This morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the possibility of Red Wings prospect Nate Danielson making the Wings’ roster out of training camp this upcoming season. Duff notes that GM Steve Yzerman isn’t one to award prospects a job based upon their status alone…
“They’re gonna have to really take a step and that’s possible, if they have a good summer and a good preseason,” Yzerman said of young prospects like Danielson. “But we anticipate most of those kids at least starting in GR. Again I don’t have a hard and fast guideline. If we’re in camp and they look like they’re gonna play, we’ll find a spot for them.”
Based on how close he came a year ago, completely ruling out Danielson making the grade seems a bit unwise. He remains someone who oozes belief in himself.
“I thought I had a good camp and I thought I got more comfortable as camp went on and into the preseason and things like that,” Danielson said of Detroit’s 2023 training camp. “I just kept on getting more comfortable, more familiar with it. So yeah, that gave me confidence. Definitely. It gives me confidence going into this year, too, knowing I can have success and play at this level.”
Continued; I don’t know whether Danielson, Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur or any of the Red Wings’ other young players will make the team out of training camp…
But I can make an educated guess that the Wings will want Danielson to acclimate to the AHL in a scoring role instead of playing on the Red Wings’ third or fourth line–unless he proves that he’s absolutely ready for the NHL via a tremendous preseason’s worth of play.
At this point, I think that Carter Mazur’s the most likely player to earn a spot out of training camp given that he plays a supporting, gritty role. As Duff notes, however, Danielson possesses tremendous self-belief, almost to the point of being a bit cocky, so it’s entirely possible that he beats out his fellow forwards to “steal a job” off the Wings’ roster.
