Simon Edvinsson Has Shoulder Surgery
- The Detroit Red Wings announced that top prospect Simon Edvinsson has undergone successful shoulder surgery, and his recovery timeline will be 4-6 months, meaning he will likely be out to start next season. In his first taste of NHL action this season, Edvinsson played in nine games towards the end of the season in Detroit, scoring two goals. Primarily playing for their AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins this year, Edvinsson played in 52 games, scoring five goals and 22 assists.
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Andrew Copp Won't Play At The World Championships
Rosters for the upcoming World Championships are likely to be revealed in the coming days but Red Wings center Andrew Copp won’t on the one for Team USA, notes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Copp decided to decline the offer to let his body heal up, allowing him to be fully healthy heading into training camp. Although the 28-year-old played in every game this season, he missed training camp due to his recovery from offseason surgery which resulted in a slow start and a quieter-than-expected campaign that saw him score just nine goals. Clearly, Copp is hoping that a more traditional offseason and a full camp will result in him being more productive in 2023-24.
Red Wings Expected To Be Active In Goalie Market This Offseason
After a busy offseason ahead of the 2022-23 NHL season, there was a marketable increase in the Detroit Red Wings’ playoff hopes compared to years past. Unfortunately, even after the free agent acquisitions of Andrew Copp, David Perron, and Dominik Kubalik, and the trade to acquire goaltender Ville Husso, the Red Wings were only able to improve by three wins this year. Speaking with Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now (Tweet Link), Detroit’s GM Steve Yzerman pinpoints the team’s need to improve their goaltending situation.
This season, all of Detroit’s three goalies, Husso as well as Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg, all held a Quality Start Percentage less than 50% and produced a Goals Saved Above Average of -13.5, -4.4, and -8.2, respectively. In more topical statistics, none of their goaltenders produced a GAA of 3.00 or less, and none were able to sport a SV% of .900 or more.
Much like Allen notes in his piece about the Red Wings’ goaltending situation, there are very sound arguments to be made that goaltending statistics can typically be a different expression of team statistics. However, there were a handful of goaltenders this season, on teams that held worse positions in the standings than Detroit, that actually produced much better numbers than the Red Wings’ goalies.
Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Alex Stalock of the Chicago Blackhawks, both produced fairly good numbers on poor-performing teams this season. In Philadelphia, Hart was able to produce a GSAA of 4.4, as well as a GAA of 2.94, with a SV% of .907. For the Blackhawks, Stalock held a GSAA of 3.0, also putting together a SV% of .908.
In the long-term goaltending vision of the Red Wings, all eyes should be on the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, Sebastian Cossa. Unable to crack the roster of Detroit’s AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins at the beginning of the season, Cossa played very well for the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL. In 46 starts for the Walleye this season, Cossa went 26-16-1, carrying a GAA of 2.56 and a SV% of .913.
In the short term, although there is a lack of elite goaltenders in the upcoming free agency season, there are still a handful of veteran goaltenders that would notably improve the Red Wings’ performance between the pipes. Antti Raanta of the Carolina Hurricanes, Joonas Korpisalo of the Los Angeles Kings, Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders, and Adin Hill of the Vegas Golden Knights all come to mind as a fit for Detroit next season.
As Detroit fans have become accustomed to since Yzerman’s takeover in 2019, the team’s general manager has always remained prudent in his attempt at cultivating the next great Red Wings team. This offseason, expect much of the same, as this franchise has its eyes locked on the future.
Ethan Phillips Transfers To Western Michigan
- Detroit Red Wings prospect Ethan Phillips has found a new college hockey team for the upcoming season. According to Mark Divver of NHL.com, Phillips will leave Boston University and transfer to Western Michigan for the 2023-24 campaign. The Red Wings fourth-round pick in 2019, Phillips scored four goals and 11 points in 29 games last season.
NHL Announces 2023 Global Series
The NHL is heading back to Europe, sending four teams to Sweden for the 2023 Global Series games. The Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Minnesota Wild will play a total of four games in mid-November.
The games will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, a city that has hosted more NHL games than any other outside of North America. The four matches will be:
- November 16: Red Wings vs. Senators
- November 17: Maple Leafs vs. Red Wings
- November 18: Wild vs. Senators
- November 19: Maple Leafs vs. Wild
The four teams have several Swedish-born stars on their current rosters and long franchise ties to the country. Hall of Fame former players like Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, and Borje Salming will certainly be represented in the sea of NHL sweaters, while current names like Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Gustavsson, Lucas Raymond, and William Nylander will surely wow the crowds.
The games will be played at Avicii Arena, the famous Globe that regularly holds some of Sweden’s largest events.
Red Wings Prospect Pontus Andreasson Signs In Sweden
It will be one and done in North America for Red Wings prospect Pontus Andreasson. Lulea of the SHL announced that they’ve signed the forward to a four-year contract that runs through the 2026-27 campaign.
The 24-year-old signed a one-year deal with Detroit last May after a strong showing with Lulea, hoping that he’d be able to get an NHL opportunity. However, that chance never materialized aside from his five preseason appearances as Andreasson spent the entire regular season at the AHL level with Grand Rapids. He wound up finishing tied for sixth on the Griffins in scoring, picking up 12 goals and 13 assists in 63 games, numbers that weren’t exactly showing that he was ready for a look with the Red Wings.
Now, rather than see if he’d be offered a deal to return, Andreasson decided the best move for him was to lock in a long-term contract back home, certainly an understandable move. He had 18 goals and 20 assists in 52 games with Lulea in 2021-22 and should get an opportunity to play a bigger role there than he would have had in North America. Detroit can still issue Andreasson a qualifying offer this summer to retain his NHL rights but since he’ll be eligible for NHL unrestricted free agency by the time this deal expires, it’s quite likely they’ll simply non-tender him in June.
Fabbri's Latest Surgery Just A Cleanup, Could Have Been Back For Playoffs
- Although Red Wings winger Robby Fabbri missed the final six weeks of the season after undergoing another knee surgery, he told MLive’s Ansar Khan that he would have been able to return had Detroit made the playoffs. This latest procedure was more of a cleanup instead of a full ACL reconstruction which means that the 27-year-old will have a full offseason to train and be ready for training camp in the fall. Fabbri was limited to just 28 games this season but did fairly well when he was in the lineup, picking up seven goals and nine assists.
Lucas Raymond, Olli Maatta Heading To World Championships
- With the Detroit Red Wings season ended, a couple of players have already committed to the upcoming World Championships. Lucas Raymond will suit up for Sweden, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. The 21 year old Raymond scored 17 goals and 45 points in 74 games for the Red Wings, following up his 57-point rookie season. The World Championships are set to take place in Finland and Latvia in May.
- Also heading to the World Championships from the Red Wings is Olli Maatta, Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports reports. Maatta is a veteran defenseman who scored 23 points in 78 games for the Red Wings. The native of Jyvaskyla, Finland has a chance to perform in his home country and compete for a medal.
Red Wings Dismiss Ben Simon, Three Other AHL Coaches
While the Red Wings aren’t expected to be making any changes to their NHL coaching staff, they will be shaking things up at the minor league level. Their affiliate in Grand Rapids announced that they will not be renewing the contracts of head coach Ben Simon, assistant coaches Matt Macdonald and Todd Krygier, and goaltending development coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson.
Simon had been with Grand Rapids since 2015 when he joined the team as an assistant before being promoted to the top job in 2018. In his five seasons behind the bench, the Griffins posted a 144-137-38 record but made only one postseason appearance in that stretch, that coming back in 2019.
As for the now-former assistants, Macdonald and Krygier had been working under Simon for five and four years, respectively, while Mahoney-Wilson had been working with Grand Rapids’ goaltenders since the 2016-17 campaign.
This season, Grand Rapids finished last in the Central Division which played a big role in the decision to make a change; Detroit GM Steve Yzerman emphasized in his season-ending press conference on Friday that he felt that a winning environment was crucial for player development. He and Grand Rapids GM Shawn Horcoff will now be tasked with finding the right staff to make that happen.
Detroit Red Wings Reassign Amadeus Lombardi To AHL
In a release Wednesday morning, the Detroit Red Wings announced they have reassigned center Amadeus Lombardi to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds.
Lombardi had an impressive season with the Firebirds after the Red Wings selected him in the fourth round (113th overall) of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. The 19-year-old skated in 67 games and led the team in all major offensive categories with 45 goals, 57 assists, and 102 points.
His more supplementary stats also ranked among the team’s leaders, recording a +23 rating, 10 power-play goals, 24 power-play points, two shorthanded goals, five game-winning goals, and 207 shots. Lombardi finished third in the OHL’s scoring race and became the first player in Flint franchise history to reach the 100-point plateau. He also recorded seven points (five goals, two assists) in seven postseason contests.
Lombardi was initially eligible for the 2021 NHL Draft. However, he wasn’t selected after the COVID-related shutdown cost him what would’ve been his first OHL season. After recording 59 points in 67 games with Flint in 2021-22, Detroit selected him as an over-age player.
He signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the team in December 2022. The deal will slide to next season after Lombardi didn’t play in any NHL games in 2022-23.
A small but skilled center, Lombardi will likely return to Flint for his third season of junior hockey in 2023-24. While Grand Rapids sits last in their division and is eliminated from playoff contention in the AHL, Lombardi will get his first taste of professional hockey over the team’s two remaining games.