The Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa weighs in on the Red Wings’ rebuilding process this evening, suggesting that the Wings should be more aggressive in giving younger players greater roles on the team. Krupa notes that the Wings do have some youth moving up the roster, but he feels that it’s not quite enough:
Five new guys, is a radical departure. But, the Wings did dispatch their promising 2018 first round pick, sixth overall, 18-year-old Filip Zadina, to Grand Rapids.
The roster has been in flux since Mike Babcock described it that way as early as 2012-13. Regardless, the players and coaches say the will strive for the playoffs.
The true purpose of the season, however, is plainly development.
The approach should be: If the development is good enough, the playoffs may come. But given the status of the roster, do not expect them.
If that is how the season trends, the Red Wings should provide more playing time for prospects and consider any diminished performance advantageous for the lottery.
Krupa continues, and I have two points of polite disagreement with his take:
- Contractually, it’s really damn hard for Wings GM Ken Holland to dissolve the bonds he’s made with older players…
- And it serves no purpose to teach “the kids” that losing-through-learning is an acceptable means of playing a professional sport, so…
- I’m expecting the Wings to lose a lot of close games again this year because their talent level is iffy, but I do hope that they are competitive and play with pride and attention to detail, even if finishing in the draft lottery is once again the “better” option.
Some DMen looked good, Zadina, ?? Give them lots of mins is a lot better than GR. KH still dinking around with his beloved Vets. I like Kronner but he should have gone LTIR. He won’t show prospects much dragging his butt up the ice on 1 good (old) leg.
DeK just keeps getting worse, he can’t skate for whatever reason, hasn’t grown since he arrived, …Eat Dumb Ass
Stinky E will stay around until contract expires next year.
No big deal, good year for a lottery pick. Old D and old G should let more goals against.
I don’t get the rush re: starting Zadina in Detroit.
Hopefully he’ll continue to adjust to the pro game,
improve in details, pace, decisonmaking and confidence
– and still get to play and gain meaninful experience in Detroit.
Pastrnak and Kucherov are two pretty compelling examples of
giving potential star scoring wingers time the A.
I’m really at peace with accepting the contractual reality of this roster and letting Holland’s time with the Wings run its course. He has made some adjustments to reality in the past season or two.
Now, if the Wings trade Nyquist and perhaps Daley, that’s reasonable continued progress toward a rebuild.
It looks like Svechnikov and Frk, both cursed with preseason injuries, are competing for a spot.
The opportunities the young defensemen are getting is exciting.
Zadina is not ready for the NHL. He is not physically strong enough to create space for himself. He needs to physically mature some and understand that the NHL level is much tighter, physical and there is a lot less room then in the leagues he came from. If you have seen his highlights from his past, most of his goals he is untouched or with minimal physical contact. That is not today’s NHL and you all know this.
I think if he can mature and gain strength down in GR he will be ready next year for the big leagues. I don’t agree always with Holland, but it was the correct move sending him down.
I agree Lefty, I am excited about the young D and Ras. This is very interesting period for the Wings. It if wasn’t for all the sh*t contracts this team might be competing for a playoff spot. But time will eliminate the bad deals. Just hopefully Kenny does add any in the meantime.
As much as I’d like to see Zadina playing in Detroit from the get-go, I agree with the decision to send him down. In Traverse City (Prospect Tournament/Training Camp) he took at least 3 or 4 really hard hits – obviously shaken up and getting off the ice slowly – that were due in part to his not being aware of the speed of the game and what was going on around him. The last thing we need is for him to get smoked in an NHL game and deal with a concussion or other serious injury early on. Let him get acclimated to things at the AHL level. If he’s anywhere near the player we’ve been reading about he’ll be playing in Detroit soon.
I don’t get why just because we have these players under contract they can’t be sent down/waived. Ericsson and dekyser don’t show they want to win so why not have the young guys learn the game. I’d much rather lose them for nothing than having them waste space on our team.