With NHL training camps set to open later this week, a long list of former Detroit Red Wings still hasn’t found new jobs.
James van Riemsdyk, Cam Talbot, Travis Hamonic, and David Perron are among the former Red Wings UFAs who remain without a team. Patrick Kane is the lone exception, having landed with the Chicago Blackhawks.
One former Detroit player did secure a move in the past week. Dmytro Timashov is headed to the Slovak League after signing with HK Nitra. Admiral Vladivostok bought out his KHL contract on the eve of that league’s season, and Timashov said of the situation, “I actually don’t know what happened,” Timashov told Swedish website Hockey Sverige.
Timashov appeared in five games for the Red Wings during the 2021-22 season.
Elsewhere in Europe, former Red Wings forward Dominik Kubalik left EV Zug’s final preseason game with a lower-body injury after no contact from another player. Club officials checked the injury and are hoping it is only a muscle issue rather than something structural. Kubalik scored 20 goals for Detroit in 2022-23 before being included in the deal that sent him to the Ottawa Senators in the Alex DeBrincat trade.
There’s also movement expected for Jacob de la Rose. Reports out of Sweden say the former Red Wings forward is set to sign an extension to stay with HC Fribourg-Gottéron in the Swiss National League, where his current deal runs through the end of this season.
De la Rose played 61 games for Detroit in 2018-19 and 2019-20 before being traded to the St. Louis Blues for Robby Fabbri.
In the Czech Extraliga, Liberec is leaning on a couple of former Grand Rapids Griffins. Team captain Radek Simek is being viewed analytically as the league’s top defenseman. Simek played nine AHL games for Grand Rapids late in the 2023-24 season after Detroit acquired him in a trade with the San Jose Sharks.
Up front, Jakub Rychlovsky is back in his home country after two seasons with Grand Rapids. He was the Czech Extraliga’s goal leader the last time he played there in 2023-24, scoring 26 times in 51 games for Liberec. He has opened this season with three points in three games for the club.
In Other News...
Red Wings Prospects Just Put Early Roster Pressure On Detroit
The annual prospect tournament gave the Red Wings a first look at a few names that could eventually squeeze into the picture in Detroit, and there was plenty to like in the showing against Dallas. Carter Bear was active throughout the game, Trey Augustine looked sharp in goal, and the young group left with a shootout win that provided an encouraging start for the organizations next wave.
Nate Danielson was back on the ice after a season-ending injury and looked comfortable skating alongside Bear, which is the sort of early chemistry the Red Wings will keep watching closely. For a club trying to sort out who might be ready sooner rather than later, performances like this do not settle anything, but they do make the roster conversation a little more interesting. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Need To See If Danielson Can Fill A Huge Void
Nate Danielsons return to game action offered the Red Wings a useful early look at a prospect they hope can eventually help solve one of their more familiar roster problems. Detroit needs more offensive production down the middle, and Danielson entered the NHL Rookie Tournament carrying the added weight of a season interrupted by a hip injury that kept him out for much of the year.
He made his first competitive appearance since last seasons injury-affected stretch and came away with an assist while getting pucks to the net throughout the weekend. For a player the organization is trying to gauge in the context of that center-ice void, the tournament was less about the box score than about whether Danielson can keep building toward the kind of role the Red Wings need him to fill. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Prospects Had Several Young Names Steal The Spotlight
The Red Wings prospects gave their fan base a good look at the organizations younger talent at the NHL Prospect Tournament, edging Dallas 4-3 in a shootout. Detroit got contributions from several names worth tracking, with Jesse Kiiskinen, Carter Bear and Noah Dower Nilsson all involved in a game that had the feel of a promising early test for the pipeline, while Theo Rochette helped keep the matchup alive by scoring the tying goal late in regulation.
Trey Augustine was steady when the game moved to the shootout, and Detroit needed that calm after a back-and-forth finish. The result turned on a long, tense sequence of chances before the prospects finally found the edge they needed, the kind of ending that can make a tournament game feel a little bigger than the setting itself. [Read more 🡒]