Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s remarks regarding the Wings’ need to “wait and see” as to whether they play on Wednesday at all, as well as what the NHL’s return-to-play protocols entail, before calling up players from the Grand Rapids Griffins:
“There’s a roster management or cap management side to this that I don’t necessarily deal with but there is consequences to it, so you can’t just necessarily call up anybody,” Blashill said. “We’ll work with our management group on that.
“I’m waiting to see where things are going here. That’ll dictate a little bit on a number of my decisions. We’re waiting on some testing. There is opportunities for guys to test out (of COVID-19 protocol). “
Currently, 10 Red Wings players are in COVID-19 protocol. Three more NHL games were postponed on Monday but for now, the Detroit-Isles game remains on the schedule. Detroit’s last game, also against the Islanders, was played with five Griffins players and two GR coaches as part of the Red Wings lineup.
“It’s just a very fluid situation,” Blashill said. “I don’t think we’d bring guys up just to practice per se, because now you’re introducing new players into your locker room again.
“The less players introduced the better in terms of not increasing the exposure. But certainly if those players we anticipate were playing on the 29th, then we would potentially bring them in as quick as we can.”
