The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton updates us on Carter Mazur’s status as the Red Wings prospect and probable Grand Rapids Griffins forward battles back from a “lower-body injury” suffered during the prospect tournament:
“I do not expect him for camp, obviously that extends through Saturday,” [coach Derek] Lalonde said when asked for an update on Mazur’s status. “Then I think we’ll kinda go from there. I do foresee him getting some reps here, probably more into a week-to-week scenario, which is obviously a positive.”
“Carter was a player that we’ve envisioned getting five games, pushing for a spot, we need that push from the bottom,” Lalonde continued. “We thought we’d be sitting here hopefully making a very hard decision on Carter. Obviously, the injury didn’t make that happen. It’s the reality of it—get healthy. Obviously, he’ll start in Grand Rapids now because of the time frame of it, and he’ll just need those reps and workload. Hopefully, get back to game speed as quickly as possible.”
Despite that disappointment, Lalonde was adamant that Mazur will still have the opportunity force Detroit into a hard decision from Grand Rapids once he’s back healthy. “We want those guys to push where they’re forcing our hand,” the second-year head coach said. “That’s what we want out of all those guys, anyone that leaves here this weekend or whenever we make those final cuts. We want them to make it very hard on us.”
Continued; Mazur appeared to suffer a high ankle sprain, and those can be worse than breaking one’s leg in terms of lingering injuries.
