Wrapping up today’s coverage of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s pre-training camp press conference is The Athletic’s Max Bultman, who noted that Yzerman gave rare praise to a player that some have written off already in Filip Zadina:
In many ways, you could say Zadina already earned a stamp of approval from his GM earlier this summer, when the Red Wings inked the winger to a three-year contract.
But Yzerman was clear Wednesday in his belief that Zadina is “on the right path to becoming a real good player in the NHL.”
“He’s learning to do the little things well, even if you’re not scoring,” Yzerman said. “All young players, all scorers in particular, always measure yourself on goals and assists, production. And it’s always — whether you’re playing junior, whether you’re playing in the American league, in the NHL, and in particular for these higher draft picks — everybody wants to see the goals and assists, measure (them) in goals and assists. And you fall into that yourself, thinking, ‘I’ve gotta produce, I’ve gotta produce.’ Ultimately, if you do all the other things well, the pucks will go in the net for you.”
Yzerman delivered that message to Zadina, telling him to keep working at those little things and that if he did, the pucks would find their way into the net.
“And he’s a hard worker,” Yzerman said. “When I talked to our staff, our strength coaches and whatnot — his dedication off the ice. He really wants to be a good player and knows he’s got things to improve upon. But again, I expect him to take another step forward, and I think his attitude is excellent, his work ethic is excellent. He just needs to stick with it.”
Continued (paywall); we’ll find out whether Zadina’s still got some “boom” in that “bust” this season. I’m not willing to write him off, either.
