The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses realistic expectations for 8 of the Red Wings’ top prospects today, and we’ll examine his take regarding the potential performance of Marco Kasper:
Marco Kasper
Expected level: AHL, with some NHL time
Analysis: Kasper finished strong in his first AHL season — particularly in the playoffs, where his hard-nosed game translated to seven points in nine playoff games. And while he has an outside shot at making the NHL roster right away with a big camp, the best bet is on him starting in Grand Rapids again, looking to pick up where he left off.
Point production is only one piece of the way Kasper will be evaluated, but certainly Detroit would take as much offense as it can get from the 2022 No. 8 pick, who put up 35 points in 71 games last season. Increasing that rate would be encouraging, and if he could creep up toward that same 0.7 or 0.8 points-per-game territory, that would be excellent — that’s the range where ace shutdown centers Anthony Cirelli (.73) and Lars Eller (.81) were in their draft-plus-three seasons in the AHL.
And of course, that comes with Kasper continuing to look like a strong defensive center who won’t be pushed around, and one who keeps possessions alive in the offensive zone — the bedrocks of his profile.
He has a good chance to work his way into becoming a call-up at some point this year.
Continued (paywall); Kasper will probably start the year in Grand Rapids, as Bultman suggests, and yes, adding more in the points category would be good.
I’m not certain whether we’re looking at a two-way center of the Lars Eller variety or a real defensive stalwart at center with Kasper, however–and I’m hoping for the former–so I’m going to measure his success by hearing and hopefully seeing reports of Kasper playing well defensively and playing with that trademark edge to his game.
The second year of North American hockey is normally where prospects’ stats bump up to the neighborhood of a realistic professional ceiling, but I’ve seen some prospects never really figure out the chaotic nature of the AHL game as compared to the NHL, so I’m not going to panic if Kasper continues to be a point-per-every-other-game guy at the AHL level.
