The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article and a video this afternoon, first discussing Dennis Cholowski’s bid for a roster spot this upcoming season…
“You can see just from a year and a half, he’s matured physically,” Griffins head coach Ben Simon said. “He looks bigger. He’s got a little bit more of a presence to him. He practices like a pro. He’s got very good practice habits and hopefully that correlates to game situations. He’s put a lot of pressure on himself to make the Wings out of camp. If that doesn’t happen, we are excited to have him.
“He’s a tremendously smart, intelligent hockey player and his skating ability is one of his biggest attributes as well. Once he gets the puck, he makes good decisions with it, he can get up ice and contribute offensively. For Dennis, it is going to be the defensive side of things and closing quickly, using his size and closing quickly, and if he can do that against bigger, stronger opponents at the pro level as opposed to juniors, then he’s going to see a little bit quicker progression.”
Cholowski, 20, has the skill set to boost the Wings: he skates beautifully, makes a good first pass, can run a power play. When he practices, he is moving his feet and making passes and working on details. He takes it as “a big compliment, ” he said, when he hears himself praised as practicing like a pro, confident those habits will translate into games.
St. James continues, and she posted a video of defenseman and 2018 draft pick Seth Barton’s comments to the media today:
