As noted yesterday night, the Grand Rapids’ signing of 6’4″ forward Carson Bantle is the third signing of a very large winger by the Griffins to an AHL contract this summer.
The Griffins have already signed 6’4,” 214-pound Gabriel Seger and 6’3,” 217-pound Hunter Johannes to AHL contracts.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the trio of signings, as well as Detroit-signed 6’8″ winger Elmer Soderblom, as a departure from the team’s previous tendency to sign under-sized but plucky scorers like Kyle Criscuolo (5’9,” 174), Tyler Spezia (5’10”) and current Griffins forward Dominik Shine (5’11,” 181 pounds).
Add in 6’6,” 218-pound Detroit-signed winger Tim Gettinger, and you’ve suddenly got a very big set of wingers to complement the Red Wings’ mid-sized and getting-bigger set of prospects:
Since late last season, Grand Rapids has been sizing up the club’s future. North Dakota left-winger Hunter Johannes (6-foot-3, 217 pounds) was added near the end of the 2023-24 AHL campaign. Over the summer, they were picking up free agent left-winger Gabriel Seger, a 6-foot-4, 213-pound Swede who was playing college hockey at Cornell.
This trio will be joining the likes of left-winger Elmer Soderblom (6-foot-8, 246 pounds) and left-winger Tim Gettinger (6-foot-6, 218 pounds). Both Soderblom and Gettinger are showing NHL playing experience on their respective resumes.
Since all three of the newcomers were inking AHL pacts, it’s entirely possible that none of Seger, Johannes or Bantle will ever be playing for the Red Wings. Still, that doesn’t mean they won’t be capable of making an impact on Detroit’s future.
There’s an old saying that you can’t coach size. What these big wingers could prove capable of doing is forming a protection racket to be providing insurance that liberties aren’t taken with top Red Wings prospects such as Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur. They can also provide time and space for diminutive Amadeus Lombardi (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) to be at his creative best.
Continued; my sense as to the Grand Rapids Griffins’ size and strength around the Wings’ prospects was pretty simple–it was, for lack of a better word, minimal…
And while the game has gotten less nasty over the past couple of years, the AHL is still one of those leagues where you need big players riding shotgun (and you still need to carry an enforcer like 6’3,” 225-pound defenseman Chaz Reddekopp).
The Red Wings’ front office has begun to embrace the benefits of surrounding their top prospects with bigger, grittier players.
While it’s not necessarily certain that all the Griffins’ large signings will end up in Grand Rapids–there is big, heavy competition for roster spots at the AHL level, too–whether they’re in GR or Toledo, more Red Wings prospects will have a bigger, better set of insulation around them.
