yet. He’ll need at least one full season of development in Grand Rapids but should challenge for NHL call-up duty at the very least by the end of his ELC. The 6’3″, 220-lb left-shot blue-liner has a pro-ready frame, though, and there’s a good chance he could step into top-four minutes in the minors next season. He was ranked 11th in an incredibly deep Red Wings prospect pool by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler earlier this year, who projects him to top out as a steady third-pairing piece at the NHL level.
Buium’s ELC will expire in the 2027 offseason, at which point he’ll be an RFA. The Red Wings will control his rights for three further years until he becomes automatically eligible for unrestricted free agency as a 27-year-old in 2030.
Atlantic Notes: Rasmussen, Copp, Stützle
Ansar Khan of MLive.com is reporting that Detroit Red Wings center Michael Rasmussen didn’t skate this morning with the team and won’t play tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. Tonight’s absence will be Rasmussen’s sixth game in a row out of the lineup as he deals with an upper-body injury.
The 24-year-old last played back on April 1st in a 4-2 Detroit win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. If he misses both games in Detroit’s back-to-back against Montreal, he will wrap up his fifth NHL season with a career-high 33 points (13 goals and 20 assists) in 75 games.
In other Atlantic Division notes:
- Less than a week after taking a high stick to the face and breaking his cheekbone, Red Wings forward Andrew Copp has returned to the lineup against the Canadiens. Copp skated with the team this morning sporting a full cage and was called a game-time decision for tonight. He ultimately has dressed in his 78th game of the season as the Red Wings battle for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Copp missed just two games with the injury.
- TSN 1200 tweeted that Ottawa Senators center Tim Stützle skated this morning with the team at Madison Square Garden in a non-contact jersey. The Senators play tonight against the Rangers and have just one game on the season remaining. Given the timeline, it seems unlikely that Stützle will return this season from an upper-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup since April 4th. The Senators haven’t made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season and were expected to contend for a playoff spot this year but were out of the race by the midway point of the regular season. The 22-year-old has done his part though, posting 18 goals and 52 assists in 75 games in his fourth NHL season.
Red Wings Recall Ville Husso From Conditioning Stint
The Red Wings have recalled goaltender Ville Husso from his conditioning loan to AHL Grand Rapids, per CapFriendly. Unfortunately, the move doesn’t indicate the netminder is ready to return to action. He was scheduled to start for Grand Rapids on Friday against Rockford but was pulled from warmups after sustaining what Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde called a “little setback” (via Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press).
Husso, 29, landed in Detroit last year after two seasons with the Blues but struggled in his first season as a true starter. In 56 starts, he posted a .896 save percentage, a 3.11 goals-against average, four shutouts, and a 26-22-7 record.
Multiple lower-body injuries this season, the most recent of which has kept him out of action since February, have derailed his attempts to return to his elite form in a tandem role in St. Louis. He made 19 appearances earlier this season with a .892 SV%, including just eight minutes of action against the Oilers on Feb. 13 after missing nearly two months with a separate lower-body injury.
With this setback, it’s safe to assume Husso is done for the regular season. He would have been the third goalie on Detroit’s depth chart anyway, as both Alex Lyon and James Reimer have put up far better numbers as they chase the franchise’s first playoff berth in nearly a decade. Those two have posted save percentages of .906 and .905, respectively, although Lyon’s done so over a much larger sample size with 42 starts and one relief appearance.
The Wings are tied with the Capitals for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 87 points through 80 games but lose the tiebreaker due to having three fewer regulation wins. Detroit has a much easier schedule over their final two games, a back-to-back home-and-home with the Canadiens starting tonight, while the Caps have to face the Atlantic Division champion Bruins and the Flyers.
Kane Not Thinking About Upcoming Free Agency
The contract has worked out well for both sides. Kane is averaging nearly a point per game, notching 20 goals and 26 assists in 48 appearances. That’s a strong return on Detroit’s investment while Kane has demonstrated that he has fully recovered from his hip resurfacing surgery which should put him in a better position for a pricier multi-year deal in July. Whether that deal comes with the Red Wings or not will have to wait a little while longer.