Red Wings make MULTIPLE moves... This is RIDICUOUS | Red Wings News

The Detroit Red Wings have made multiple moves. As training camp is coming to an end, we get an update on a few players in particular and where they stand within this organization. We're going to break that down as well as multiple other updates from head coach Todd McClellan before the season gets underway in terms of what the roster will look like, what the lines will look like, and a few surprises that are making the team. We're going to break that all down and much more in this episode of Red Wings Digest. But before we dive into all of that, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. We've noticed that a lot of you are not subscribed to the channel who watch regularly, which means you're probably missing very important updates on the Red Wings from roster cuts to potential trades to what the heck is happening with Simon Edmondson. We're going to break that down in this episode as well, but let's get right into it. The Red Wings are making moves. They have cut their roster down a little bit right before the start of this regular season. Let's get right into it. They have cut it down to 28, and the reason that that is a big deal is because they still need to make five more cuts marked before the start of the season next week. Obviously, they play tonight. We'll get into that in just a little bit, but you can see this. A couple names that have been cut as of yesterday include Sheldon Dries, Dylan James, Cameron Butler was in there. A lot of guys that you'd probably expect that did stick around for a little bit longer than people realize, goaltender Trey Augustine, Michael Postova, and a few others as well. Now, not included in that list, obviously, because you expect them to make the team is Simon Edmondson. I want to get to that in a second because there's a bit of a strange situation going on there, that's for sure, but they continue to make cuts, and they still need to make five more, so they've had a pretty impressive preseason thus far. Nobody's going to remember what the record is, but they have 28, including 16 forwards. Five more have to go, and there's some pretty notable names, and still no update, really, on Simon Edmondson, who hasn't, by the way, Mark, played in any of these games because he can't. And I think a big thing is looking at a lot of the names, if you want to flash those again, there's a lot of players that, of course, are going to go down and put up some really good numbers with Grand Rapids, and they're opening up their camps, they're getting players ready, so it makes sense to get everyone that you pretty much know is solidified to play in the AHL down, but there is a lot of interesting names that are still part of this team. I mean, Carter Bear's a big name, looking at that guy coming through. He is injured, and it is going to be kind of shocking if he maybe makes the team straight out of the camp, as, again, he's dealing with an injury. Maybe this is a way for them to say, hey, we have the best kind of people to work with them, doctors, trainers. So staying up right now over the next couple days before having to submit to your compliant roster to the NHL makes the most sense. But again, with Carter Bear, I'd love to see this kid crack the team straight out of camp. There's a lot of players that are genuinely fighting for their spots. I mean, the bottom three, maybe they're the ones heading down. But even like Nate Danielson, who dealt with quite a few injuries last season, seeing his emergence this offseason, or preseason, I should say, was great to see. Even Pelika, a guy fighting to stay within this lineup, Darius, I don't know about you, but I genuinely do think a lot of these people and our kids are going to truly shock a lot of fans when they get into that lineup, because you can tell they're hungry and they definitely do not want to go back down to Grand Rapids because, again, they're going to fight for that final spot. And yeah, Mark, you bring up, you know, some interesting names like an Axel Sandin, Pelika, for example, an absolute rocket to last night in preseason action, and not sure if I want him to go anywhere else. And some notable names that I think will make the team too, like an NBN, like Nate Danielson, I think will make the team. So some notable, you know, rookies here, or prospects, I guess, we'll call them, because some of them are not rookies. You know, a couple of them have financial experience at this point. But a couple of notable names that will have to get cut, and they will have to dwindle this list down a little bit more, down to 23. So it's going to be interesting, because those cuts will come after tonight, and we'll get into the lineup and what that looks like in a second too. Now, through the preseason, one guy that hasn't played is Simon Evanson. He's taking part in training camp, but he can't play in games because he doesn't have a contract. That is bad. And as we head closer towards the season, somebody could be taking his spot for the time being, right? Because he's not in the lineup, he's not signed or anything. But how do you go this far without signing Simon Evanson? This is getting a little ridiculous. This is the last preseason game tonight, and he's not playing in it. And I spoke very openly and, you know, passionately about how if you miss training camp as a whole, it's way worse. Obviously, he's taking part in drills and skating every day, which is good. But if you don't get into these games, it will affect you during the season. So, Mark, do you have any final thoughts? I say final thoughts. We're probably going to be talking about Simon Evanson every day until the season starts. But any thoughts on Simon Evanson at this point? Because it is pretty shocking, right? Like, we know that the agent said, we don't know who to talk to. Then Sean Horkoff is appointed the interim general manager. The agent and the player want to get this done. The agent and the player want to stay in this city and this team. The agent and the player have a dollar amount in mind. Why isn't he signed yet? Like, how do you not get this done and get him into at least this last preseason game? And I think that's the biggest issue. I mean, looking around the NHL, of course, the star talents like Connor McDavid, these guys aren't going to play in all four preseason games. But nonetheless, getting into one or two games, Evanson's going to be a step behind a lot of these guys to start the season. Now, of course, being in camp, working on the game, and working on these units is definitely a plus. It's awesome that he's doing this. And kudos to him for stepping in and saying, hey, I know things are kind of a shitshow, the best way to say it at the moment, between the organization. But I want to get into the position of being able to skate game one. But I think it's just such a fumble. You missed the cutoff of the eight-year window. So now seven years is the most you can sign. You can't front load these. You can't put all those bonuses in that teams love to do with these young guys and players. But now you're also looking at a world where we've seen the reports coming out that they want to bridge this guy, which makes absolute no sense. This is a capital where it's rising year after year. Ten million this season. We're going to see ten the next. It's going to go 15 million after that. This is a world where players are going to start getting luxury deals. And not only did you fumble on this where you didn't sign him, the new cap was kind of just introduced by Gary Bettman, how much it's going to jump over the next couple of years. But you don't even have to break it where his value is going to continue to rise. Did he jump from 12 and a half million up to 14? I genuinely think this whole mishap of not hiring a GM, putting all your eggs in one basket for a course, bringing an analytical guy that fell through. You brought in an intern, Jim didn't give him permission to do anything from the start. And when he was appointed after Steve Eiserman was fired, Darius, this falls back on management once again. And Jim, you have hours, days to get deals done to get this player in and at least try to salvage the start of the season. It's ridiculous at this point. Like you said, you can't front load it. You can't get bonuses. You can't get the eighth year. It's like this. This off season was absolutely butchered by this organization, like to a point where you can't even believe that it was this bad. But anyway, the Red Wings were on the ice this morning. One final preseason game tonight, let's get into the lines because there's a couple of guys still fighting for spots. Like you mentioned, they're going to have five. There's a couple of guys that are still fighting to try and make this lineup. Obviously, Simon Evans and not in the lineup tonight, but a couple of guys and I'll get into the lines here because, you know, there's just a list of names and we want to see where everyone's kind of playing. Who's going to make the team here, right? And obviously, again, they've got to cut five guys. There's a couple of prospects that are playing in this one. It's going to be a big one for those guys. Now the lines as they currently shape up a lot of things that we have come to, you know, see over the last couple of days in terms of, you know, this is what it's looked like for the last three, four days at this point, but the brink of top Raymond Finney, Casper Arvidsson, Rasmussen, they're calling it the worst for third line in hockey of all time. But Rasmussen, Comper and Kolasar and Mazur Danielson and I actually think that's a very interesting young dynamic fourth line. Like that could be pretty interesting in season if they wanted to keep it that way. And then the eight D that are skating, which keep in mind, you can only dress six or Cider Sherratt, Falk, ASP, Axelsson, Nutelica, Albert and Anton Johansson, Wallander and Edmondson are also skating, but Edmondson cannot play. Of course, we just talked about a contract and then Larkin and Appleton are the two scratches. Extras and Larkin obviously still battling an injury and not able to play. So Mark, are there any names here that kind of catch your eye? Like for me, it's most of that board group, I think is going to make the team. I think Danielson can definitely make the team. I think it's good enough to be in the NHL. That's for sure. But there's also a lot of question marks here in the defense. I think with the board group, the most surprising to me, and I shouldn't even say surprising because he's a hell of a players Casper playing on that second line. And I wonder with Dylan Larkin inching closer to a comeback for game one of the season, does that kind of move him down? I mean, if cops on that top unit, Larkin is, of course, going to take over that top line. Maybe the slides cop down your side, Casper down. And of course, then you dismantle the third line, which is the worst in hockey, of course. But looking at that, I wonder what kind of implications Larkin coming back has. Appleton got a slide in there, of course. Of course, you can't bring all of these players in. But I want to see that board group and how Casper plays. Does he cement himself to play on that unit? Is he just a placeholder right now for Dylan Larkin? Do they keep cop on that top line? But I think with that defensive core, it's going to be interesting. And honestly, a battle down to the very last game of who's going to be the sixth defenseman in this lineup. And listen, if you don't get him signs, then you're looking at a world, maybe all six of them make it because you still don't have your defenseman that should be on the top pairing playing. But I think it's going to be interesting. I generally think it's going to come down to the wire for quite a few of these guys. And like you said, there's not many names left and you got to cut five of those before the compliant roster got to be submitted. Funny you say that, too, because I was reading out the defense pairings and I'm like, man, it just feels weird not saying Cider and Edmondson together because they shouldn't top pair Cider and Chirac. So we'll see how it progresses over the next couple of days. Last thing I want to mention here is Todd McClellan did say this morning that they might add a third alternate captain this season in addition to Cider and Raymond, because they don't have a captain anymore. Because Dylan Larkin has been stripped of the captaincy and to bring it would seem the most likely choice that he doesn't know if Larkin will be ready for the season opener and saying he's pushing hard to get ready. But we all know in the back of our heads, he's not going to be ready for that season opener. I mean, he wasn't even skating on the line, so he's not ready to go. So, you know, he's going to have to get some practice time in. He's not going to be ready for the season opener. We will see how that progresses. I want you guys updated here on the channel for everything that's happening for the rest of the cuts that Sean Horkoff still has to make any updates on Simon Edmondson, because still without a contract, cannot play in games yet, but still participating. And Todd McClellan is trying to get the guys ready to go for the season opener.