The defensive pairing of William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto had a couple of hiccups on Thursday night, but the Red Wings’ top prospect tournament team’s d-pairing looks damn good in terms of its overall potential. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen wonders aloud whether it might be a full-time partnership:
I thought last night they were the best D team on the ice,” Watson said Friday.
Tuomisto scored one of Detroit’s goals in a 4-2 loss to the Stars and Wallinder generated five shots on goal. Watson used both of the players on the power play, penalty kill and matched them up against the best players. This feels more like a coach wanting to see how they play together than a coach just mixing and matching for a short tournament. Wallinder and Tuomisto even room together. They have been training together for two weeks.
What pro coach wouldn’t want two extra-large men, whose abilities complement each other, playing on a paring.
“I think so,” Watson said about their potential to be a long-term pairing. “They play different styles No. 1. William is real mobile. He can move pucks. He can provide some of that offense. With Antti, he’s got a great first pass. He’s big. He’s long. He has no problem playing a physical style of defensive game. So that’s a good pair, a pair that could go against the other team’s top lines. They have that experience of playing against pros in Europe. So that’s the basis for why they are paired together. ”
Continued; it’s worth noting that most of the Red Wings’ prospects who’ve spoken with the media have said that they’ve been in Detroit for at least two or three weeks. It sounds like a very busy time with “Captain’s skates” at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center.
