The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Kevin Allen on the Detroit Red Wings and USA Hockey

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Kevin Allen for a deep dive on everything surrounding the Detroit Red Wings and the latest storylines impacting Team USA.Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's get to our guest. Very much looking forward to this conversation with someone who's been for as long as we can all remember, one of the most influential voices in the history of hockey. He is Kevin Allen. He is Red Wings Beat Writer for Detroit Hockey Now. National column is for the hockey buzz as well. He joins us on the sheet. Kevin, first of all, thanks so much for joining us today.

How do you look at, I mean, right now, it seems a little bit early for trade buzz. We still have the Olympics to get to, et cetera, et cetera. But does it just feel friscier to you? Here we are late January, and we have seen a couple of trades, Carson Sussi, the most recent. Does this time of year right now, as opposed to other seasons, feel frisgier for trade talk? You've seen and reported on a lot. For sure. And I think it's the caliber of players that are available.

I mean, when you have a player like Panarin, who, you know, still scoring at a high level even at his age, you know he's going to move, they're going to get a nice package for him. even though, you know, he has complete control. I still think they'll do pretty well because of who he is. And then, you know, you hear Pedersen's name out there as well. And, you know, there's a lot of issues, obviously, with him. But, you know, there's no denying his skill level. So, you know, in my city, there's just constant buzz about what Steve Eisenman will do or really has to do. You know, for the first time, I think in Steve Eisenman's career, I think he's feeling a little bit of pressure.

Like the fan drumbeat is that he really needs to do something that, you know, Patrick Kane said the other day that, you know, we've done what we need to do to get the GM essentially to make some moves. He didn't phrase it like that, but that's essentially what he was saying. Yeah. Dude, do you think, I'll turn this over to Greg in a second, do you think that's a reflection of a pretty barren free agent pool at July 1st and teams are now realizing more so than ever? If we're going to improve here, unless the young kids take major leaps, we're going to have to do this through trade. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, there has been a discussion already about what the revenues are going to do in the offseason.

And, you know, what I tell people is that take a look. You know, there's not a lot there. You know, if you want to make a move, you know, I think now is the time to do it. And particularly with the way they've played, their holes are not numerous. You know, John Gibson since the beginning of December has really acted as if he's the best goal in the league. You know, he's 17 and 2. His numbers are terrific. He's really carried this team.

And, you know, they've turned it around offensively. They have a little bit of a hiccup now because Simon Edmondson is out. And Cider and Edvinson, that defensive pairing really is at kind of the heart of their competitiveness. And so I think this, you know, these next five games when he's going to be out of the line, lineup is going to be a little bit of a test for them because they've gotten accustomed to those two guys sort of leading the charge. And, you know, because some nights they don't get enough offense, but they have that defensive pairing at Gibson that are doing it.

First of all, it's good to see you again, man. I feel like I haven't seen you in a minute. And you are, and forever will be the dean of USA hockey writing, in my opinion. So, like, the cane comments interesting, because it kind of piggybacks on what Larkin said, right, about the reinforcements and such. And so, you know, is there a moment in which the players are putting pressure on, enough pressure on Iserman where he has to do something, or is Iserman unbothered by what the room is basically saying about,

hey, we've earned the right to have you bolstered this team? Yeah, that's a great question. And one that I would have said forever, I mean, Steve has said numerous times, numerous times, that he really doesn't pay attention to what the fans say. However, I think the, as I said, the drumbeat has gotten really loud. Chris Illich does. Just FYI.

Chris Illich does. Steve might not. Yeah. Mike, you know, Mike Illich is gone. And Chris Illich is there. It's much more corporate than it's been before. You know, the baseball organization seems to have a say now and what's going on. with the Red Wings as well.

So I do think, you know, the fan heartbeat matters. They're paying attention to it. And, you know, I think they're going to do something. You know, if you listen around the league, their first-round picks in play, I don't think it really has been for the last few years. And I think they're willing to move some of their younger players. But, you know, the one thing that Steve does not want to do is get rentals. Now, he may have to do that.

that. But I think his, his preference is against someone who has at least another year on his contractor can be part of the future or moving forward. Let me focus on one area specifically. I'm of the belief, Kevin, you're closer to it than I am, that they're looking for one top six forward and one top four defensemen. They missed out on Quinn Hughes. They missed out on Raz Anderson. were those the two top targets for Eisenman and the Red Wings? Is it now essentially for the blue line? Is it now, okay, plan B?

Because they didn't want to pay the price. Like, listen, Anderson was probably going to Vegas anyway. They didn't want to pay the Quinn Hughes price. Understood. That was hefty. But is it plan B time for the back end now? Yes, for sure. I am absolutely confident they're going to bring in a defenseman.

And I think they went pretty hard after Hughes. And I think everybody talked about how they didn't want to give up Edmondson, and that's certainly true. But what they really didn't like more than anything was that they didn't have a shot to sign him now. I don't think they would have given up Edmondson, but I think they might have sweetened the offer to the point where they would have had a shot. But, you know, the fact that Quinn Hughes was unwilling to resign with anybody at this point. I think sort of put them out on that.

They didn't feel like they wanted to give up all those assets for a year and a half. But there's no doubt I think there are any defense. But I think they're going to be looking at people. Like I think Myers, you mentioned him, like he's a possibility. I think he's down the list a little bit. But I think a guy that they might be sort of looking at hard as someone like Justin Falk, who's been around the block a little bit. You know, McClellan likes to have guys that can move the puck a little bit as well

and still sort of will pay attention to the defensive side of the game as well. And there's a history with Doug Armstrong and St. Louis and Steve Weissman, their friends. And to be honest, like, if it's not Falk, it could be some other St. Louis Blues defensemen because they like to make trades. There's no doubt about that. Between Myers and Edvinson, you're going to tick on the. Pistons, sounds like. Yeah, yeah.

Well, one of the things that's never brought up is Steve Eisenman said when he, when he got the job that he wanted a big defense. And if you look at it, you know, I mean, obviously Axel Sandin Pellicka doesn't fit that. But, you know, he has a special skill set. But otherwise, they have brought in guys that are big. They've got this guy named Anton Johansson, who was a good prospect, who's a big guy who likes to hit as well. Wallander, well, I think eventually will make the team, is probably going to be a third pairing guy, but he's a big guy as well. So they're going to be big for a while.

Yep. I wanted to, so my last one for me on the Red Wings, like, you mentioned Gibson before. He's been playing out of his mind, and I don't think that acquisition has probably gotten enough love from people who are skeptical about it. He's played incredibly well and has solved a big problem for that team. But how real is this? I think we're all sitting back trying to figure out how real are the sabers, how real are the penguins? Like how real are the red wings insofar as how much of this is insane Vesna-worthy goaltending and how much of this is the Izer plan producing a team that is playoff worthy? Yeah, I mean, there's enough parts to it to give you a sense of optimism that this is who they are. You know, and I'm going to start with.

Todd McClellan. It took Steve Eisenman some time to get it right, but he did with McClellan. You know, this is the kind of coach that Iserman needs. You know, he wants a coach that's going to hold them accountable. This is a guy that's not afraid to say, you know, publicly he has called out Larkin before he's called out Lucas Raymond for not shooting enough. You know, he gets into the players, yet he's a type of coach that I think everybody like.

So, you know, I think it's a pretty good mix for it. I do think, as I mentioned before, that the McClellan wasn't timid or fearful of putting Edmondson together. He didn't talk about balancing out his defense. He said, I got two premium defensemen. I'm going to put him together. And that's worked out well. And as I mentioned, you know, they've talked a lot about the chemistry of this team. At least they do here in Detroit.

And they've talked about the fact that Lucas Raymond has been one of the best young players, probably doesn't get enough credit for what a good young player he's been. Like when you see all of his accomplishments in Detroit, they're with people like Eisenman and Fedoroff and Henry Zetterberg. Those are the kind of numbers he's putting up. So I do think there's enough here. And Gibson is a big part of it. If you go back to what was happening then, you know, Steve Arsman said it as post-season

press conference, look, we've been below 900 and the same percentage for far too. And you can't win in this league with the, you know, you know, with goalies with save percentage, was that low. So he wanted a guy that had a proven record in terms of save percentage. At the time, I think Gibson was 9-11 or 9-12. So they brought him in for his save percentage because some of that was accomplished on some bad teams.

So that's why we brought him in. And he didn't start out with a good save percentage, but he has delivered lately. You know, since December, you know, he's been over 920 and most of his game during the 900 range. And the other thing about him, and he's a pretty calm, poised guy. And I think they needed that. They need someone who, like, they don't worry about who's in net when he's playing

because he always looks like he's in control. I'm going to surrender this over to Greg for questions about USA hockey. But my last Red Wings question is this. And you've written recently about Marco Casper, someone that I can still remember the first time, Kevin that I spoke to him, was at the Combine, sort of, you know, player interviews before the workouts and just marveling at how mature beyond his years. This kid was 17 years old. He talks like he's 25.

I remember he wore, to the interview, he wore a suit with a bowtie. And he was walking in like this, like an unironic bow tie, which is really hard to pull off. But there was Marco Casper pulling it off. And I just thought like, this guy is going to be such a pro for whoever gets him. I don't know how quickly he's going to turn into a pro, how he's going to distinguish himself, but this guy's going to be a pro player for someone for a long time. You've written about him most recently,

you know, getting some of his confidence back, hasn't been the best possible season for Casper. Give us a snapshot of where he's at because if he's healthy and his head's locked in, that solves a lot of problems for Eisenman. Well, for sure. And there's a lot to unpack here. I mean, first of all, you've got to remember his draft here.

What did Scouts say about him? He's going to play hard. He's going to be an NHL player. He's going to be the type of player you need to win in the NHL. But he may or may not score. And that was the question that everybody had. You know, will he be a third line score or put he squeeze up and get in the second line? So last year, when he ended up on the top line, you know, everybody thought, wow.

Like, he's really hit all run. You know, he had, you know, 19 goals. He was, you know, playing at a high level in the second half. and so people thought. I think this was as, you know, this is just the standard sophomore jinx. He came in, you know, that first year was on instinct. He just played hard. And, you know, and I'm co-chairman of the committee to tell everybody how hard the Casper plays.

I mean, most people didn't catch on. They were second on the team last year and hits. You know, he had 180-some hits. Like, this is a guy that goes out and plays hard. So he plays hard every ship. And the other thing I would want to run. remind people is during all this offensive drought and it was as ugly as it gets like he went you know weeks and weeks without getting a point and playing with some pretty good players um you know they never

considered sending him down to the miners and i think that speaks to what his game is like they you know they you know they they they got to ask all the time and colon says you know he does other things besides the score and he does. He's, you know, he's still one of the leading hitters on the team. You know, he competes hard. You can put him out there. You feel comfortable putting him out with the game on the line. So even when he's not scoring, but they, you know, because of last season, they want more from him. So, like, they're happy that he's scoring and they're going to, you know, they're going to hold him accountable to produce more than he has this season for sure. Let's push this dumb Canadian to the side for a second and talk about it.

The glory that is the USA men's like you're president now, Greg. Hey, calm down. No politics. Anyways. So listen, you have had the honor of being on the inside of the construction of an Olympic team. And you have obviously covered many, many incarnations of the men's U.S. Olympic team. What are your thoughts about the roster construction of this team and their chances for winning gold? I was going to say beating Canada, but we all know Canada will be upset by the checks.

well before the gold medal game. So what do you think about this team USA? Go Denmark. Well, it's interesting to me because this is a roster that we've all anticipated that they were going to be, you know, the team to beat

next time they got in the Olympics. And yet, when I look at this roster, it just feels that while the players are right, the timing seems to be horrible in terms of the readiness to play. play. And I point out that, you know, the Kachukes, which were going to be the heart and soul, you know, both of them have been injured, Matthew, more hurt than Brady. But, you know, all of us know who covered this business, there's a time when you come back and you enter the lineup, and then there's

the time when you're playing like you normally do. And that they're not one and the same. So as much as I believe Matthew will give it everything he's got, you know, what Matthew could truck are we going to get. I want to believe he's going to be, as I said, you know, the flag carrier of the team and the guy that, you know, puts his heart and soul in it. But, you know, he's been off the ice for a long time and he's just trying to get his timing back. And it just feels like there's too many of those guys on this team, guys that, you know, had injuries and have had some struggles, you know, Austin Matthews has been up and down, although, you know, his goal numbers now are good, but, you know, you'd like to see a few more assists from him. But so I don't know,

I don't know where this team is. Like, I like all the guys, you know, I, like everyone else, I wonder why we're not going to see Lane Hudson. I get that he's young, but, you know, all of us have seen what happens because we see it in Quinn Hughes. When you have an offensive, a dynamic, offensive defensemen that can move the puck in the zone and just create havoc and just give a team a lift. And, you know, I get, you know, what Bill Garen was saying with, you know, he's got Quinn Hughes, he's going to do that. And, you know, in today's game, we just use one of those guys on the point on the power play. However, you know, it's nice to have a guy like that, you know, when you're down a goal, you can, you know, just give him license to kill

and let them go out there and sort of skate around as to happen. So it's tough. I, you know, I covered the 96 World Cup championship, and I've written about often about the biggest change in American hockey was when Kachuk and Bill Guerin joined, were old enough to join that team. Because America had always had a couple of good, you know, great defensemen, you know, the Ryan Lees, the celliosas,

and they had centers. you know, Pat LaFontaine and all that. What they never had, and the late, they always talked about the fact that, you know, the good athletes went to football. You know, Bob, Billy, Bob Johnson, you talk about that. And, you know, John Elway would have been a great love wing, but he never had the opportunity. But Chuk and Garen was that first group that were the great athletes that could have gone to football, but didn't.

And suddenly they had guys who could go in the corner with. Lindross and the Canadians of that era. And I think so I think Bill Garron understands how to build a team, but it still doesn't explain to me why he didn't take a guy like Lane Hudson. Like I sort of understand Robertson, you know, because you don't always need the leading score. You need up front. But I do think when there's a guy that's a difference maker like Hudson, you'll want

him on the. The league. The one thing that I come to with the decision, you know, Seth Jones goes out and Jackson LaCombe comes in over someone like Lane Hudson, the one thing that I come back to on that is killing penalties. Yeah. And, you know, we don't know. Like, Jacob Slavin, guarantee. Like I thought Jacob Slavin was the best player at Four Nations full stop last year, like 100% of any team in the tournament. I looked at Jackson LaColm and said, he's there to kill penalties.

That's why. We have our offense. You know, they'll get our players that can score. are we got defenders that can move the part? We need more guys that can kill penalties. Is that a way do you think we can look at this decision to go with Jackson-Lacombe? Well, for sure. There's no doubt.

And, you know, I have great respect for Bill Guerin and, you know, his knowledge of the game and how badly he wants to win. I think Greg made reference to it, you know, before that, you know, I'm sure he's spent sleepless nights, you know, trying to win. I mean, this guy just lives to, to be Canada, you know. So I really get it. And the one thing I always try to remember,

and actually it was taught to me in the early 1980s by, he was then a scout, David McNabb. Oh, yeah. Yeah, David McNabb always said to me, the first time I was looking at the Olympic selections and just shaking my head over some of them. And Dave said, you know, this is the way it works. There always has to be the best player,

or not on an Olympic team, and he's the guy we're going to want to talk about. And it never ceases. Every Olympics we have, that it's the best guy that does make the team, any All-Star game. And that's the guy we want to talk about, not the guys that are on. Call Field, Lane Hudson. I'll remember this Jackson-Lacombe justification of the gold medal game when there are no power plays. How important it is to have a penalty killer. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

It's not exclusively Double IHF referees But there will be Double IHF referees And there's nothing Double IHF referees Like more Than the whistle

They live for the whistle NHL referees And Crunch time like to keep it in the pockets Double IHF officials Love to blow whistles At big and inopportune times Yes, they do There will be power plays.

There will be power of plays. Kevin, this is great. Really appreciate your contributions, as always. It's always a delight to catch up to one of the most distinguished and respected voices in hockey media the game has ever had. You're still the king around here. Thanks, Kevin. Always a pleasure. Appreciate it, guys.

See you later.