As Detroit Hockey Now’s hockey crew continues its audit of the Red Wings’ prospect system, they’ve been weighing in with their observations regarding players in Detroit’s developmental system, and I’ve weighed in as well.
Today’s focus from DHN, one Notre Dame’s Jack Adams–as authored by Nate Brown–is truly one of the most difficult prospects to pin down.
Adams is a massive 6’6″ and 209 pounds, but the right-shooting power forward had his NCAA career derailed by both a knee injury suffered at the Wings’ 2019 development camp, the scheduling hiccups and cancellations of the COVID era, and a set of transfers from Union to Providence College and now Notre Dame.
At 25, there isn’t much developmental runway left for the 5th-year student, and it’s just hard to say whether the Red Wings have a need for what Adams has only recently been able to provide again:
Working on his graduate degree at Notre Dame, Adams‘ path to Notre Dame was affected by tragedy when his brother Mark passed away suddenly in 2018. Then at Union College, Adams played at Providence during the 2020-21 season, donning his brother’s number in the lone season. His season at Notre Dame, then, is one of triumph as he has been challenged by more than just the ups and down of a hockey journey.
As for his time in Detroit, Adams’ rights still belong to Detroit through August 15, 2023. The 6’6 forward will return to Notre Dame for the 2022-23 season, and the Red Wings will be keeping an eye on his performance.
Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said in the school’s official announcement of Adams’ return that he made “big strides in rediscovering his game.”
His successes, whether or not they result in an entry-level contract, go far past playing the game. From a perspective of where he is in Detroit’s system, he’s somewhere in the middle.
But if he builds on the success of last season, what a story it will become for the Red Wings prospect. It’s one that will go beyond just success on the ice.
Continued; it’s just really hard to peg Adams’ “upside” down given that he’s played so little until last season. Between the knee injury and COVID, he only played 6 games in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons combined, and while he definitely plays a powerful forward’s game, his status as a point-per-every-other-game forward isn’t exactly “wow” material.
He’s somebody one roots for given that he both lost his brother and had his career interrupted by both the knee injury and COVID, but at 25 years of age, there’s just not a lot of time for him to “make the jump” as he’ll be 26 at the end of this upcoming season.
