Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen filed an afternoon notebook regarding both Tyler Bertuzzi’s status as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, as well as coach Derek Lalonde’s take on how much Simon Edvinsson will play over the course of the Red Wings’ 8 preseason games:
“We plan on playing him a lot, maybe even more than that projected four or five (games),” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “We’ll see how camp goes. Even the three rookie games were very important. We want to give him a ton of looks. The
biggest thing for him is (get) hard practice reps. I think he’s had a few of those. He has handled them well. He has been exposed a couple of times. (That’s) understandable.”Lalonde made it clear that Edvinsson doesn’t have any guarantees of making the team. And Edvinsson knows that. He said Thursday it would be “understandable” if he is assigned Grand Rapids.
“The beauty is if he’s playing with us on opening night, we’d be very excited,” Lalonde said. “(But) I think we’d also be very content if he’s not playing with us and in Grand Rapids on opening night.”
Lalonde said the Red Wings will communicate that to Edvinsson.
“Like every young man, they want to make this team out of every camp,” Lalonde said. “But we’ll temper his expectations and we’ll manage that going forward.”
