Detroit Red Wings Clips August 10, 2016

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1 Detroit Red Wings Clips August 10, 2016 Detroit Red Wings PAGE 2 Xavier Ouellet fits in well on Red Wings' third D line PAGE 3 Red Wings prospect Patrick Holway copes with changes on ice, tragedy off of it PAGE 6 Red Wings outlook: Gustav Nyquist must be more assertive, productive PAGE 8 The Red Wings are in limbo and Ken Holland is OK with that

2 Xavier Ouellet fits in well on Red Wings' third D line Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press 5:07 p.m. EDT August 9, 2016 The NHL is in its quieter days, offering a fine opportunity to take a look at individual Detroit Red Wings and assess expectations for the coming season. D Xavier Ouellet Looking at : 1 assist, minus-2 in 5 games. Spent rest of season in minors. Looking at money: Signed through for $715,000. Restricted free agent next summer. Looking back: Ouellet was very highly thought of by former head coach Mike Babcock, who plugged in Ouellet over the more NHL-experienced Jakub Kindl for Game 5 of the series against Boston during the 2014 playoffs. Ouellet made 15 appearances in Detroit the following season (producing three points) but the emergence of Alexey Marchenko meant Ouellet spent most of with Grand Rapids, where he had 29 points in 61 games, followed by four points in nine playoff games. Looking ahead: Ouellet can t be sent to the minors any longer without being exposed on waivers (ditto defense prospects Ryan Sproul and Nick Jensen). With Kyle Quincey gone, there s room for one newcomer on defense in Detroit as it currently stands. Ouellet, 23, plays a very smart game, making efficient decisions with the puck to minimize chances against while quickly and safely - getting the puck to the forwards. He should fit in nicely on the third pair, where he wouldn t have to see the opponent s best players, and he could serve spot duty on the penalty kill if needed. Detroit Free Press LOADED:

3 Red Wings prospect Patrick Holway copes with changes on ice, tragedy off of it By Brendan Savage TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. The last year hasn't been an easy one for Patrick Holway. After being selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the sixth round (170th overall) of the 2015 NHL draft, Holway started preparing for a college career by deciding to spend one season in the USHL with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. Dubuque was one of the USHL's top teams during the regular season before reaching the Clark Cup Finals. But Howay wasn't with the Saints when they were swept in a three-game championship series by the Tri-City Storm. Instead, he had been traded late in the season to Sioux City, which finished last in the overall standings. But that wasn't the worst part of Holway's season. Shortly after Holway arrived in Sioux City, his parents called from his home in suburban Boston to deliver some heart-breaking news: One of his oldest and dearest friends had been involved in an accident. Will Golden, a freshman forward on the Skidmore (N.Y.) College hockey team, fell off the roof of a three-story structure near the University of Delaware campus, where he was visiting a friend in March. He was dead at age 20. Golden and Holway played youth hockey together and were teammates on Cohasset High School's 2014 state championship lacrosse team. "Just a tragic accident," said Holway, 19. "He was up on a roof and it had rained earlier and I think he just took a misstep and fell. I hadn't really encountered anything like that. Our community has been really good. Everyone has been really supportive. "It's a difficult time for everyone but we've been getting through it and just miss him every day. Definitely makes you appreciate life. That's sort of why I've been working hard this summer. Don't want to leave anything up to chance. "I want to make sure everything I'm doing is 100 percent." Holway is doing while preparing for a fresh start at the University of Maine, where he had committed to play before being drafted by the Red Wings. The Black Bears will be his fourth team in barely two years. Holway spent five seasons in the Boston Advantage junior program before going to the USHL to prep for college. All of the changes have taught Holway how to adapt to new surroundings quickly but going from a top USHL team to a cellar dweller wasn't easy. Neither, for that matter, was adjusting to the USHL. 3

4 "At first it took me a little while," said Holway, who had one goal, seven assists, 67 penalty minutes and a plus-3 rating in 44 games last season. "I played midgets so it wasn't as high competition. "You do a little bit more with the puck so it took me a while to adjust, playing a very simple game, just moving the puck, staying up in the rush, keeping good gaps. Went well. "It's definitely hard but I think going through the transition really would help me. USHL is a great league to get you ready for college. It's definitely the top league in America, maybe North America." The Red Wings liked Holway's size when they drafted him and he's gotten even bigger since then, adding 26 pounds to his still-lean 6-foot-4 frame. Getting bigger and stronger was one of his main goals last season. "I was a twig," he said when recalling his 2015 visit to the Red Wings development camp. "You can't teach reach as one of my coaches at Dubuque would always say. Obviously (size) helps out but I do have to be faster. That comes with the size. Can't have little guys turning me around. "I came in a little bit scrawny last year, was about 184. Now I'm up to 210. I put on a little bit of muscle so I can muscle guys around in the corner." At Maine, Holway will be teammates with fellow Red Wings prospect Chase Pearson, another incoming freshman who was taken in the fifth round (140th overall) of the 2015 draft. They'll continue a pipeline of Red Wings prospects who played at Maine. That list include goalie Jimmy Howard, forward Gustav Nyquist and Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Dan Renouf, who took part in this year's development camp. Renouf gave Holway and Pearson some insight about Maine. "I talked to Reno about it a lot," Holway said. "He said it loved it up there, his time, and he just said to be excited. I'm going to enjoy my time there and hopefully everything goes to plan." Holway is a stay-at-home defenseman who says he can jump into the rush when necessary. He has no idea how long he'll stay in college but given his lack of experience against top-level junior competition, he'll likely be at Maine for at least a few seasons. He's still a proverbial work in progress. "I still have a long time to go," Holway said. "Every player's development plan is a little bit different. I've been sort of a late bloomer so I assume I'm going to take my time in college, develop and hopefully get out here pretty soon. "I just want to be a good first-pass defenseman, maybe get some PK time, maybe a little bit PP time. But I definitely have to earn that, especially coming in as a freshman. Nothing is going to be given to me and I know that so I definitely have to earn that. 4

5 "I want to get faster. I want to be able to move in transition faster, like my pivots, all that, and I just want to play some shut-down defense as well." Michigan Live LOADED:

6 Red Wings outlook: Gustav Nyquist must be more assertive, productive By Ansar Khan on August 09, 2016 at 6:03 AM, updated August 09, 2016 at 6:11 AM (Another in a series of player profiles prior to training camp.) Gustav Nyquist Position: Left wing/right wing Age: 27 (on Sept. 1) Height/Weight: 5-11/ stats: 82 games, 17 goals, 26 assists, 43 points, minus-2 rating, 34 penalty minutes; (playoffs) five games, one goal, no assists, one point, plus-2 rating, six penalty minutes. Career stats: 261 games, 76 goals, 82 assists, 158 points, plus-5 rating, 78 penalty minutes; (playoffs) 35 games, four goals, four assists, eight points, plus-3 rating, 10 penalty minutes. Contract status: Three years remaining at a cap hit of $4.75 million in review: He scored 10 fewer goals and had only half as many power-play points (12) than the previous season.... Ranked eighth on team in power-play points.... Did not register a multi-goal game.... Scored overtime goals in Vancouver (Oct. 25) and against Nashville (Dec. 5).... Went 0 for 6 in the shootout, after going 8 for 14 in Tallied only five goals and 17 assists in the final 49 games.... Was more productive on the road (10 goals, 23 points) than at home (seven goals, 20 points).... Was seventh on the club in shots with 161, 34 fewer than in Averaged 15:10 per game in ice time, down from 16:39 and 16:51 the previous two seasons.... Averaged only slightly less power-play time (2:47 compared to 3:00).... The only Red Wings to appear in all 82 games in each of the past two seasons.... Tied for tournament lead with seven goals at World Championship for Sweden but none came in losses against tougher competition (Czech Republic, Russia, Canada) outlook: The Red Wings had high hopes for Nyquist after he scored a teamhigh 55 goals in his first two seasons combined. They locked him up to a four-year, $19 million contract and expected him to be a "go-to guy." Instead, Nyquist regressed, particularly struggling from late December through the playoffs, and had his ice time trimmed. He has the skating ability, creativity and finishing touch to be a 30-goal scorer. He needs to be more assertive and shoot more. He shouldn't rank so low (seventh) on the team in shots and is trending in the wrong direction from 2.68 per game in , to 2.38 in to 1.96 last season. 6

7 More than one-third of his career goals (27-of-76) have come on the power play, which was ineffective most of the season. Nyquist's playoff performance continues to be troublesome, but rebounding in the regular season is his first order of business. Nyquist remains a viable trading chip for a team seeking a top-three defenseman. Key question: Who should be Nyquist's center Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen or Riley Sheahan? Michigan Live LOADED:

8 The Red Wings are in limbo and Ken Holland is OK with that By Matt Larkin / The Hockey News Assessing the Detroit Red Wings off-season depends on what kind of person you are. If you see the world sunny-side up, summer 2016 was a rah-rah moment for the franchise. The Wings, hovering around the playoff bubble for the past few seasons in the Eastern Conference, said goodbye to their best forward of the past decade, Pavel Datsyuk, but they brought in some veteran help. They threw $31.5 million over six years at center Frans Nielsen. They snagged Minnesota Wild castoff Thomas Vanek at the low-risk, high-gain price of $2.6 million over one year. They added center Steve Ott for veteran leadership. They re-signed speedy pivot Darren Helm and top blueliner Danny DeKeyser long-term. Detroit has made the playoffs 25 straight years and, to an optimist, the off-season sends the message the franchise wants a 26th berth. Maybe the Wings can ascend into something more than a bubble team if young center Dylan Larkin and goalie Petr Mrazek continue ascending and become organizational pillars. The crabby pessimist, perpetually trailed by a rain cloud, isn t so happy about the Wings summer. This team has finished with a.567 points percentage twice in the past three seasons, marking 16-year lows. The Wings haven t picked in the top five at the NHL draft since Keith Primeau in They haven t picked in the top 10 since Martin Lapointe in That s 25 years, matching the playoff streak. Hardly a coincidence. The pessimist might say the Wings have become victims of their own success, which includes four Stanley Cups since They re never bad enough to blow the operation up and rebuild around superstar draft picks, and they re no longer good enough, it seems, for a deep Stanley Cup playoff run. So who s right? Will the Wings doom themselves to mediocrity if they limp forward with a good-but-not great roster, or are they on the cusp of a turnaround, fuelled by improving youth and an injection of free-agent talent? The person best equipped to tackle the topic is, naturally, Ken Holland, Detroit s GM since And he s refreshingly candid about the state of his team. The philosophical question you re asking me is, Do we head in a direction where we make a determination that it s all about five years from now? Or do we continue to try to be a playoff team? Holland said. When you ve got Mrazek, and you ve got Larkin, and you ve got Riley Sheahan, Justin Abdelkader, and you ve got Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist, and you ve got DeKeyser, and you ve got Nielsen we ve either got to have those people and we re trying to win the division, we re trying to qualify for the playoffs or don t sign Frans Nielsen. Don t sign Thomas Vanek. Don t bring in Ott. And just go with a bunch of kids. And let the chips fall where they may. If you re going to do a massive rebuild get a core of players that you think can carry your team for a decade you ve got to miss the playoffs five, six, seven years in a row. 8

9 That s what Pittsburgh did. That s what Florida did. That s what Chicago did. You can just go team after team. You don t miss one year, and all of a sudden, Boy, we re back. Holland has a point. Even if we accept the Wings are just as likely to miss the playoffs as they are to make them in , this franchise is nowhere near rock bottom. It s not in position to tank and bottom feed for half a decade. It still has too much talent. Larkin, whom Holland says will get a look at center in training camp, showed outstanding promise as a rookie. He won the fastest skater competition while representing the Wings at the 2016 All-Star Game and contended for the Calder Trophy before hitting a statistical wall in the dog days of winter. Same goes for Mrazek, who at one point in looked like a Vezina Trophy contender before his effectiveness fell off dramatically in the second half. Holland points out that a significant number of the Detroit core including scorers Tatar and Nyquist, checking centers Riley Sheahan and Luke Glendening, D-man DeKeyser and up-and-coming forwards Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou are 27 or younger. It may not be an elite youth crop following the Pittsburgh or Chicago model, but it s not a roster you punt away to tank for superstar draft picks. Not by a long shot. With all the existing potential on his team, Holland decided to push forward instead of stepping backward this summer. My philosophy as a manager, and my owner s philosophy is, The Detroit Red Wings: we re playing to win, Holland said. We re trying to be a playoff team. We re trying to get in, give ourselves a chance to go on a playoff run. I guess at some point in time, when you miss the playoffs once and then twice and three times, maybe you determine we don t want to just miss and pick 14th. Then we d want to miss and pick sixth or miss and get a lottery pick. But right now we don t want to pick 12th. We want to pick 16th or 18th or 20th. We want to be a playoff team. And I also think if you get in, once you get in, anybody s got a chance. If we had started the playoffs in January, neither San Jose nor Pittsburgh would ve been in the tournament. The way Holland sees it, with a couple of breaks, the franchise s direction would be perceived far differently right now. The Wings have won a single playoff series in the past five years but led the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 in the second round of the 2013 playoffs and lost in overtime in Game 7. They led the eventual finalist Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in the Atlantic Division semifinal in 2015 and lost in seven games, with top blueliner Niklas Kronwall suspended for the deciding contest. Who knows how far the Wings might have gone in those years? And so Holland felt dipping into the free agent pool was a worthwhile pursuit this summer. That started with the versatile Nielsen, a relatively late bloomer with the Islanders. He became a full-time NHLer at 24 and has enjoyed his best years in his early 30s. He turned 32 in April, but his play hasn t slipped a bit. He s recorded at least 44 points in five straight non-shortened seasons and has received Selke Trophy votes 9

10 every season since Holland said he sees Nielsen as the Wings No. 2 center at worst and quite possibly their top guy, a replacement for Datsyuk, who left for SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL. What we like about him is, we ve always wanted our best players to play a 200-foot game, and he plays a 200-foot game, Holland said. He can play on the power play. He can play penalty killing. He s going to backcheck. He s good defensively. He appears to be a guy who gets 20/50 20 goals and 50 points. You re always hoping people do a little bit better, but if you look at the NHL Guide and Record book, that s where he fits. The Vanek signing obviously carries boom/bust potential. He fell out of favor in Minnesota and wound up bought out this summer. He s fresh off arguably the worst season of his career. But he s not too far removed from being one of the NHL s better offensive weapons. Holland pointed out the Wings precipitous drop from first in power play efficiency in to 13th in and hopes Vanek can help there. He s a big guy, he shoots right, and we don t have a lot of right shooters, Holland said. He s always been good on the power play. Last year, he had 18 goals. We re hoping our offense will be lots of people who get 15 or 20 goals. Tatar and Nyquist maybe score a little bit more. We re hoping we ve got a guy who wants to prove people wrong. He s not an age where he s way over the hill. He s certainly still young enough that if he s motivated and puts in a good summer, we think he can be a real asset for us. If Vanek doesn t deliver, and if Nielsen doesn t prove worthy of top-line center status, maybe the Wings miss the playoffs for the first time in a quarter century. Holland doesn t deny that possibility by any means. He knows the jig could be up any time. He insists no franchise can rely on late-round gems as an official strategy despite the fact his brain trust has hit with so many. He s realistic. At the same time, he s nowhere ready to roll over. He s willing to make trade-deadline moves to upgrade his team in the short term next winter if he feels he has a contender on his hands. Parity in the NHL is so potent nowadays that we can see the Pittsburgh Penguins fire their coach mid-season and crusade all the way to a championship. We can see the Sharks miss the playoffs and come within two victories of a Cup the next year. We can see the L.A. Kings win it all as a No. 8 seed. So while even Holland admits there may come a time when the Wings undergo an honest rebuild, that time is not now. And writing the franchise off hasn t been the smartest idea in the past. I m proud of the job that we do, he said. When Steve Yzerman retired in 06, many people thought the ceiling was going to collapse. And then we kept it going, and when Nick Lidstrom left in 2010, they thought the ceiling was going to collapse. And now Datsyuk is gone, and they re waiting for the ceiling to collapse. And at some point in time, they re probably going to be right. 10

11 But probably not yet. There s too much upside on his team to quit on it. 11