According to the Free Press’s Helene St. James, Grand Rapids Griffins defensemen Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak will continue their 2017-18 campaigns:
Red Wings prospects Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak joining Martin Frk with Czech team at Worlds. Puts Wings at 7 players for tournament: Frans Nielsen (Denmark), Dylan Larkin & Nick Jensen (USA), Gustav Nyquist (Sweden).
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) May 1, 2018
Frk got cut from the team if I’m not mistaken.
That’s correct. Bummer!
Hopefully Sulak can get back to playing. Still frustrating that we have guys like Sulak, Saarijarvi, Cholowski as spectators watching a bunch of veterans play. Did they really learn much in these 5 games? Just throw a couple of them into the fire…what’s the worst that could happen…the Griffins lose in the first round? Oh wait. That happened anyway.
“…what’s the worst that could happen…”
The could get a neck injury and never play hockey again. They could die. They could catch a mysterious skin bacteria.
I could think of a lot of bad things…..oh yeah, they could make the team worse because they have no feel for the team and the system while playing against faster, strong, smarter players.
Yep, next season, the balance finally has to shift at the AHL level toward prospects.
These guys, particularly on defense are, barring total flops,
going to have to play heavy minutes and in every situation.
And management needs to choose between Russo and Renouf, if not Lashoff and McIlrath. I say move one of the former two in a minor league swap.
Surely some of the UFA forwards will leave through attrition (deals are up). I believe Street, Tangradi and Lorito are unrestricted.
The goalies are competent to good at the AHL level but are now 26 and 28. What can Machovsky do? Let’s see.
Hey lefty. Machovsky went back to Europe. So he’s no longer in the plans. I’d like to see Fulcher graduate to the AHL. Maybe in a 1a/1b situation with either Coreau or McCollum. But the pipeline is looking pretty awful.