Regner profiles prospect Lane Zablocki

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner provides a profile of Red Wings prospect Lane Zablocki this morning, discussing Zablocki’s “numbers” from his 2017-18 season. Zablocki, who was traded twice during the 2017-18 season, needs to “find a home” to truly establish himself as a gritty forward with some offensive pop:

Quotable: “One of the pleasant surprises for me was I actually didn’t know before he came in how versatile he is as a forward. To give you an example, we started him on his strong side wing. We learned quickly he can play his off-side wing as well, more of a shooting winger, but in the playoffs when we had a few injuries at the center position he actually played center for us and did that very well. He’s strong in the face-off circle, he’s strong physically generally, which helps him be good down low and he’s very competitive, he’s really hard to play against. We were able to manufacture a center we didn’t know we had.

So that’s a real positive as a coach when you have a player you can move around at all three positions (who) can play anywhere on the ice and can have an impact offensively and defensively. It’s a real opportunity for him to grow (next season) and to demonstrate to Detroit what he can do, not just what he can do now, but what he could become, which is obviously such an important part of the evaluation from the pro team – ‘what will this player be in a few years?’ So with that speed and physicality that he brings, the versatility at all three positions and he’s also really good around the net and that’s obviously a big part of Detroit’s success in the past with people like (Tomas) Holmstrom as an example.

And with a person like Lane potentially a candidate for that type of role, whether it be junior, American League or NHL, I think that’s really exciting for Detroit.” – Dan Price, Victoria Royals head coach

Regner continues at length…