Red Wings 2020 draft pick Sam Stange attended this year’s World Junior Evaluation Camp in Plymouth, Michigan alongside fellow Wings prospect Robert Mastrosimone.
While the camp was closed to the media due to the coronavirus, the Detroit News’s Mark Falkner reached out to Stange, a two-sport star (hockey and baseball) regarding Stange’s experiences at the camp, his outlook for both the World Junior Championship and the NCAA Division I hockey season to come (Stange will be a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Wisconsin) and Stange’s status as something of a late-blooming prospect:
“It was my first time being at a camp like this,” said Stange, a late bloomer who was bypassed in last year’s draft but stepped up with 24 goals and 18 assists in 44 games with the Sioux City Musketeers and Sioux Falls Stampede in the United States Hockey League this year. “The level of skill is really high and the speed of the game goes up. I haven’t been able to represent the USA on a world stage or wear the jersey. To be able to get selected or take the next step would mean a lot to me.”
Stange’s Big Ten season will begin as soon as Nov. 13 (the schedules haven’t been released yet) and will feature 24-game conference schedules, plus an additional four games per school against Arizona State hosted at Big Ten venues. The 2020-21 schedule will conclude March 18-20 with the Big Ten tournament.
“It’s been pretty crazy the last week,” Stange said. “Less than 24 hours after I was picked, I was on my way here for the camp. I didn’t really get to see the city too much in the bubble environment. It was still cool knowing I was in the area.”
Stange helped his hometown of Eau Claire win the Wisconsin state baseball championship in 2019, but he’s made the choice to pursue hockey as a sporting career, and he tells Falkner that he’s leaving the World Junior Evaluation Camp with some homework to do:
“I want to take this experience back to Madison and learn from Tony and the rest of the coaching staff,” Stange said. “Even some of the smaller guys here have big-time strength. It shows me I’ll have to develop my strength and know how to use it.”
