The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi posted an article in which he discusses Red Wings prospects and Team USA forwards Carter Mazur and Red Savage’s strong World Junior Championship performances thus far with both players, who are particularly confident in their abilities:
Heading into Team USA’s elimination round slate, which begins Wednesday, Mazur is in the midst of announcing himself to the hockey world. He’s tied for fifth in points (four goals, two assists) among all players in the tournament. Who would have thought? Mazur would.
“Yeah, I honestly did,” Mazur said when asked if he’d thought following the 2020 draft, when he went undrafted through seven rounds, that he’d ever get the opportunity to play on this stage. Once (I was drafted) it felt like my confidence sorta jumped through the roof and I started finally coming together and believing in my game and know what I could do. So I felt like once that all came together, that I had a really good shot to make this team in the winter.”
Savage, on the other hand, as been less productive, but only slightly. His hard-nosed game shows up less on the scoresheet than others, but with two goals and an assist, he’s also getting onto the radar of hockey fans.
“It’s a hard team to make, but I’ve always been confident in my abilities,” Savage said. “It was definitely something that I had to really work towards, and it was definitely always a big goal of mine to make this team.”
Continued; Savage also reveals that he used to play for Compuware in Metro Detroit, whereas Mazur played for Kris Draper’s Little Caesars team, and as such, they grew up as rivals.
