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What Your Team Is Thankful For: Detroit Red Wings

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As the holiday season approaches, PHR will look at what teams are thankful for as the season nears the quarter point of completion. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We take a look at what’s gone well in the first month and what could improve as the season rolls on. 

What are the Red Wings most thankful for? 

Recovering from an early six game slide. When the Red Wings started 4-1, early doom-and-gloom prognosticators wondered if Detroit would buck trends and surprise with a stronger 2017-18. Then came six straight losses, rumors of head coach Jeff Blashill’s job security, and concerns that it would be a long and painful season. They righted the ship, stringing some wins together and now sit even at 8-8-2. Disaster was averted, but there are signs that significant struggles wait ahead.

Who are the Red Wings most thankful for? 

Dylan Larkin, and Anthony Mantha. Both young players are key to any type of rebuilding plan Detroit has. They haven’t disappointed. Larkin has looked more comfortable centering a line, while Mantha has been every bit of the goal scoring presence Detroit envisioned when they drafted him. It cannot be understated how important it is that in order for the Red Wings to return to prominence, the younger players must deliver. Larkin and Mantha’s strong play in the first month has been crucial to the present and future success of the team.

What would the Red Wings be even more thankful for? 

A young, top pairing defenseman. About 75% of the league wants one of these, too, but the Red Wings have been searching, unsuccessfully, for this since

Nicklas Lidstrom’s retirement. Despite the strong play of their goaltenders and the younger players, the defense has been shaky. Niklas Kronwall has been better, Nick Jensen has been steady and Mike Green has been a boon offensively. But they can’t rely on them for the long term when it comes to top pairing minutes. Green will most likely be shipped

Nov 9, 2017; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Detroit Red Wings defenseman <a rel=

out to fetch draft picks or a younger impact player, and Kronwall’s knee is a liability. Trevor Daley, brought in to help the offense, has been a strong skater but only has one point in 18 games. The Red Wings, simply put, need help on the blue line. At some point, the goaltending will come back to earth, putting more pressure on a defensive corps that is average.

What should be on the Red Wings’ Holiday Wish List? 

Looking ahead, and though it’s not what general manager Ken Holland wants, Detroit needs to have another high draft pick. Yes, it’s a crapshoot with the lottery system, as last year’s draft showed with Colorado winning under 30% of their games and getting a fourth overall pick for their performance. But the Red Wings need to get elite talent in order to be competitive again, and picking in the top five is one way to do so. Their wish list should also include some crafty trades to stockpile draft picks. The days of hoodwinking other teams and finding Henrik Zetterbergs and Pavel Datsyuks late in the draft are over. They need enough where they can package picks, trade up, and have a greater chance of grabbing talent in the first and second round.

Vadim Shipachyov Retirement Official

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According to Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Vadim Shipachyov’s deal with the NHL is official. After a negotiation between the NHL and NHLPA, Shipachyov will retire from the league and pay back almost all of his $2MM signing bonus. He’ll move to the voluntary retirement list and his full contract will be cleared from the Golden Knights salary cap. His NHL rights will be retained by Vegas until he turns 35, but will now be allowed to seek out a new contract in the KHL.

Vadim ShipachyovThe two sides didn’t seek a mutual termination, because Shipachyov would have first needed to pass through waivers and then could have technically been signed by another team in the league. Obviously, the Golden Knights didn’t want to lose the asset to another team for nothing, so a different agreement was made. Like Ilya Kovalchuk, Shipachyov’s retirement will keep him out of the NHL for at least five years though it’s more likely that he’ll never return. After three games and a single goal, the $9MM experiment is over. Interestingly, Vegas GM George McPhee admitted today that they did have a deal in place for Shipachyov to go somewhere else in the NHL, but the player didn’t want that. Shipachyov instead wished to just return to the KHL.

Whatever you think of how this situation was handled, at least Shipachyov can now return home to a league where he wants to play. He obviously didn’t want to suit up any longer in the AHL, and the Golden Knights clearly no longer had him in their top-6 plans up front. Incredibly though, he’ll actually go down with some impressive small-sample stats. Shipachyov scored just the lone goal, but attempted eight shots towards the net and actually won nine of 12 of the 21 draws he took. He’ll finish his three-game NHL career with positive possession stats and at 57% in the circle. Fans will be left wondering if that impact could have been carried out for the entire season, or if he wasn’t ever going to fit in perfectly with the North American game.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see him quickly sign with SKA St. Petersburg again, the team he helped to a Gagarin Cup victory last season. SKA is off to an incredible 28-1 record this season, led by Kovalchuk and Nikita Gusev with 36 points each. Gusev is a name Vegas fans should remember, as his NHL rights are also owned by the Golden Knights. They were acquired as part of the trade from Tampa Bay to get the Golden Knights to select Jason Garrison in the expansion draft, and will be a big story going forward. Gusev is just 25-years old, but has now watched his teammate and countryman go through a trying experience with the expansion team.

Gusev’s KHL contract isn’t up until April 2019, but there was some hope that he would terminate it early in order to jump to the NHL. A seventh-round pick because of the fear he would stay in Russia, Gusev is obviously talented enough to play in the NHL. Last season he scored 94 points in 75 games for SKA, and dominated the World Championships with 14 points in 10 games including a tournament-leading seven goals. You have to wonder how the Shipachyov situation will affect Gusev’s decision down the line.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Waivers & Recalls: 10/04/17

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The first day of the regular season has brought a fair amount of movement already, with extensions, retirements and trades. There are also five players that have been placed on the waiver wire, while others have been recalled to play in their respective team’s opening games. Here are the minor moves from today:

Waivers:

Brandon Pirri (VGK)
Chandler Stephenson (WSH)
Joe Colborne (COL)
Eric Tangradi (DET)
Patrick Wiercioch (VAN)

Recalls:

Alex DeBrincat (CHI)
Gustav Forsling (CHI)

Bryan Bickell Signs One-Day Contract With Chicago, Retires As Blackhawk

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As the end to one of the most emotional stories in recent hockey history, Bryan Bickell has signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks in order to retire as part of the organization. Bickell released a statement regarding his retirement:

Bryan BickellAs any professional athlete will tell you, stepping away from the game is extremely difficult especially given my circumstances. I’m honored to be retiring a Chicago Blackhawk-a team that has given me and my family so many great memories.

At the start of last season, Bickell was told by doctors that he had multiple sclerosis and would likely need to end his hockey career. It was a devastating diagnosis for a player who was only 30-years old and just heading into the next chapter of his career with the Carolina Hurricanes. Bickell was not fazed though, and would work as hard as he could with the Hurricanes’ medical staff to return later in the season. He would be cleared to play just a few months later, and suit up for the Hurricanes in early March.

In his final game as an NHL player, Bickell would score in the shootout in front of his cheering family, and be congratulated by the entire roster on both sides. Everyone took a moment to forget the outcome of the game and respect the work he’d done to get back on the ice. He announced that he would retire from the game after that, and is now returning home to do so.

Bickell was drafted by the Blackhawks in the second round back in 2004, and was part of three Stanley Cup runs during his time there. Though he was never an outstanding offensive player, most fans will remember his incredible 2013 postseason, in which he scored 17 points in 23 games, second on the team only to Patrick Kane. He was a huge part of the win that year, and will end his career with 39 points in 75 career playoff games, well above his regular season rate.

He and wife Amanda now run a foundation to help neglected or abandoned dogs, rehabbing some of them into therapy dogs for others with MS or various other debilitating diseases. Check out their work at the Bryan & Amanda Bickell Foundation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jeff Tambellini To Retire, Coach At Michigan

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Former NHL forward Jeff Tambellini may be retiring from pro hockey, but he seems to have his next career already planned out. The University of Michigan revealed tonight that Tambellini will return to campus to finish his degree and has been named an “undergraduate assistant coach”. Tambellini himself has yet to recognize his retirement, but may never actually do so in any official capacity.

Normally, “graduate assistant coach” is a title given to recent grads helping out with their alma mater’s program in some way. Tambellini’s new title of “undergraduate assistant coach” is almost unheard of, but fitting for the former All-American who left Michigan a year early after three dominant seasons. He returns to finish his degree with over a decade of pro hockey experience under his belt.

A first-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2003, there were high expectations of Tambellini that only increased with each collegiate season. Yet, once he turned pro, the small, speedy forward struggled to skate around the opposition like he could in the NCAA. The Kings traded him to the Islanders after only four games with the team, sending he and Denis Grebeshkov to New York for Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel. Tambellini carved out a bottom-six/AHL depth role for himself on the island and played for New York for four more seasons, accumulating 46 points in 176 games. Tambellini played his final NHL season in 2010-11 with the Vancouver Canucks, posting a career-best 17 points and +10 rating in 62 games and playing in the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins.

Since then, Tambellini has had an up-and-down experience as a globe-trotting veteran. He was a force to reckon with in his first pro season outside the NHL, scoring 45 points in 50 games with the ZSC Lions of the Swiss NLA. Injuries limited his production in his second season with the Lions, so he moved on to Sweden, where he played well for MODO. He again struggled in the following year, splitting his time between the SHL and NLA, but not finding results in either location. 2015-16 marked an attempted NHL comeback, as Tambellini signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite impressive production in the AHL, Tambellini did not see any NHL action and headed back to Sweden last season, where he struggled mightily and, at the age of 33, likely decided it was time to hand up his skates.

However, his new opportunity with the Wolverines should allow Jeff to follow in his father’s footsteps. Steve Tambellini played ten years in the NHL, but is likely best known for his later work off the ice. Steve was the GM of the Edmonton Oilers from 2008 to 2013 and also previously worked for the Vancouver Canucks and Team Canada. He is currently a scout for the Anaheim Ducks. While Jeff seems to be heading more in a coaching route rather than toward a front office future, it is clear that hockey intelligence runs in the family and Jeff could have a shot a great coaching career, beginning with his return to Ann Arbor this season. Who knows, if coaching is a great fit for Jeff, he may end up back in the NHL, this time behind the bench, before little brother Adam Tambellini, a New York Rangers prospect, makes it to the big time himself.

Ryan Carter Announces Retirement

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Give Ryan Carter credit. Around this time last year, it seemed as though the veteran forward’s career was already over. Carter had been unable to secure a guaranteed contract for the 2016-17 season, but was working toward a new deal with the Minnesota Wild by way of a PTO. However, when a nagging shoulder injury – a torn labrum to be exact – ended his attempt, Carter decided that he needed to move forward with surgery and, at 33, did not know if he would play again. Yet, Carter underwent his procedure, rehabbed, and by mid-February, he was back skating with the Wild. Carter ended up playing in 18 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild and was one of Minnesota’s “black aces” come playoff time, though he never did get to fully make his NHL return.

It took a lot of effort just to get close to a comeback in 2016-17 and another try just wasn’t in the cards for Carter this year. The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report that the ten year veteran has decided to hang up his skates. The Minnesota native can rest easy in retirement, knowing that he got to play his final two NHL seasons with his hometown team and gave it all he had to return for a third. Along the way, the Minnesota State standout also suited up for the Anaheim Ducks from 2006 to 2011 and the New Jersey Devils from 2011 to 2014, with brief stops with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers in between.

A hard-working, two-way threat, Carter was known more as a defensive specialist best-suited for a bottom-six spot and key penalty killing role than he was a point-producers. Yet, Carter finished his career off strong with a career high 15 points with the Devils in 2012-13 and three more double-digit totals to close out his NHL tenure. Carter will also be remembered for a very strong postseason performance for New Jersey in 2012, nearly matching his regular season production as the team charged to a Stanley Cup final appearance. In total, Carter notched 41 goals and 52 assists in 473 NHL games. While his scoring was far from the pace he exhibited in his college days in Mankato, Carter was still able to provide consistent two-way play, work ethic, and character throughout an NHL career built off of solid bottom-six play.

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