Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen took note of some of the comments made by Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman during yesterday morning’s press conference. Yzerman did address the concept that several of the team’s top prospects might “make a push” for a roster spot…
Even though Yzerman has plenty of veterans, he said Tuesday that he hopes some youngsters give him a reason to think long and hard about his opening day roster.
“Not necessarily gonna be specific,” he said, “but I’m expecting some of them to push. We’ll see.”
The likely candidates to push are winger Soderblom, defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson, plus center Marco Kasper. The longer shots are forward Cross Hanas, defensemen William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto.
And Allen noted that Yzerman was particularly effusive in his praise for Simon Edvinsson’s prospect tournament performance:
“The reason we brought him up there was because he was hurt and he missed a lot at the end of the season,” Yzerman said. “We just wanted to get him in some competition, get him banged around in games to prepare him for training camp. It turned out to be a great thing… he could of, if he’d wanted to, kind of floated through it a little bit. But he played really hard, he played really well. ”
Given the number of veterans Yzerman acquired this summer, it will be difficult for prospects to earn a spot on the Red Wings’ varsity. But Soderblom is, at the very least, off to a good start.
“We were really pleased with his performance and how hard he competed up there,” Yzerman said. “I think that bodes well for him here in the preseason, because he is one of those players that is competing to play for the Red Wings this year and he’s gonna have to really earn it. But it was a really positive weekend for him. We were really happy with his attitude and his performance.”
