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Red Wings Notes: Injuries, Jurco, Mantha

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The injuries continue to pile up for the Detroit Red Wings after Tyler Bertuzzi, and Brendan Smith both left the game in the Red Wings 2-1 loss to Montreal Saturday night. Dylan Larkin was also roughed up, but he returned to finish out the game. Throw in Jimmy Howard, who was hurt Friday evening against New Jersey, and it’s been a rough stretch for Detroit in terms of losing player to injury. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports that Tomas Jurco is about ready to return, but he too, has suffered his fair share of setbacks.

General manager Ken Holland believes that Jurco will be cleared to play in Tuesday’s contest against Dallas, but St. James writes that Jurco’s back continues to be a question mark. After surgery this summer, Jurco’s back flared up during his conditioning stint with AHL affiliate Grand Rapids on Friday. Doctors checked him out, and believe he will be alright for Tuesday’s contest against Dallas.

Mar 29, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Detroit Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha (39) plays the puck and Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin (74) defends during the third period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

St. James adds that reports on Smith and Bertuzzi’s injuries won’t be available until Monday. In addition to the aforementioned Wings, Andreas Athanasiou, Alexey Marchenko, and Darren Helm are missing from the lineup.  As it stands, the Red Wings lead the league in man-games lost with 140, and the number will certainly rise after yesterday’s tilt.

In other Red Wings news:

  • Anthony Mantha has been impressive in his callup to Detroit, sniping a pair of goals that have made the highlight reel. In seven games, Mantha has four points (2-2).  Jean-Francois Chaumont spoke with Holland and it sounds as if Holland is still willing to give the nod to a veteran. (The article is in French but can be translated into English). Holland complimented Mantha’s play and his significant improvement since his days in junior hockey, but stopped short of saying his spot in Detroit is secure. Chaumont believes that Mantha will become a top scorer, and others, like Winging It In Motown’s Prashanth Iyer, show the advanced stats that reveal Mantha’s strong play in his first seven games with Detroit.
  • Add the Detroit News’ Gregg Krupa to the list of pundits who believes that Mantha is a star in the making. Krupa indicates that Mantha brings the size, scoring, and speed that will light the lamp often. Krupa also defends Holland’s decision to keep Mantha in Grand Rapids:

While praising the Wings brass these days for anything is only occasionally warranted, and fraught with the risk of targeting on social media, the fact of the matter is Holland and Devellano were right about Mantha’s performance and wise to make it plain to the player, perhaps even in publicly prominent ways. And Jeff Blashill gets the primary assist for knowing the player well enough to decide when he could play regularly with Henrik Zetterberg and supply puck retrieval and possession skills, which are as intrinsic to Mantha’s role as his ample finishing skills.

Krupa is careful to emphasize (after heaping praise on an oft-maligned front office) that the Red Wings would be hard pressed to send Mantha back down once the team is healthy again. Regardless of what the front office chooses to do, Mantha certainly has a large number of supporters who want him to stay in Detroit permanently.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jimmy Howard Out With Groin Injury

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Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard will miss at least a week with a groin injury suffered last night against the New Jersey Devils. Howard sustained the injury midway through the first period and was replaced by Petr Mrazek. Detroit placed Howard on the injured reserve this morning.

Howard has been a pleasant surprise for the Red Wings, who entered the season with Mrazek penciled in as the de facto starter. A quarter of the way through the season, however, paints a different picture. Both goalies have platooned—each playing 11 games—but Howard’s numbers are far better than Mrazek at the moment. Howard has posted a spectacular .943 SV% and a 1.76 GAA. Conversely, Mrazek has a .901 SV% and a 3.16 GAA.

Howard’s success comes at a time when Detroit will have to choose which goaltender to protect in the expansion draft. The rules require that a team only protect one goaltender. The common wisdom suggests that Detroit protects Mrazek—he’s younger and costs less—but Howard’s continued success coupled with a disappointing season from Mrazek could cause the organization to reconsider. Considering his recent performance, Howard may be an ideal candidate to take the starter job with the Golden Knights next season.

Atlantic Notes: Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Panthers

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After a crushing 5-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday evening, Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill made some changes both on the roster and the ice. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James writes that Blashill made the decision to move Luke Glendening up to the second line during practice, and that Niklas Kronwall, who has taken maintenance days since his knee injury during practices, will sit against Tampa Bay tomorrow. Further, Petr Mrazek will be back in after Jimmy Howard was shelled–though it was hardly his fault. The Red Wings defense has been porous and since Thomas Vanek’s injury, unable to generate scoring chances much less score goals. From Blashill:

“We’ve got to get to the other nets better. We’ve got to get more forecheck pressure, and we’ve got to win more puck battles. He does all those things. It frees you up on the wing, a little bit, to be able to get in on the forecheck, win puck battles, get to the net, and allow some more space for Nielsen and Larkin, potentially. It’s something we’re looking at.”

Glendening seems a curious choice to move up, but it fits the narrative of “toughness” and “grit” that Detroit continues to use as its guiding principle this season. Whether it translates into goals is an entirely different matter.

In other division news:

  • Michael Traikos of the National Post reports that the Maple Leafs players have followed the rules and adhered to Lou Lamoriello’s rules of short hair and clean shaven faces. Matt Martin says that his agent first brought up to him before he was signed, and Martin obliged, cutting his long blonde hair down to a modest offering. Though it may seem outdated, Traikos writes that Lamoriello indicated that his teams, not individuals win championships and having a “unified appearance” is one way to buy into that. Players have certainly bought in. Netminder Frederik Andersen says that it’s part of building a culture and that the “rich history” of Toronto begs the need for unity in order to win. Traikos adds that with a young team like the Leafs, anything to build culture is welcomed and can lead to better results down the road–even something as simple as shorter hair and no facial hair.
  • The Sun-Sentinel’s Craig Davis reports on newly acquired Panther Seth Griffith’s journey to Miami.  Griffith was snagged off the waiver wire from the Toronto Maple Leafs, who in turn, took Griffith from the Boston Bruins in October via the waiver wire. writes that Griffith should have ample opportunity to prove his worth with the Panthers as roster spots are aplenty.

Snapshots: Howard, Blue Jackets, Clutterbuck

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Over the last few seasons, there has been much talk about the Detroit Red Wings’ goaltending situation.

Petr Mrazek, the club’s fifth-round pick in 2010, has been developing into a solid starting goalie, while 32-year-old Jimmy Howard’s play has been below league-average since 2012-13. But while this season marks the first in which Mrazek has made over $1MM (he signed a two-year, $8MM contract in July), Howard has been making a shade under $5.3MM since 2013-14, the year after his numbers began to slide. Howard has an additional two seasons remaining on his contract.

The Red Wings have been trying to trade Howard for a while now, but have obviously been unable to find any suitors thanks to his cap hit. But as of right now, Red Wings GM Ken Holland may be glad about that. Howard has only allowed 3 goals in 4 appearances this season, with a 2-1-0 record and league-highs in GAA and SV% (0.86 and 0.974, respectively). Meanwhile expected starter Mrazek is 4-4-1 with a 0.904 SV% and a GAA over 3. Mrazek has lost three in a row, and Howard will be starting on Sunday versus the West-leading Edmonton Oilers.

It’s still early in the season, but Howard has helped keep the Red Wings in playoff contention; they’re currently in the first wildcard position in the Eastern Conference. Detroit will need Howard to keep up his stellar play if they want to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 1989-90.

  • The Blue Jackets laid a 10-0 beating on the NHL-leading Canadiens Friday night, the first game with a 10-goal differential since 2002-03. On January 11, the Washington Capitals beat the visiting Florida Panthers by a score of 12-2. Then-Capitals forward Jaromir Jagr scored a hat-trick and added 4 assists against his future team. There are only two other players from that game still active in the NHL: Jay Bouwmeester and Roberto Luongo.
  • It was the first 10-0 shutout win since 1996, when Trevor Kidd and the Calgary Flames shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning.
  • Finally, John Tavares will have a new line-mate when his Islanders host the Oilers. Gritty forward Cal Clutterbuck will get a chance to play with his captain on the first line, alongside Josh Bailey. It’s a curious choice, seeing as Clutterbuck has only 1 goal and 5 points this season, and his career high of 34-points came back in 2010-11. It’s still more than big-name free-agent signing Andrew Ladd, who has only 1 assist so far. The Islanders have lost four of five, but hope to bounce back against the Oilers, who have dropped three in a row. Speaking of blowouts and the Islanders hosting the Oilers, Edmonton’s previous visit to Brooklyn was an ugly 8-1 win for the home side.

Red Wings Notes: Vanek, Howard, Pulkkinen

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The Detroit Red Wings are off to a great 6-2-0 record this season, and part of it has been the exceptional play from Thomas Vanek. The Austrian winger has scored eight points in seven games this season, but missed the Wings last game against the Blues with a lower-body injury.  He’s not at the morning skate again today, according to Ansar Khan of MLive.com and won’t play again tonight.

Vanek signed a one-year, $2.6MM deal with the Red Wings this summer, a huge bargain if he could get back to the ~60 point player he was once a lock to be. The former forty-goal man has been on a steady decline in recent years, and has big question marks defensively.

  • Jimmy Howard will start tonight, his third of the season. After Petr Mrazek took the job last season, Howard has been fighting to prove that he is capable of starting at this level still, in order to entice another team to go after him.  The 32-year old has been heavily rumored to be on the market, but since he comes with such a big price tag Detroit might ultimately have to keep him as the backup. Howard is owed almost $5.3MM annually for the next three seasons.
  • Former Red Wing Teemu Pulkkinen has been waived again, this time by the Minnesota Wild. The AHL sniper can’t seem to find his footing in the NHL, and will likely be claimed by a team once again. He had one goal in his eight-game stint with Minnesota that was filled with concern about his foot speed at the NHL level. While his shot is incredibly strong, he often couldn’t keep up with the level of play.
  • Tomas Jurco was back skating today at practice, according to Khan. While the young forward hasn’t played this season, he’s set to make his return from a back injury in mid-November.

Detroit Notes: Helm, Sproul, Howard, Abdelkader

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Detroit’s decision to re-sign Darren Helm to a five year deal worth nearly $4MM per season moments before the beginning of free agency came as a surprise to many but in the early stages of this season, Helm is living up to the contract.  Through six games, he has four goals and one assist, leading the team in the goal department.  As is often the case, Helm offered up the standard lines when asked about his early success but one comment in particular stands out from the 29 year old:

“I’m just having fun right now.”

As Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News notes, that wasn’t exactly the case for everyone last season which was part of the reason why it was surprising that Helm, who was disenchanted with being viewed strictly as a checking center, opted to come back.  However, head coach Jeff Blashill currently has him with a pair of strong offensive wingers in Gustav Nyquist and Thomas Vanek which is allowing Helm to show that he can bring more to the table than just his speed.

[Related: Red Wings Depth Chart]

More from Detroit, who have won four straight games to match their longest winning streak from last season:

  • Defense has been the key to their recent success, writes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Blashill in particular has been impressed with rookie Ryan Sproul, who made his season debut recently and has two points in two games.  The team is currently carrying seven defensemen which will turn to eight when Niklas Kronwall returns.  Sproul is waiver eligible which means he’s playing for his job right now, or least an opportunity with another organization if the team decides to try to send him down over carrying two extra blueliners.
  • After a tough season last year, goaltender Jimmy Howard is off to a much better start this season, with a .980 SV% while allowing just one goal in two starts so far. He tells Khan that a big reason for the strong start is better understanding the backup role.  After being the starter for several years, he lost that spot to Petr Mrazek last season, a role he maintains to start 2016-17.  With a cap hit just under $5.3MM, the Wings are undoubtedly hoping he can keep up his hot start to build back some trade value or perhaps entice Las Vegas in next June’s expansion draft.
  • Left winger Justin Abdelkader didn’t play over the weekend due to a lower body injury. GM Ken Holland told reporters, including Dana Wakiji of their team site, that he’s listed as day-to-day.  Abdelkader has a goal in five games this season.

Atlantic Division Snapshots: Maple Leafs, Babcock, Andersen, MacArthur, Howard

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have won just one of their first three contests but by virtue of two overtime/shootout defeats, the team has accumulated four of a possible six points. As Mark Masters of TSN writes, Leafs bench boss Mike Babcock is “relatively pleased” with where his team sits in the standings.

“We’ve had an opportunity, I believe, to be 3-0. We’ve got four out of six points, which if you told me that before this started I would’ve said, ‘That’s fine,’ but we could’ve had more and I’m a bit greedy and so are the guys.”

Toronto is one of the youngest teams in the league, with six rookies – Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Mitch Marner and Nikita Zaitsev – skating regular shifts for the Leafs. With that much youth it’s likely the team will understandably have plenty of ups and downs during the season. Babcock noted that the team’s top line, for example, which consists of Matthews, Nylander and Hyman, has some room to grow based on Wednesday’s performance against the Jets:

“I thought it was really dangerous offensively and not very good defensively.”

Toronto may or may not be ready to challenge for a playoff berth this season, but the arrow is certainly pointing up for a Leafs team that boasts a ton of young, high-end skill and talent.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • Also from the Masters piece, goaltender Frederik Andersen has struggled out of the gate as the Leafs new #1 goalie, posting a 3.61 GAA and a Save % of just 87.6% in three starts, but Andersen is not yet worried. “If you just look at stats it doesn’t look pretty, but I thought I played pretty well. Obviously, some small things I got to clean up and me and Stevey (goalie coach Steve Briere) got to work today in practice so small fixes. I’m not too worried.” The Leafs paid a steep price to land Andersen from the Ducks – a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 second-round pick – then rewarded the Danish netminder with a five-year, $25MM contract with the belief he would solve the team’s longstanding issues in goal. It’s a small sample size of course, but so far Andersen has not lived up to expectations in Toronto.
  • Veteran forward Clarke MacArthur, concussed during Ottawa’s initial intrasquad practice in training camp, is expected to join the Senators on their three-game, Western Canadian road trip beginning this weekend, writes Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen. MacArthur is still not close to playing and may have only recently started skating but the news is still encouraging. This is the fourth documented concussion within the last 18 months for the 31-year-old winger. The hope for the Senators, according to head coach Guy Boucher, is that just having MacArthur around the team on the trip will be good for him: “Obviously, he’s not going to play. We’re talking about being with the guys, being part of the routine. It would be good for him mentally, but we still haven’t 100% decided that.”
  • For six seasons, Jimmy Howard was the #1 goalie for the Detroit Red Wings before losing the job to Petr Mrazek last season. Howard struggled in the backup role in 2015-16 but coming into the season knowing Mrazek would again be the starter has helped the veteran netminder adapt, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Said Howard: “I think I know how to handle the situation a lot better now. Last year I didn’t quite understand how to be the backup, never had been it before. So I fully understand the role now and how to stay mentally sharp in between starts.” Howard qualifies as an expensive backup with a contract that runs through the 2018-19 season and that calls for a cap hit of nearly $5.3MM per. Detroit was rumored to be looking to trade the 32-year-old goalie this summer and could do so again this offseason, assuming he isn’t claimed in the expansion draft by Las Vegas.

 

Red Wings Notes: Hicketts, Howard, Zetterberg, Kronwall

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The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James pens an article about 20-year-old defenseman Joe Hicketts and his adjustment as he graduated from juniors and embarks on the newest stage of his career. Hicketts was a free agent pickup by Detroit in 2014, and though he has a smaller stature, Hicketts certainly feels that it works to his advantage:

“Being a smaller guy, you’re always going to have doubters. But if I can be physical and win those battles, it helps me and the team.”

Though Jeff Blashill has described him as a slower skater, Ansar Khan writes that Blashill also believes that Hicketts is a hockey player “through and through” and must be willing to have “statement” games every time he laces up the skates. Hicketts will be assigned to Grand Rapids once exhibition games cease, but for Hicketts, whose childhood dream was to be a hockey player, just going out and having fun with the game he loves is how he will overcome the questions of his 5’8 frame and lack of speed.

In other Red Wings news:

  • St. James adds that goalie Jimmy Howard was slated to be in the net for the entirety of tonight’s contest against the Bruins. When asked about Howard, Blashilll had this to say:

“I spoke to Jimmy about two weeks ago.  I’m not going to discuss everything I talked with him about in terms of his role, but the one thing I will tell you is that I said there’s no question that he is going to have an impact on our success this year.

Howard, of course, was the subject of trade rumors and beyond that, a likely candidate for being left unprotected for the upcoming expansion draft next summer. Though it’s an expensive tandem with Petr Mrazek, Howard was instrumental last season in picking up the club when Mrazek struggled.

  • Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News tweets that Blashill believes captain Henrik Zetterberg and defenseman Niklas Kronwall could skate on Tuesday. Zetterberg’s availability has been a source of uncertainty because of a knee injury. Kronwall has suffered through his own knee issue that has lingered on and would threaten his career if he chose to have surgery. Zetterberg is expected to move to the wing this season while Kronwall will most likely see his minutes reduced as a result of the knee problem.

Detroit Notes: Vanek, Howard, Ouellet, Kronwall

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In an interview with Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, Red Wings forward Thomas Vanek acknowledged that Minnesota (where he spent the last two seasons) “just wasn’t a good fit”.

Vanek joined Detroit in July on a one year, $2.6MM deal after he was bought out by the Wild the month before.  Last season with Minnesota, Vanek put up respectable second line numbers with 18 goals and 23 assists in 74 games.  However, given that they were paying him $6.5MM last season (both salary and cap hit), the Wild were expecting much better bang for their buck in the form of top line production and opted to pay him $5MM over the next two years to not play for them.

Despite his tenure in Minnesota not ending on the best of terms, Vanek doesn’t regret signing with them two summers ago:

“It’s always easy to look back and I say I should have done this or that. I knew going into it that it wasn’t going to be easy but I didn’t care. I wanted the challenge. I wanted to see if it could work. It’s a place that’s close to my heart. The only championship I’ve ever was in my college days there and to win another one there would have been awesome. It just didn’t work out.”

Vanek is hopeful that a return to the Eastern Conference (where he spent the first nine years of his career with the Sabres, Islanders, and Canadiens) will help him.  He is expected to battle for a middle six spot with the Red Wings so the pressure to perform like a top line player won’t be there now as it has been for most of his career.

[Related: Red Wings Depth Chart]

Also out of Detroit:

  • Goaltender Jimmy Howard is “definitely not disappointed” to be back with the Red Wings this season, despite losing his starting job to Petr Mrazek, writes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. The team looked into trading him in the offseason but obviously weren’t able to find a suitable trade.  One element that likely complicates matters is Howard’s contract, which has three years with a cap hit just shy of $5.3MM remaining.  That’s a steep price tag for someone that has been relegated to a #2 role so instead, Howard will look push Mrazek for playing time to start the season.
  • After spending the bulk of the last three seasons in the minors (going back and forth to the NHL and back 17 times over that span), defenseman Xavier Ouellet is heading into training camp with a firm grip on a roster spot, St. James wrote in a separate column. Detroit’s second round pick (48th overall) in 2011, Ouellet no longer has waiver exemption and would likely be claimed if they tried to send him down which gives him a sense of security he has yet to have since joining the team.  However, with just 30 games of NHL experience (and just five last season), Ouellet will still have some work to do if he wants to become a regular in the lineup and not just a seventh blueliner.
  • Defenseman Niklas Kronwall is aiming to be ready to start the regular season but isn’t sure how much action he’ll be able to get in the preseason, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Kronwall withdrew from the World Cup late last month citing lingering knee problems.  He led all Detroit players in ice time per game in 2015-16, logging 22 minutes of action per night and will once again be counted on to play major minutes this season.

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