In Red Wings Land

Red Wings ‘constantly evaluating’ Jakub Vrana in AHL – Freep

“We want all of our players to be good away from the puck,” Lalonde said. “I think him scoring goals of late is probably him tightening his game in other areas to put himself in that situation.”

If the Wings wanted to bring up Vrana, they could waive little-used Robert Hägg, who is one of eight defensemen on the 23-man roster. As Lalonde iterated, the Wings are, “constantly evaluating.”

I like the search title that Google gave this article a lot more than the final title Freep gave this piece.  It’s not a great deal of new info but hey it’s something!

INTERVIEW: Dylan Larkin had (five) reasons to be MVP of the All-Star Game, but he said the Tkachuk brothers were arguing enough about the car for him to stay out of it. 😂

The Red Wings captain looked back on the weekend, where he felt he showed he belonged. @DylanLarkin39 pic.twitter.com/CAN20brYz9

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) February 6, 2023

He should have gotten the car.

Around the League

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is siding with players who refuse to wear Pride jerseys. He says we must “respect” their decision to not support LGBTQ inclusions.

Well, we’re not gonna do that https://t.co/OsdKSQc9JL

— Outsports (@outsports) February 6, 2023

What an insulting statement. Bettman implies the responsibility falls with the marginalized group to accept players who demonstrate an aversion to promoting inclusion.

No thanks.

The NHL, and male pro sports in general, have always been welcoming to people like Provorov and the Rangers players who presumably rejected their Pride Night warmup uniforms. Straight white men don’t face discrimination at the rink. Gay people do.

So no, LGBTQ hockey fans shouldn’t just have to suck it up when players on their favorite teams show hostility towards their community. Nobody is demanding that players become LGBTQ activists and march the streets in protest.

There’s this weird thing that happens when you take a look at the kind of responses people get online based on who the commenters think is writing them.  If you have a chance to silently listen to marginalized people and watch how people treat them when they disagree with them, you get a vivid picture of how inclusion actually works.

On the WIIM Twitter, I get a fair amount of abuse for saying… well just about anything (it’s still Twitter, after all).  Even white guys get abuse out there.  The vivid difference is that the WIIM Twitter (and my personal account) are always abused from a position of “fuck you, I disagree and think you’re stupid/soft/weak”, but marginalized people don’t get that.  It’s a neverending stream of challenges of what exactly they’re doing “here” in a space they’re made to feel they don’t belong.

30 NHL trade candidates to watch ahead of the deadline – Sportsnet

Dylan Larkin, C, Detroit Red Wings

While Larkin has said he sees himself as a Red Wing — something he reiterated at all-star — and is Detroit’s leading scorer and top-line centre, until he signs a contract extension there’s a question to be asked about his future. Larkin is already Detroit’s highest-paid player with a $6.1 million AAV, so how high is GM Steve Yzerman willing to go over that for the 26-year-old? One of the quickest players in the game, Larkin could bring a nice return back to Detroit, but may also leave behind a large hole in the depth chart. This is why they can’t let him go past March 3 without a deal in place. Yzerman surprised us with a late Anthony Mantha trade two deadlines ago — does he have another shocker in store?

They absolutely can let him go past March 3 without a deal in place. It’s just not what I want.  Stamkos got past the trade deadline in his UFA year and stayed with Tampa.  It was very unpleasant.

Elsewhere

Vox Media Is Raising $100 Million From Penske Media – NY Times

I’ll be cold in the ground before I sign up for even a free account from the NY Times, but this blurb seems interesting.