Year of McLellan and Gibson's Resurgence ft. Max Bultman - Dec. 28th, 2025

Winged Wheel Podcast - A Detroit Red Wings Podcast

Winged Wheel Podcast

Sports, Hockey

4.9 • 968 Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WWP NIGHT w/ the GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS TICKETS (with Limited Edition Signed Puck): https://griffinshockey.com/wwp

2025 has been the Year of Todd McLellan for the Detroit Red Wings and Hockeytown fans.

Tune in (as we're joined by Max Bultman of The Athletic Detroit) as we begin by recapping Detroit's electric comeback win against Mikko Rantanen and the Dallas Stars, including John Gibson's 8th straight win, James van Riesmdyk's redemption and unbelievable pass, Dylan Larkin's multi-goal heroics, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider continuing to rack up points, strong play from Michael Rasmussen, Edvinsson & Finnie contributing, & more (4:30). After that, the Red Wings' ugly loss to Brind'Amour and the Carolina Hurricanes, including Rasmussen and Copp chipping in (from Sandin-Pellikka & Leonard) and not much else going Steve Yzerman's squad's way (13:50).

We then jump into the Red Wings' 5v5 scoring questions: has the top line with Larkin, Raymond, and Finnie been stagnant? Will putting Marco Kasper in that spot solve two issues? How much has the team been relying on Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, and Andrew Copp? (36:05)

Next, John Gibson's redemption in net ahead of Cam Talbot and with Sebastian Cossa making waves (46:20), as well as a look at Justin Faulk as a potential trade target for Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings to bolster the blue line behind Seider, Edvinsson, Sandin-Pellikka, and Chiarot (53:20).

After that, a look at Red Wings prospects at the World Juniors (Carter Bear, Eddie Genbord, Max Plante, Michal Pradel, Michal Svrcek) & Dan Watson's Grand Rapids Griffins setting AHL records with Sebastian Cossa & Co. leading the way (1:02:45).

All of that & lots more before we take your questions and comments in our Overtime segment (1:08:55) - enjoy!

Head over to wingedwheelpodcast.com to find all the ways to listen, how to support the show, and so much more!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Wingwheel podcast, the number one source for news, analysis, and discussion on the Detroit Red Wings, the NHL, and all things hockey.
0:19.2	Here are your hosts, Brian Hanna, Brad Criscoe, and Evan Lopsinger.
0:28.5	Fitting that we have you on, Max, for a remote episode, a good in the room episode,
0:32.9	but as also our Grand Rapids tour guide, because Windwheel podcast night with the Grand Rapids
0:39.7	Griffins is on January 17th. It's coming up quickly.
0:43.3	Griffin'shockey.com slash WWP to get your tickets. The last batch is available.
0:47.5	Like we can't, it's not like the Red Wings events. Once those tickets and pieces of co-branded
0:52.2	merch are done, they're done. So get yours today. But Max,
0:56.4	we're going to have a third try at this whole go to the restaurants that Max recommends
1:01.2	things. I tried last time, but I forgot the name and type of restaurant. Gasslet Max
1:07.8	into saying I went to the place he told me to go.
1:17.9	I'm going to need to try to get down there again and just actually like chaperone these visits so that I make sure that they happen.
1:26.3	Everything else about these events, like the pregame live show with Dan Watson and Grand Rapids Griffin's players last year we had Lombardi. That goes great.
1:28.6	The game goes great.
1:30.8	The post game stuff that we do.
1:32.1	All of that is awesome.
1:37.5	But we cannot be trusted to just follow a set of instructions beforehand in the city.
1:40.3	And I blame it on the fact that it's such an amazing city to go to.
2:01.5	Like what other reason do you need to go see Griffin's hockey other than a historic start, which we're going to talk about today? But even if they were terrible at hockey or if there's no hockey team, Van Andel didn't exist. That is a top tier hidden gem city in the United States. I'm biased. I think it's got to be, if not the best, certainly a top three minor league city in, like, in terms of sports teams.
2:02.4	Like if you're in the HL, I don't know maybe.
2:05.9	I mean, San Diego is on that list, so that's obviously in there.
2:08.4	But there's not really any other places that I would put above it, although I am extremely
	...

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