The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan penned a story about Evgeny Svechnikov, who spent some of his weekend in Traverse City, watching his brother Andrei play for the Carolina Hurricanes in the prospect tournament. Svechnikov hopes to make the Wings’ roster on a full-time basis after playing 14 games with the Wings last year:
“There’s more expectation,” Svechnikov said after an informal workout at Little Caesars Arena. “(But) I had, last year, a lot of expectations for myself.”
Svechnikov has the size at 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, and has shown a knack for playing in tight areas, using his strength and instincts. But his struggles defensively, lack of top-end speed, and self-doubt have held him back in the brief NHL auditions.
“I want to show I can play really good defensively and be strong in the zone, cycle the puck and make less mistakes,” Svechnikov said.
Svechnikov did a lot of power skating work in the summer and worked out extensively with younger brother Andrei, who was picked No. 2 overall in June’s draft by Carolina.
“I did a lot of skating, a lot of running,” Svechnikov said. “It was lot of long of runs. It was hard, really hard. I did it for two months, three days a week.”
