The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan examines the Red Wings’ defense this evening, and Kulfan duly notes that the Wings’ prospects on the blueline will have an uphill battle in their attempts to earn spots on the Wings’ roster:
Prospects such as Dennis Cholowski, Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak are making concerted runs at roster spots.
One, maybe two, will break through this camp, given the way the defense’s depth chart is constructed.
“It’s easy to say one is going to be on our team and if we have two (young defensemen) push to be on our team, that means they’ve beat out good players and we’re a better hockey team,” Blashill said. “We’re not handing jobs. But if they end up beating players out, the theory is, we’re better because of it.
“There are guys certainly who have put themselves in positions to potentially win jobs. Filip Hronek, Sulak, Cholowski, Hicketts — all those guys have put themselves in position to win jobs. Now come to camp, and win a job.”
It won’t be easy to land more than one defenseman’s spot, as six of the positions appear all set.
Trevor Daley (age 34), Danny DeKeyser (28), Jonathan Ericsson (34), Green (32), Nick Jensen (27) and Niklas Kronwall (37) all return.
If the Wings limit Kronwall’s minutes (maybe Ericsson’s as well), it could make sense to bring up a 7th D-man prospect. But only if they’ll get enough minutes in the bigs…