Red Wings assistant GM Pat Verbeek has succeeded the departed Ryan Martin as the general manager of the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, and, today, Verbeek spoke with MLive’s Ansar Khan regarding his position as the man in charge of Detroit’s developmental franchise:
“I’m excited about the opportunity in a sense that it’s a very important job for our organization right now,” Verbeek said. “I know it’s going to be a huge challenge. When you want to get your organization going in the right way you have to develop players, so I’m taking this as a very important role in helping the Detroit Red Wings get back to where we need to be – in the playoffs and winning the Stanley Cup.”
Verbeek will remain the Red Wings assistant GM under Steve Yzerman, scaling back some of his scouting duties to focus on the day-to-day operations in Grand Rapids. He replaces Ryan Martin, who joined the New York Rangers last week in the same capacity.
The Griffins reached the playoffs seven years in a row from 2012-13 to 2018-19, winning the Calder Cup championship in 2013 and 2017.
The AHL playoffs were canceled the past two seasons due to the pandemic. The Griffins open a full 76-game 2021-22 season on Oct. 15.
“Ryan did a really good job of getting our veterans signed. I’m pretty excited about the team that’s down there,” Verbeek said. “We should be a very good team.”
Continued; if you missed the availability, here it is:
Update: Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also spoke with Verbeek regarding several topics:
The Grand Rapids GM job is critical to the Yzerman regime because the Red Wings plan to stock Grand Rapids with premium prospects over the next few seasons. It will be Verbeek’s job to make sure the team has quality role models and skilled athletes to play with Detroit’s youngsters.
“I think it’s a balancing act,” said Verbeek who still carries the title of Red Wings assistant GM. “One of the primary focuses is we got a lot of young players coming in the organization. We really want to support them with good veterans, veterans who can provide offense.”
Verbeek said he doesn’t want younger players to feel like they have to do it all in Grand Rapids.
“It gives them a big support system from an offensive standpoint. The same thing can be said for our defense,” Verbeek said. “We have quality veteran defensemen who will mentor our young defensemen. Some veterans we can use as call-ups.”
