In Red Wings Land

Red Wings sign 2019 draft pick Albert Johansson - MLive

Karel Gut brought this up in QH the day it happened, but I didn’t want it to fly under the radar in case anybody missed it.

Shawn Horcoff, the Red Wings’ director of player development, said of Johansson midway through the season: “He’s an elite skater, has good offensive ability, good brain for the game. He’s another one that just needs to put on strength. He’s not able to do out there what he wants to do, but I don’t think anyone really foresaw him playing in the men’s league. He made the team out of camp; he was so good they couldn’t send him down.”

Johansson was 60th overall in last year’s draft.

Around the NHL

NHL broadcaster won’t mention GTHL on TV until reforms - TSN

TSN reported Thursday that the GTHL, the largest minor hockey league in the world with more than 40,000 registered players, refuses to disclose the number of racism-related incidents that occur during its games, despite a call from several current and former NHL players to do so.

In connection with my reporting on racism in minor hockey (which will continue in the days ahead) I’ve talked to a number of Canadian parents whose children play the sport and have been targeted with racial slurs -- in every year they have been playing.

— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) June 7, 2020

The thread that follows Westhead’s initial tweet is heartbreaking.

Max Kellerman is the latest ESPN figure to dump on the NHL, saying “no one really cares about hockey” - Awful Announcing

Kellerman is a talking head on a hot take show who doesn’t have any actual programming or scheduling power, so a shot from him at hockey doesn’t matter that much. But his comment fits in with a long history of ESPN ignoring or downplaying the NHL, and it illustrates that at least some of ESPN’s studio programming is likely to continue that even if they do have rights.

Company line.