The Free Press’s Helene St. James confirms something strongly suspected by Wings followers: Henrik Zetterberg will consult with Dr. Frank Cammisa, the back specialist who performed the discectomy on Zetterberg in 2014, in order to help determine whether he can continue playing:
Zetterberg is expected to see Dr. Frank Cammisa next week, if not sooner. Cammisa was the doctor who performed back surgery on Zetterberg in the spring of 2014.
“He knows his back as well as anybody,” general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press on Tuesday. “We’ll see what he says, then determine if we need another opinion.”
Also of note from Holland:
With Zetterberg unavailable for camp, the Wings have 10 NHL regulars up front, along with the booming right-handed shot of Martin Frk.
Michael Rasmussen, a center drafted ninth overall in 2017, is expected to be ready to grab a job after a standout performance in the 2018 WHL playoffs (14 goals and 17 assists for 33 points in 14 games).
Holland named the other top forward prospects as Filip Zadina, Evgeny Svechnikov and Dominic Turgeon. Zadina is a scorer drafted sixth overall in June, and Svechnikov is a big winger acquired in the 2015 first round. Turgeon could perhaps serve as fourth-line center, while a guy like Luke Glendening jumps up to center the third line, and Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin center the top two lines.
“Jeff Blashill and I have talked all summer about what our lineup would look like with Z in the lineup, and what it would look like without him,” Holland said. “We know he won’t be ready for the start of the season. And we know there’s a chance it’s worse than that.”
It just dawned on me that a reason Z was played so much durning the last half of last season might have been to get him as close as possible to 1000 points because he may have thought he wouldn’t be playing much this season.