The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects have a 4 PM EDT game against the New York Rangers’ prospects (to be streamed on Fox Sports GO and DetroitRedWings.com; if the Wings win and the Stars beat Minnesota in a 3:30-start game, Detroit’s in Tuesday’s championship game on Tuesday), so coach Ben Simon chose to hold an optional morning skate for his players.
Starting goaltender Patrik Rybar, back-ups Kaden Fulcher and Justin Fazio, forwards Nicholas Guay and Pavel Gogolev and defensemen Trevor Hamilton and Cole Fraser took part in the skate.
Rybar spent the vast majority of the skate in the south net, working with the Wings’ goaltending coaches, Brian Mahoney-Wilson and Jeff Salajko, and Rybar went off early, affording Kaden Fulcher some time to break in his brand new Vaughn pads.
Justin Fazio remained in the north net, taking part in shooting drills with the Wings’ quartet of scratches, and I was very impressed with the players’ work ethic on collective and individual bases.
With the exceptions of Fulcher and Fraser, none of the players taking part are going to land on the Wings’ roster if they impress during practice, but they still busted their butts as Griffins assistants Brad Tapper, Matt MacDonald and Mike Knuble, skill development coach Brandon Naurato and, for a while, anyway, Shawn Horcoff and Daniel Cleary all lent hands.
The goaltenders mostly worked on pull-off-the-post drills at the south end of the ice, working on their edges and then focusing on strong, quick hands while down in the butterfly;
The skaters took part in a set of three drills used to emphasize puck movement, with the forwards and defensemen retrieving pucks along the half boards, shooting from the half boards, setting up the defensemen for a one-timer, retreating to center and then breaking back into the zone with a d-to-forward pass. The players also engaged in some battle drills down low, and they were spirited affairs.
In terms of brief player evaluations, on a player-by-player basis:
34 Patrik Rybar: Rybar’s getting a chance to start in a second game because he was unflappable against the Wild on Friday, making tremendous stops despite surrendering 3 goals on 34 shots. Rybar is a big goalie at 6’3″ and 190 pounds, and he maximizes his size playing a puck-blocking style with excellent rebound control, booting or blockering pucks into low-danger areas. He’s got a smart glove as well, but his stickhandling is middling at best, so less is more for Rybar there. Overall, he’s displayed good positioning and lots of self-confidence for a goaltender adjusting to 85-foot-wide ice, and I expect him to deliver a steady performance this evening.
36 Kaden Fulcher: At 6’3″ going on 6’4″ and 182 pounds, Fulcher possesses a massive wingspan, but he’s more of a battling goaltender than a blocking one, using strong fundamentals to play a style that’s somewhat reminiscent of Jonathan Quick, minus those scorpion saves. Fulcher’s arms, legs and chest are aggressively pointed toward the shooter, and he snags pucks out of the air, blockers them away or kicks bigger rebounds into the corners or half boards. He’s an excellent stickhandler, and while there are sometimes holes on his glove side or when he bends over too much in the butterfly, Fulcher’s working on sealing up those holes, and he played tremendously well on Saturday.
68 Justin Fazio**: Fazio is plain old working his butt off in order to impress scouts from other pro teams right now. The 6’1,” 188-pound goaltender plays a compact style, using good positioning to do most of the work that other goalies use their size to accomplish. Fazio has excellent hands, quick feet and a smart stick, and he’s patient and poised in the net. He’s simply not going to earn a spot with the Red Wings’ organization, so he’ll either latch on with another pro team or play Canadian Intrauniversity Sport hockey.
74 Cole Fraser: Fraser is admittedly a little upset with not being able to play in tonight’s game, but Fraser seemed to channel his frustration into perhaps the best “practice play” I’ve seen from him. The 6’2,” 191-pound defenseman from Peterborough did a great job of speedily retrieving pucks and using his good skating skills to set up for big, booming slap shots toward the net. He didn’t drift out of his skating lanes and he was quick to take pucks and quick to release passes and shots from his stick.
62 Trevor Hamilton*: I was surprised that the 2-year graduate of Penn State, contracted to the Griffins at 24 years of age, won’t be in the lineup tonight. He did a solid job of working with Alec Regula on Friday and subbed with Dennis Cholowski on Saturday, playing rock-steady defense. Headed to either the Griffins or Walleye, Hamilton plays a steady all-round game, utilizing his skating and 6,’ 198-pound frame to efficiently transport pucks.
76 Nicholas Guay**: Guay is a solid try-out from the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Joe Veleno’s team. At 6’1″ and 183 pounds, Guay has had some trouble with physical battles, but he spins off of checks well and does a good job working the puck along the boards and down low. He’s a strong skater as well. He’s not likely to earn a contract from the Wings due to the overload at forward.
89 Pavel Gogolev**: The Peterborough Petes forward scored 30 goals in his draft year, but his 6,’ 168-pound frame may have scared off teams in the later rounds. He does possess superb goal-scoring chops, and if he were to fill out, he’d be more dangerous as he skates solidly.
*=Griffins contract, **=Try-out
