The Athletic’s Max Bultman examines Filip Zadina’s status as a Grand Rapids Griffin in context this morning. Bultman compares Zadina’s situation to those of three young players who first skated in the AHL in David Pastrnak, Mikko Rantanen and Alexander (and William) Nylander:
While plenty of prospects fill the AHL every year, it is somewhat unusual for players of Zadina’s lottery-pick pedigree to be there already at age 18 — largely because of rules preventing CHL players from doing so before they’re 20. Since many high draft picks are Canadian, those players either make the NHL or go back to juniors.
But with European players, the rules are different. They can play in the American league immediately. So as we look for recent comparables to Zadina’s current situation — forwards drafted in the top 10 who then played in the AHL that season — the pool is largely composed of European imports.
And as we’ll see, not all of those circumstances are identical to Zadina’s. But among the handful of players who have largely followed this path, there are a few important comparisons, and a couple key contrasts, that can teach us how we should evaluate Detroit’s acclaimed winger during his time in Grand Rapids.
We already more or less know the charge Detroit sent him down with. “Let’s go down and let’s figure out the space, how much space you have,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said Sunday. “And let’s gain that confidence, let’s get adjusted to it, and hopefully he fills the net down there and he’s demanding that he gets called back up.”
Continued (paywall)…
