Yesterday, The Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote a fine article regarding the Red Wings’ participants in the Prospect Games this past weekend, and this morning, The Athletic’s prospect experts combined their expertise to share a slate of standout players from each of the NHL’s various rookie tournaments.
Here’s what Bultman had to say about Red Wings prospect Nate Danielson, who definitely stood out from the pack at the Red Wings’ pair of games vs. the Dallas Stars:
Nate Danielson, C, Red Wings: The Traverse City “tournament” this year was really just a two-game set between Detroit and Dallas, of which Detroit won both games largely on the strength of players who were already pros last year. But one notable exception was Danielson, whose skating and playmaking really stood out, particularly in the second game of the weekend. In the end, he finished with just one assist in two games, but he created a significant number of chances for himself and his teammates. The Red Wings will of course want to see that turn into more point production, and that’s been a trend for him the last couple seasons, but his impact on the game was still clear. He’ll be of considerable interest this preseason, after a strong exhibition showing for Detroit last fall. —Max Bultman
Continued; EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro suggested that Danielson’s NHL internship should begin this season. I’m not certain that the Wings will place Danielson in their “bottom six” (even if there is an inevitable injury suffered over the course of training camp or the exhibition season), but I do believe that Danielson will be recalled at some point, and at that juncture, he may end up “stealing a job.”
That’s really been GM Steve Yzerman’s bottom line regarding prospects–that they have to push out an NHL’er in order to earn a spot on the team. I don’t expect that to change for Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur, William Wallinder, Sebastian Cossa, etc.
