Impressions from the fifth day of the Red Wings’ 2022 summer development camp

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects participating in Detroit’s 2022 summer development camp concluded their on-ice activities by doing “something completely different” from the skill development drills which they engaged in during Day One, Day Two, Day Three and Day Four of assistant director of player development Dan Cleary’s camp:

The participants, including a late-arriving Simon Edvinsson, took part in a set of 3-on-3 scrimmages, with the skaters and goaltenders separated into the following teams:

It’s #DRWDC 3v3 Day!

Games start at 8:00am.

STREAM: https://t.co/HdQB06nrjy pic.twitter.com/pj5qGpT3WY— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 14, 2022

Team Draper won 3-2 over Team Watson; one Amadeus Lombardi, a 5’10,” 165-pound 2022 draft pick, scored a hat trick and added an assist in Team Watson’s first game, however, and the mere presence of Team Cleary’s Edvinsson definitely had an impact upon the stream audience, the social media crowd which got up at 8 AM to watch the games (you can thank comedian Kevin Hart’s “Reality Check Tour” for requiring the facility be prepared for tonight’s show for that 8 AM start), and the packed executive suite.

If you have 3 hours and 40 minutes and want to listen to Ken Kal call the game while Art Regner, Daniella Bruce and Carley Johnston weigh in on the proceedings between periods and games, please do enjoy:

As I said earlier today, after doing five days’ worth of this stuff, with free agency added into the mix, coming off a seven-month hiatus due to mental illness, I’m plain old exhausted tonight (I got up at 5 AM, running on about 4 hours of sleep, to get down to the rink extra early), and part of me would love to just say, “You want to know how the players did? Watch the stream!” but that’s not realistic, of course.

So how was Thursday’s slate of games different from what proceeded them?

Well, in addition to Lombardi’s hat trick and highlight-reel performance, as well as Edvinsson’s professional debut on North American ice, technically speaking…

This was a welcome change of pace from the skating and skill development drills which defined the second, third and fourth days of development camp.

The 3-on-3 tournament definitely did not replicate real 5-on-5 hockey game situations–it was far more freewheeling and far less physical than the kind of hockey that you’re going to see over the course of the fall prospect tournament–but it was refreshing to see different aspects of the players’ games, and they definitely made different impressions upon me than they would have left me with sans game action.

Some players were particularly impressive, some players were particularly frustratingly impressive, and some players disappointed, but only slightly.

Without further adieu, let’s get down to brass tacks with player observations:

TEAM CLEARY

Forwards:

#21 Kienan Draper: Draper may be the classic late-bloomer, and he may be a bust, or, more likely, a support player in the making. The 2020 draft pick, the 6’1,” 198-pound Draper dominated at the BCHL level for two “overage” seasons against 16-to-20-year-old players, posting point-per-game seasons (or nearly so). At 20 years of age, he’s finally heading to college, going to the University Michigan as a freshman this fall.

Over the course of development camp, and especially in game situations, Draper made a couple of impressions upon me. First, he’s not as good a skater as his father, though he’s just as strong. Second, he drops his stick a lot. A lot a lot. Third, there are flashes of excellent speed, very good vision, strong playmaking and shooting skills, but there are also instances where, especially when playing against older players, he looks quite over-matched in battles, despite his physical fitness.

Long story long, Draper is the kind of still-raw, mid-six player who needs to face both bigger challenges in terms of playing against stronger competition and better coaching in order to put the disparate parts of his game together in a solid toolbox.

He’s taking the long route toward player development both mentally, physically and in terms of his skill set, and here’s hoping that they all intersect at the same time, because, when they do, you end up with a professional athlete.

#43 Carter Mazur: The plucky, gritty Mazur has a leg up on that developmental process. The University of Denver sophomore and 6,’ 173-pound left wing is still quite raw in terms of his physical conditioning and physique in general, but the lanky 20-year-old had a fantastic freshman season, winning an NCAA Division 1 championship while posting 38 points in 41 regular season and playoff games.

Mazur is plain old mean. He’s prickly, hacking and whacking at opponents’ sticks, even during skill drills, and he’s got a real snarl to him, and that tenacity affords him the ability to win puck battles with opponents. He’s not the world’s fastest skater, but he has a scorer’s touch, especially in tight, and he can go straight to the net and stop and stay there.

There’s still a significant amount of stuff for Mazur to work on, but he definitely has second or third-line scorer/instigator potential. He just needs the time to physically develop and to round out his game, and the University of Denver is one of the best college hockey programs in the country, so he’s got a good chance.

#54 Robert Mastrosimone: Mastrosimone is a bit of a contradiction in terms. The 5’10,” 170-pound center is 21 years old, and he’s chosen to transfer from Boston University to Arizona State before his senior season, hoping to jump-start his NCAA career.

Mastrosimone shows flashes of excellent skating skills and flat-out speed, he can puck-handle well, pass, shoot, and check, but when he plays, he displays a tremendous lack of confidence. He’s a headsy young man who has a fine head on his shoulders, but the 2019 draft pick was supposed to develop into a strong support player, and while he’s got the skating and physical strength parts down, as well as the mental approach, his skill set hasn’t kept up the pace.

I am hoping that Robert finds the high voltage he needs at Arizona State. He’s an affable young man who really wants to play hockey for a living, but he’s running out of developmental runway.

#58 Riley Piercey**: The free agent invite from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds finally flexed his muscles on Thursday. Despite being 6’3″ and 212 solid pounds, the 20-year-old who posted 58 points in 59 games for one of the OHL’s best teams this past season hadn’t really stood out in the skill drills, and while he skated well, and he handled the puck well enough, none of that size translated.

During the scrimmages, Piercey didn’t exactly look like the kind of player the Wings absolutely have to sign, a.k.a. the “bonus draft pick,” but he was big and hard on the puck, his speed translated into generating some scoring chances, and he looked capable in terms of his scoring touch.

As a Canadian Hockey League-playing athlete, he may be invited to the prospect tournament in September, and it’s entirely possible that he’ll continue to impress there. If not, he can go back to Flint and play in his “overage” season as an established scorer there.

#64 Julien Anctil**: Anctil has been a puzzling player to watch. The Sherbrooke Phoenix winger came down from the QMJHL with a fine 68 points-in-67-games season under his belt, and the right-shooting center was passed over in the draft as a 19-year-old mostly because he’s 6’2″ but still a skinny 175 pounds…

And because he may post points in the high-scoring Quebec league, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into dominance in the way that scoring in the OHL or WHL would. Anctil, like so many of the Wings’ free agent invites, keeps up, but they all have a higher basic level of skills in terms of their skating, passing, shooting, hockey sense and conditioning. Anctil is at least a mover in terms of his skating, and when the right-shooting center finds his scoring spots, he can convert.

He’s another CHL player, so he might be back for the prospect tournament.

Defensemen:

#3 Simon Edvinsson: Edvinsson came as advertised. Arriving on the final day of the summer development camp due to flight cancellations, he brought every piece of equipment save his own sticks, and the 6’6,” 205-pound defenseman may only be 19 years old, but, having played two seasons for one of the SHL’s flagship teams in Frolunda HC, Edvinsson possesses a pro pedigree–and some swagger, to boot.

Big, strong and self-composed, Edvinsson skates excellently well for a man of his size, he is indeed strong in terms of overall conditioning and the ability to win one-on-one battles, and while his passes were not laser accurate and his hard shot was not quite as hard as usual using a borrowed equipment rep Warrior stick, it was evident that Edvinsson possesses a near-elite level of offensive skill, vision, and defensive abilities.

He held back physically, and was admittedly jet-lagged, so there were mistakes and hiccups on North American ice, but even playing somewhat casually in a 3-on-3 tournament, he stood above the crowd, more figuratively than literally.

Is Edvinsson NHL-ready, especially on a deeper Red Wings blueline? That’s hard to say. Is he an elite prospect who is a top-three defender in the making, with a physical bite and offensive flair? Yup.

Edvinsson will stay in North America to hang out with the Wings until Sweden gathers for the World Junior Championship in Edmonton this August, he’ll head back home to say goodbye to his family, and he’ll return to North America for the prospect tournament and main training camp this fall.

#81 Cooper Moore: Watching the North Dakota junior was somewhat frustrating. The 21-year-old is a superb skater, and at 6’2″ and 190 pounds, he’s fit and sound defensively.

Ideally, Moore would be blossoming into an offensive defenseman thanks to having two seasons at one of the best college hockey teams in the entire NCAA under his belt, but instead, Moore has barely scratched the surface of his offensive potential.

That’s particularly frustrating because you can see that Moore has more natural talent than he’s displayed, and it’s all but impossible to read as to whether that’s due to having reached his developmental ceiling or having something holding him back without speaking to him, or watching him over the course of a longer period of time.

Moore could at least develop into a mid-pair defenseman over the next two seasons, but as he’s an NCAA player, the summer development camp is the only time that the Wings have to work with him, and he hasn’t been able to enjoy one of these since 2019.

#83 William Wallinder: Wallinder still has some rough burrs on the edges of a fine all-round game, but the lanky 6’4,” 190-pound defenseman has poise and aplomb with and without the puck.

A borderline elite skater in terms of his mobility and ability to close on his opponents and work laterally and skating backward, Wallinder has filled out physically as a 20-year-old and has really elevated the consistency with which he plays the game over the past two seasons with Rogle BK, southern Sweden’s flagship SHL team.

Wallinder is going to be able to play at the World Junior Championship before heading back to Sweden for at least one more SHL season, and, after posting 19 points in 47 SHL games, he’s going to attempt to post better stats. Despite playing with entirely borrowed equipment, so uncomfortable-looking at times that I thought he was hunched over in pain, he’s got a hard shot, great vision for passing, playmaking and puck-lugging, and while he’s not particularly physical, he defends well.

The Wallinder I watched at the World Junior Summer Showcase last summer, a Wallinder that was plain old left off Sweden’s WJC roster, was inconsistent. The Wallinder I saw a year later is a different and better player, and, facing a particularly deep blueline’s worth of prospects, I believe Wallinder will slowly but surely find his way toward NHL duty.

Goaltenders:

#31 Andrew Oke**: The first of three try-out goaltenders, Oke, an 18-year-old native of Shelby Township, had a plain old bad draft year season with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, a team that had a rough campaign. That’s reflected in his 13-16-and-1 record, 4.63 goals-against average and .848 save percentage.

Those are 80’s goalie stats, and the 6’2,” 200-pound Oke has at least displayed enough of the fundamentals of a sound, solid goaltender to overcome those numbers.

During the 3-on-3 tournament, Oke was much more capable even than he was during the skill drills working with Phil Osaer and the rest of the Red Wings’ goaltending consultants. He wasn’t great, either, but his wonky glove hand gobbled up pucks, his blocker was better, his stance was smarter, and he made some good plays with the puck.

Oke may or may not take part in the prospect tournament. We’ll see who the Wings bring to help Sebastian Cossa.

#80 Pierce Charleson**: At the other end of the developmental spectrum, we find Charleson. 22 years of age, the Michigan State University junior had a rough year as a back-up, going 3-and-8 over the course of 12 starts, with a 3.65 goals-against average and .904 save percentage, which ain’t great.

Charleson, unlike Oke, doesn’t have many holes in his technique. In fact, Charleson was fine-to-superb technically speaking, possessing a strong butterfly style and active legs, an alert blocker, good glove and strong stick, as well as a really nice, upright chest and good stickhandling. Pucks just found holes, and he worked very hard to close them over the course of this past week.

Charleson will head back to State hoping to at least establish himself as a capable back-up goaltender, and he’ll go from there.

TEAM SIMON

Forwards:

#57 Cole Knuble**: The Red Wings brought in the son of their AHL affiliate’s assistant coach as a free agent. Why? Because the 5’10,” 175-pound Knuble, who posted 49 points in 62 games with the USHL’s Fargo Force, and is headed to Notre Dame after one “overage” USHL season, was passed over in this past week’s draft in Montreal as an 18-year-old.

Knuble is not an elite scorer per se, but the physically under-developed right wing looked like a fine middle-six winger in the making during the skill and skating portions of development camp, and Knuble, who tapes the entire stick blade (heel included), looked dang good during the 3-on-3 scrimmages. He’s not fast, but he’s speedy, he’s not strong, but he’s savvy, and he’s got good scoring instincts, he sees the ice well and makes good passes and plays, he hustles up the ice in straight lines, and there is real potential in him.

At this point, Knuble needs to go back to the USHL, continue growing into his body, with lessons from Wings director of sports science Mike Barwis under his belt, and he needs to have another great season while slowly but surely forcing another team (perhaps even Detroit) to draft him as a 19-year-old. I like him. I don’t know whether he’s a future Red Wing, but I really liked what I saw of him.

#67 Redmond Savage: Savage is a different kind of player. A Carter Mazur-like player in terms of his snarl and his tremendously competitive streak, someone who is dogged on and away from the puck, wanting to win every battle, to finish every check, hack every stick and out-hustle every opponent, but the 5’11,” 185-pound Miami of Ohio sophomore posted a very solid 16 points in 35 NCAA games as a freshman despite the fact that he’s destined to be a checking line center wherever he ends up…

And it is evident that he’s fine with being that kind of player. If there is nothing better than a star player, there is something slightly less wonderful but no less important in a support player who embraces taking a supporting role. With superb speed, an excellent checking stick and closing sense, good body-checking abilities and very strong positioning, he’s still working on winning faceoffs, but that’s one of the few parts of the grind that he hasn’t mastered already.

Savage will head back to Miami of Ohio and continue to develop his skills, and while he’s not going to score 70 points at the NHL level, he could very well develop into a stalwart fourth-line center. You can ask the Wings’ director of amateur scouting, Kris Draper, if those guys matter.

#87 Dylan James: James is something of a wild card. The Red Wings drafted the enthusiastic 6,’ 177-pound left wing after a 61-points-in-62-games season with Sioux City of the USHL. James will head to the University of North Dakota in the fall, and he’s fast, he’s chippy, and he’s got puck skills, but he’s utterly raw as a prospect and player.

James’ competitiveness stood out during the course of the 3-on-3 tournament, and, like Savage, his joy for playing the game was evident. He can score and he can pass well, but the Red Wings made him their 2nd round pick, 40th overall, when he could have gone much lower, and that left a lot of draft experts (and me) scratching their heads (mine, bald).

James could totally become the next Carter Mazur, and the 18-year-old (he’s a “late birthday,” in October) has the hustle and bustle necessary to develop into someone with a scrappy game to match his scrappy work ethic, but right now, it’s just too early to say.

#88 Liam Dower-Nilsson: LDN is on a different sort of path. Stocky despite his 6,’ 174-pound frame, Dower-Nilsson is 19, and he posted a fantastic 50 points in 34 games with Frolunda HC’s Under-20 team, but the emphasis there is that he dominates and has dominated playing against players between 16 and 20.

At the SHL level, the little center has been brought along incredibly slowly, dressing in 10 games but barely leaving the bench for most of them, because SHL teams can dress 13 forwards and 7 defensemen.

There’s no doubt that Dower-Nilsson is a gifted playmaker and a surprisingly capable scorer; his skating is a little choppy, but it’s fast and maneuverable, and he bumps and grinds in a way that reminds me of another small-but-tenacious winger in Steve “Stumpy” Thomas.

What LDN has to do is to head back to the SHL and establish himself as a regular at the SHL level, and grow from there. Top-six center potential? It’s there, in spades, but he can’t practice his potential until he does so against men instead of boys.

#98 Brennan Ali: At 212th overall, the Red Wings’ final draft pick in 2022 fits in where most people thought the Wings should have picked Dylan James. Ali, a 6,’ 193-pound center, posted a dominant 34 points in 27 high school prep games in Connecticut, and he’s headed to Lincoln of the USHL for a full season playing against bigger, stronger and more tenacious competition.

He will do so before attending the University of Notre Dame, and, in the interim, he seemed to be a sponge over the course of the summer development camp, eagerly soaking up skating and skills lessons from Mr and Mrs. Tutton, the Wings’ skating coaches, and skill development consultants Blais and Galerno. Ali’s enthusiasm for playing the game makes him hungry on pucks and a tough competitor, and, like so many of the free agent invites, he possesses a strong basic level of skating, passing, shooting and checking.

Like James, he’s incredibly raw as an 18-year-old coming out of prep school, high school hockey, and the Wings took a 7th-round flyer on him knowing that he’s got up to five years’ worth of development ahead as Red Wings property. As an NCAA-bound athlete, the USHL will allow him to retain his college eligibility, and that’s just fine for the present and for the future.

Defensemen:

#44 Donovan Sebrango: Sebrango is both very old and very young at the same time. All of 20 years of age, with some inconsistencies in terms of his form, fit and finish, he’s still a stocky 6’2″ and 195 growing pounds.

Sebrango, perhaps a lot like Savage, is a relentless ball of positivity, and after playing in almost 100 AHL games over the course of the past two seasons, he’s got a ton of experience playing against big, strong men who put food on the table by running the snot out of their opponents. Sebrango embraces the fact that he projects as a Jack-of-all-trades, 4/5/6 defenseman. He’s a good skater, he has a strong shot with a swashbuckling sort of wind-up, he passes well, and he’s hard in terms of his body and stick checking, his closure and gap control, and his overall professional game.

What he is is inconsistent in terms of the application thereof; there are hiccups in terms of incomplete passes, opponent-blocked shots, or skaters that get by him, and those mistakes detract from the fact that he is en route to becoming a rock-solid defenseman.

He just needs a little more time to really develop self-confidence to go alongside his humble, hard-working attitude, and playing in the prospect tournament before heading back to Grand Rapids will help him fill out the bottom of the Wings’ blueline one day. Which is just what he wants to do.

#55 Kyle Aucoin: Aucoin and Cooper Moore could be twins, or something close to it. At 20, the 6,’ 175-pound Havard sophomore posted only 2 points over the course of his first 30 NCAA games, and that’s despite possessing a good shot, excellent passing skills, and speedy, if under-powered skating.

He needs to fill out a bit and find his stride, because he could very well develop into a very capable middle-pair defenseman in the making, but right now, he’s got a ton of innate skill and great genes as Adrian Aucoin’s kid, but those things have yet to translate on the ice.

#75 Drew Bavaro**: Bavaro was a lot better during the 3-on-3 tournament than he was during the skill drills. A free agent invite who played for Bentley this past season, posting 27 points in 36 games, he’s transferring to Notre Dame at 22 years of age in order to maximize his development. He’s mobile and possesses strong puck skills, but he didn’t stand out

Goaltenders:

#33 Sebastian Cossa: Sebastian Cossa displayed both the reasons why the Red Wings drafted him and some of the red flags that I have regarding his development during the 3-on-3 tournament.

The former before the latter: at 19 going on 20 years of age (this November), Cossa is a massive and fit 6’6″ and 215 pounds, and he posted a fine 33-9-and-3 record over the course of 49 starts for the WHL Champion Edmonton Oil Kings this past season, with a 2.28 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage on a stacked team that bowed out early at the Memorial Cup.

Cossa is gigantic and lanky, he’s a principled butterfly goaltender with an excellent glove, a fine blocker, athletic toes that seem to find pucks even when he’s out of position due to his remarkable wingspan in terms of both arms and legs, his stickhandling is improving and he knows when to gobble up rebounds and stop play, and when to boot them out into the corners, or play the puck to his defensemen. He’s upright in terms of his chest, he can stop pucks with his head, and he’s incredibly competitive, to the point that he chirps his opponents.

Confident right to the borderline of being cocky, Cossa knows that he could be an elite NHL starter, and he wants to get there as soon as possible.

My problem with Cossa is that, if he’s deked out of his stance, he can flop and give up easy top-shelf goals, there is a hole between his legs that still needs filling, the top shelf can be a weakness in the butterfly, especially glove side…

And, having been built to win 2-1 and 3-2 games with a ton of offensive support in Edmonton, where the Oil Kings have been stacked for years, Cossa hasn’t had to play without the kind of support sometimes necessary to draw out a goaltender’s grit and determination in the face of a high shot load or hard level of shots against.

For lack of a better term, Cossa has been built to be a thoroughbred goaltending horse, and he’s not going to succeed at the professional level if he doesn’t learn how to run in the mud. I happen to believe that another WHL season before he turns pro and plays a season or two in the AHL will benefit him in terms of his game’s maturity.

#36 Owen Flores**: Flores, a free agent invite from the OHL’s London Knights, dominated at the Ontario Junior Hockey level, going 12-2-and-0 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage, but those numbers dropped significantly wins-wise and inflated by over a goal per game during his 23 starts with the OHL’s flagship franchise, the London Knights.

At only 6’2″ and 170 pounds, he’s slight, and between his skinny status and bad OHL stats, he was passed over in this past week’s draft. That being said, he worked very hard during the summer development camp, and as a technically sound goaltender who plays a hybrid style, he made some spectacular saves over the course of the 3-on-3 tournament.

He’s just young, and raw, and he may or may not be the guy who gets the invite to be Cossa’s back-up during the prospect tournament. He needs to go back to the OHL, establish himself as a capable back-up, and go from there.

TEAM WATSON

Forwards:

#63 Sam Stange: Stange’s performance during the 3-on-3 tournament was maddening for all the right (and wrong) reasons. The 21-year-old Wisconsin native, a right wing who plays for the University of Wisconsin Badgers and Tony Granato, is a solid 6’1″ and 208 pounds, and Stange was a dominant high school athlete in both baseball and hockey. As such, he’s a tremendously gifted natural athlete, with speed to burn, a tendency to score game-breaking, highlight-reel goals, and some playmaking skills.

The problem is that Stange is incredibly inconsistent. Going into his junior year at Wisconsin, Stange posted all of 4 goals in 37 games last season, and he looked pedestrian in the skill drills, but of course he stood out for his overabundance of natural skills in game situations.

Stange can make the game look easy, and he can really snipe, but he has yet to find any semblance of consistency, and that’s incredibly frustrating to watch. I hope he finds his form over the final two seasons of college eligibility, because he really is all that and a bag of chips in terms of goal-scoring abilities when he applies himself.

He’s a good kid, too, but as I have said, players’ bodies, brains and skill sets have to intersect at the same time to become professional athletes, and he’s not reached that point.

#64 A.J. Vanderbeck**: A free agent invitee, Vanderbeck might have experienced the highlight of his career this past week. The 24-going-on-25-year-old graduate of Northern Michigan posted 43 points in 36 games this past season, but nobody bit on him for a pro contract, so the Red Wings brought him in for development camp.

Vanderbeck has good enough skill to get by, especially in game situations; he’s a good skater, he’s a strong center and at 5’11” and 185 pounds, he’s not big, but he’s physically developed into a strong body. He just didn’t stand out among the free agent invites this past week, despite working hard and absorbing what he learned.

He’s either going to have to go back to college for a fifth year (players who’ve played during the pandemic can do this at the NCAA level), or he’s going to have to turn pro, and I’m not sure if there’s a place for him, so I think that the Wings might bring him to the prospect tournament as veteran leadership, where he can impress both Detroit and the representatives of NHL, AHL and ECHL teams from all over North America…

But that may be the end of his journey.

#74 Cross Hanas: Hanas is at a very different place. The 20-year-old is a lanky 6’1″ and 171 pounds, and the Portland Winterhawks winger has been posting point-per-game totals for several seasons now. Most recently, he posted 26 goals and 60 assists for 86 points in 63 WHL games for the fine Portland Winterhawks, and Hanas wants to turn pro and become a Grand Rapids Griffin this fall.

I’m not quite sure whether he’s ready to turn pro, and I’m not quite certain whether the Red Wings feel that way, either. He could go back to the WHL for one more season, and that might benefit him given that he’s so dang wiry, but, at the same time, he really is an elite playmaker and a good goal-scorer who skates up the ice with confidence and carries the puck with him, eyes up, surveying the players on the ice and the possible plays ahead of him.

He ragged the puck up and down and all around the ice with ease during the 3-on-3 tournament, really driving play, and I didn’t know he could do that, frankly, especially given his heavy-footed stride. It turns out that I’m seeing a very wide base on an upright skating stance, and I have fewer doubts about the two-way forward than I did last summer at the WJSS in Plymouth. I just don’t know if he’s ready to turn pro.

#92 Marco Kasper: Composed. Utterly composed. Marco Kasper is all of 18 years of age, still going to high school and without a driver’s license, and the 6’1,” 183-pound forward was just picked 8th overall by the Red Wings in this past week’s 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal. Some pundits questioned whether Kasper was worth the pick, but I don’t think there’s much doubt that the center who played with a cage for Rogle BK because he was 17 for most of the year is going to be an NHL player.

A first-line center? Maybe not. But a second-line and/or top-six center or winger? Almost certainly. The 11 points he posted in 46 SHL games last season reflect the fact that he was eased in gently–and he doesn’t play gently. Kasper is no Carter Mazur, but there’s some edge to his game, and that’s competitiveness and a desire to win battles for the puck, to out-check his opponents and out-skate bigger, nastier players en route to authoring or generating his own glorious scoring chances.

This is the kind of stuff the kid can do:

Kasper is far from NHL-ready; he needs to go back to Rogle and establish himself as a scorer for one of the SHL’s best-run teams, on and off the ice, while working on developing his body, lessons from this week’s development camp in tow. But the Red Wings (and Niklas Kronwall) will keep a close eye on Kasper, because he is of an elite pedigree, he is a trilingual person of elite maturity off the ice, and he’s a hard-working, smart young man who isn’t shaken or stirred by the fact that he could be the next Andrew Copp, at the very least.

#96 Amadeus Lombardi: Sometimes, over the course of a development camp, a prospect does things that they have to live down. Lombardi, Amadeus, “Ammo,” did some stuff that he’s going to have to live down for a while, scoring a hat trick and adding an assist in Team Watson’s first game.

Now the 18-year-old, the Wings’ 113th overall draft pick this past week in Montreal, is not going to jump into the NHL. He’s 5’10” and 165 skinny little pounds, and while he posted 59 points in 61 games for the fine Flint Firebirds of the OHL, the little center with an elite scoring touch is not going to be the next Theo Fleury.

But he did shine during the skill drills, with a wide, low skating stance, great puckhandling abilities, a hard, high shot, strong passing skills, speed, and enthusiasm. During the games, he was a pleasure to watch, charging up and down the ice with a confidence that belied his age.

His real education might start this September in Traverse City, where he plays full-contact hockey against bigger, stronger, meaner players with professional aspirations, but for now, we have these clips to enjoy:

Defensemen:

#51 Eemil Viro: If Donovan Sebrango is the poor man’s Brad Stuart, Eemil Viro could be a rich man’s Brad Stuart. Still under-developed at 6′ and 176 wiry pounds, the 20-year-old Finn played for the Finnish Liiga runner-up in TPS Turku this past season with that Slafkovsky kid from Montreal, and he’s been playing Liiga hockey for the past two seasons, which is pretty impressive.

Chugging and swaying his hips efficiently as he assesses the playing surface, Viro is a smooth, maneuverable skater with a heavy shot, heads-up passing and playmaking skills, he’s hard to get past even at his slight stature, and he’s just got a polish to him that suggests he’s ready to come over to North America and try to ply his trade against bigger, heavier, stronger and more mature opponents.

Viro is still adjusting to the North American-sized rink, he’s got some hiccups to his game in terms of consistency of passing and shooting, and he definitely needs to fill out as much as he can given that he’s so wiry and lean, but he’s exciting to watch when he’s on top of his game. To me, if Sebrango is the bottom-or-middle-pair guy who shuts down opponents, Viro is the quietly, if not surprisingly efficient second-pair guy who can be utilized in every situation.

His North American pro journey is just beginning. Here’s hoping.

#78 Shai Buium: Buium and Mazur won the NCAA Division 1 hockey championship together as freshmen, and for both, the future is bright. Very big at 6’3″ and 220 pounds, with a good 15 or 20 left to go on a lanky body, Buium can look as inelegant as a giraffe on the ground when he’s stationary, but when he skates with a slightly funny skating stride, everything smooths out, and things suddenly make sense.

Buium posted a very solid 18 points in 39 games this past season, and while I’m not sure whether he’s going to develop into a top-pair defenseman, he’s really an excellent skater for somebody that’s 19 and as big as he is, he’s very mobile laterally and skating backward, he’s a strong passer and shooter, and I’d love to see him play at the prospect tournament, because there are hints of a physical flair there.

He’s just past the start of his developmental journey, and Buium has already aced the early part of the course. His ceiling is hard to discern at this point, but he’s this big, physical part of a championship team already, and the level-headed defenseman absorbs information and works hard already.

#95 Tnias Mathurin: Truly raw, the Red Wings drafted Mathurin 137th overall this past week in Montreal, and at 6’3″ and 197 pounds, the North Bay Battalion defenseman is, based upon five viewings, somewhere between a bottom-pair, stay-at-home guy and something more.

Mathurin is mobile enough, he’s not particularly heavy despite being big, and he’s not heavy-footed per se.

During the skill drills, he kept up and skated, shot, passed and defended well, and during the 3-on-3 tournament, when he was the only defenseman on the ice (read: all the time), he stopped scoring chances against. He just doesn’t stand out in any particular way other than to suggest that he was worth a draft pick as opposed to a free agent invite.

In some cases, when you watch a prospect during skill development, and even simulated game play, you don’t get a feel for them, and the prospect tournament will be far more telling for this particular 18-year-old, presuming that he gets a regular shift.

Goaltenders:

#68 Connor Murphy**: At 24 years of age, the Union College senior is big and heavy at 6’4″ and 200 pounds, and I was incredibly impressed by his rock-solid butterfly technique. He posted an average 14-18-and-3 record with a 2.66 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage, and he was very capable during the skill drills, and very capable during the 3-on-3…

But he’s looking to solidify a game that includes some holes, and, as such, working with Phil Osaer and the Red Wings’ developmental staff sets him up for a much better senior NCAA season. Whether he’s going to go any further as an athlete, professional or amateur, is hard to say, because he’s running out of runway at an astonishing rate, but he came to camp to learn, and he got better.

TEAM DRAPER

Forwards:

#37 Chase Bradley: Some players don’t seem to be on a developmental trajectory at all, and that’s how I would describe Bradley. At 20 years of age, the 5’10,’ 180-pound left wing just didn’t really establish himself over the course of 29 games in his freshman season at UConn, posting 9 points. I haven’t heard much of anything to the positive or toward the negative regarding his game, and while he kept up in the skill drills, he was evidently physically mature and physical during the 3-on-3 tournament, and he worked very, very hard over the course of five long days…

There’s just not that much to write home about. He’s at the halfway point of his NCAA career, and he could yet blossom into a physical grinder, but he’s not there as of yet.

#61 Ethan Phillips: SIGH. The 21-year-old center has had a very bumpy NCAA career playing in a fair number of games for Boston University but occasionally being scratched, and he hasn’t posted a ton of points, though 17 points in 28 games for the mighty Terriers is nothing to sneeze at. He’s only 5’10” and 160 pounds, per the Red Wings’ measurements, no less, and during the skill drills, nothing stood out.

But he can skate! My goodness, he can skate, perhaps almost as good as the Wings’ elite-end prospects! During the 3-on-3 tournament, over the course of two games, he just skittered up and down the ice without any effort, not necessarily driving play, but making plays and generating scoring chances because of his skating ability alone.

Some players can reach a certain level of play based upon one particular skill that they are absolutely tremendous in execution, and Phillips is probably not professionally-bound in terms of his development, but, by Gord, he is a fantastic skater.

#62 Theodor Niederbach: Niederbach is a work in progress, but he’s enough of a work in progress to realize that a change was going to be his best path to take. 20 years old, Niederbach posted a solid 16 points in 51 games played as the third-line center for Frolunda HC, but the 6,’ 190-pound, right-shooting center decided that wasn’t good enough, and he chose to leave Gothenburg for Rogle BK.

Niederbach is still very rough around the edges, so execution can be an issue for him, but he gets the “wearing borrowed gear” benefit of the doubt to some extent, as he also receives the “arrived late” discount, and, wearing Lucas Raymond’s skates and using someone else’s stick, the lanky forward chugged up and down the ice during the skill drills, made offensive events happen and defused defensive situations while taking part in the 3-on-3 tournament.

His excellent shot, fine passing skills, good vision, strong faceoff ability and maturity as someone who’s been playing against men for two years now were all on display in abundance.

He’s going to have to fight Marco Kasper for playing time in Angleholm in southern Sweden, where Rogle BK is located, and it’s going to be a battle. Kasper is the home-grown prospect who is smoother and more poised, but Niederbach has a sort of unpolished gem’s status to him, and when he puts everything together, he’s fun to watch. The fact that he’s still growing into his body suggests that he’s going to be stronger on the puck as well.

#72 Trenton Bliss*: The resident Grand Rapids Griffins-contracted player, Bliss was superb during the 3-on-3 tournament, really shining for the first time. A 6’1,” 195-pound center who’s 24 years old, the Michigan Tech graduate posted 40 points in 36 games this past season. As he attempts to battle for a spot on either the Griffins or Toledo Walleye’s roster, Bliss blended in during the skill drills, but his physical maturity and overall poise and resolve during the 3-on-3 tournament was eye-opening in itself. He kept up, he hustled, and he looked like he’d at least earned his ticket.

#94 Mitchell Martin**: Martin is more of a puzzle. Big at 6’4″ and 199 pounds at 19 years of age, he was passed over in the draft despite posting a very solid 40 points in 65 games with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, and the “flashes and glimmers of skill” were still there during the 3-on-3, but that’s what I saw.

He’s going to go back to the OHL to refine his game, but not before taking part in the prospect tournament. The Wings tend to invite their summer development camp free agents to Traverse City to fill out the roster, and while some of them wear suits most of the time, some of them earn a starring role. Where Martin falls will be up to him.

#97 Owen Mehlenbacher: At 201st overall in last week’s draft, Mehlenbacher may be a bit of a reach, and it’s his reach that separates him from most anyone else. 6’2″ and 189 pounds, having posted 42 points in 56 games with Muskegon of the USHL, Mehlenbacher is lanky as lanky can get, he uses a long stick, and with long legs and a butt that sticks out…He is able to out-reach his teammates in stick battles, and protect the puck as well.

As the skill drills continued, and during the 3-on-3 portion of the tournament commenced, he got better and better at protecting the puck, poking it away and making it his, and players who can protect the puck, even if they’re incredibly raw (and all of James, Ali, Mathurin and Mehlenbacher are particularly under-developed as 2022 picks), can make things happen (or not happen, if they’re making defensive plays).

Mehlenbacher is headed to an excellent program in Wisconsin, and he’s just at the start of his developmental journey.

Defensemen:

#77 Oscar Plandowski: The 3-on-3 tournament allowed 19-year-old Oscar Plandowski to display the summation of his assorted raw skills, and he possesses an assortment thereof. At 6′ and 190 pounds, he’s heading from the Charlottetown Islanders to the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the QMJHL, and he has yet to post any real offensive numbers at the QMJHL level, but the Red Wings looked at his bloodlines (mom is a skating coach at the NHL level and dad is the Coyotes’ director of amateur scouting) and his raw skills and felt that he was worth the 155th overall pick in 2021.

Plandowski is a bit awkward and gangly, but he really skates technically well, he really skates even better when he’s in motion in game situations, and his good, large-wind-up shot, his heads-up, seeing-eye passes and playmaking, and his surprisingly solid status as a two-way defender were all particularly evident in motion.

All the disparate parts of his toolbox came together after lying on the rink surface for the majority of the 5-day development camp, and Plandowski more or less staked his case for future promise and potential.

He’ll go to the prospect tournament looking to impress in a similar manner. He’s going to have a much harder time in terms of the level of competition, he’s going to have a much harder time in terms of the compressed schedule, and he’s going to have the opportunity to prove that he’s a top-four defenseman in the making, and a righty at that, with perhaps the best natural skating ability this side of Ethan Phillips.

#79 Cedric Fielder**: Fielder is a stay-at-home defenseman who came to the development camp after a solid-enough season at Western Michigan, and at 6’3″ and 204 pounds, the 21-year-old looked to be the free agent invite who most actively embraced the opportunity to learn over the last five days.

Fielder, heading into his junior year, doesn’t have pro aspirations yet, but, at the halfway point if his college career, he came to a professional hockey team’s summer camp and busted his hump in half working to develop his skills and become a better player.

While his skill level was keeping-up-with-the-Joneses good but not great, and his skill set didn’t suddenly blossom, he looked efficient, confident and capable within the limitations of his performance envelope.

Goaltenders:

#35 Carter Gylander: Gylander also got demonstrably better over the course of five days’ worth of skill development and 3-on-3 play. The 21-year-old goalie with the massive wingspan at 6’5″ and 185 pounds lost his starting job at Colgate last season, going 7-and-8 in 16 starts, with a 2.77 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage.

Those numbers aren’t fantastic, nor was the going-into-his-junior-year goaltender’s form at the beginning of development camp. He was booting out rebounds like a poor man’s Jonas Gustavsson, even from his catch glove, and by the end of the 3-on-3 games, he’d de-tuned himself enough that pucks were sticking to him most of the time. Possessing a solid glove, great blocker, fast toes and a strong butterfly form, he displayed enough technical aplomb to get the job done, but there was power and no control in his game, and he dialed down the rebounds and dialed down the chaos considerably over only 5 days’ worth of instruction.

I don’t know whether Gylander will “turn pro” when he’s done with college, but he showed enough work ethic to encourage me.

*=Grand Rapids Griffins contract, **= Free Agent invite

Well, that’s that. At 11:39 PM, after having written for over three hours, the final entry of this particular summer development camp is finished. I hope that you’ve enjoyed all of this stuff, regardless of whether you’ve pored over it or just skimmed it going “TL;DR.”

Any way you slice it, I tried to be a decent representative of the folks who weren’t allowed in the rink, and while this was most certainly “summer hockey,” as I said yesterday, I found it ironic that the team made sure to record every second of development camp, if only for feedback’s sake. In the age of video scouting, even when you say that it’s not a camp to make assessments from, players make impressions, and they earn opportunities to learn and improve themselves.

The Red Wings don’t produce a TON of prospects who become NHL stars, but it is worth saying that they pour the same amount of time, energy, effort, preparation, education and of course money into Simon Edvinsson’s development that they do in Ethan Phillips’ development.

I find it particularly satisfying that the summer development camps are the camps where everyone is treated equally, if only in spirit, and that’s part of the reason why I’ve been so very happy to work on 4-5 hours of sleep over the course of 16-hour days, even while unrestricted free agency’s fireworks were taking place.

I hope you enjoyed it. I did, it was a privilege to write about hockey, and get paid for it, and I want to keep that up going forward (both parts).

As you know by now…

I run a blog that does not have ads, and I’m coming back to work after 7 months’ worth of a shitty break to better treat my depression and anxiety, so I have to ask you for money now. I don’t like to do it, but it’s part of the job.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

With that, I bid you adieu for the evening. Here’s hoping that there are some diamonds in the rough, and some diamonds, period, for the Red Wings’ prospect pool now and in the future.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

One thought on “Impressions from the fifth day of the Red Wings’ 2022 summer development camp”

  1. I agree with your comments on Cossa. Larson was lights out playing for Denver. The Wings signed him to a pro contract after 1 year. I am surmising he lost confidence after failing in the AHL and then the ECHL. He is now so far removed that even The Hockey News can’t find him. Does Cossa still have stuff to prove in the WHL? Maybe not, but does he have the stuff to deal with the AHL?;

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