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Daley headed to Hockeytown?

June 30, 2017, 3:39 PM ET [11 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Remember when players used to come to Detroit to win the Stanley Cup, not after they’d won it?

There is strong speculation in NHL circles that defenseman Trevor Daley, owner of two Stanley Cup rings the past two seasons from the Pittsburgh Penguins, will be a Red Wing once the free agency signing window opens on Saturday.

Length and financial terms of any deal aren’t supposed to be discussed until July 1. Daley collected 19 points for the Pens last season and amazingly, that would have made him the second-leading scorer on Detroit’s defense.

Development Camp
All 11 players selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2017 NHL entry draft will be part of the club’s development camp from July 7-11 at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich.

The club’s last two first round picks - center Michael Rasmussen (2017) and defenseman Dennis Cholowski (2016) - are scheduled to be on the ice, among a group of 45 players that includes 21 forwards, 18 defensemen and six goaltenders.

The camp also includes all seven players the Red Wings drafted in 2016, four who were drafted in 2015, two drafted in 2014, one drafted in 2013 and a pair of prospects recently signed by the team as free agents - defenseman Libor Sulak, who cracked the Czech Republic national team’s lineup at the 2017 IIHF world championship after spending two seasons for Orli Znojmo in the top Austrian professional league and winning the league’s rookie of the year award in 2015-16, and goaltender Matej Machovsky, a 2016 development camp attendee who has won 94 professional games over the past four years for HC Plzen in the Czech Republic and represented the Czechs at the 2016 IIHF world championship.

The camp is open to the public and tickets are $5 per session.

The development camp roster breaks down as follows:

Goal: Kaden Fulcher*; Filip Larsson; Matej Machovsky; Chase Perry; Keith Petruzzelli; Joren van Pottelberghe.
Defense: Dennis Cholowski; Tomas Dvorak*; Mitch Eliot*; Evan Fiala*; Cole Fraser; Patrick Holway; Filip Hronek; Kasper Kotkansalo; Adam Larkin*; Gustav Lindstrom; Alfons Malmstrom; Patrick McCarron*; Alex Peters*; Vili Saarijarvi; Jordan Sambrook; Malte Setkov; Libor Sulak; Reilly Webb.
Center: Christoffer Ehn; Luke Esposito; Zach Gallant; Brady Gilmour; Isaac Johnson*; Sean Josling*; Luke Kutkevicius*; Chase Pearson; Michael Rasmussen; Graham Slaggert*; Brett Supinski*; Lane Zablocki.
Left Wing: Mattias Elfstrom; Tommy Marchin*; Michael Pastujov*; David Pope; Dylan Sadowy.
Right Wing: Jack Adams; Oliver Castleman*; Dominik Shine; Givani Smith.
*Indicates camp invitee.

Depth Secured
Two players with significant NHL experience who were part of the Calder Cup win by Detroit’s AHL farm club the Grand Rapids Griffins opted to stay with the organization rather than pursue free agency.

Veteran defensemen Dylan McIlrath and Brian Lashoff both agreed to two-year, two-way deals that would pay them $650,000 at the NHL level, but significantly less in the AHL.

Lashoff, 26, who was a restricted free agent, has played 122 games in parts of four seasons with the Wings, including five last season, and is a reliable stay-at-home type who can kill penalties and has done so at the NHL level.

McIlrath, 25, would have been headed for unrestricted free agency but opted that he liked what he experienced in Grand Rapids after arriving from the Florida Panthers in the Thomas Vanek trade late in the 2016-17 season. At 6-5 and 236 pounds, he provides a physical presence, and with Mitch Callahan departing, there is another player of that ilk with pro experience currently in the Detroit food chain.

Although he didn’t play in Detroit at all last season, McIlrath, originally selected 10th overall by the New York Rangers in the 2010 NHL entry draft, has played 43 NHL games with the Rangers and Panthers, including six last season in which he scored one goal.

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