Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen wonders aloud whether the Red Wings are considering retaining Marco Kasper on the team’s initial 23-man roster, or whether Justin Holl might be waived in order to keep Kasper around:
Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde says he has never undestood the drama surrounding who makes the roster coming out of training camp.
“Grand Rapids is two hours away,” Lalonde said. “We’ll have played 33 players by Christmas… Maybe it’s a little old school, maybe that’s where it was 20, 25 years ago. You made the team on Day 1. I think in reality, we’re probably going to have 15 forwards, 10 D that are going to play for us and make our team. So it’ll be very interesting how it plays out in the next couple days.”
It’s hard to know who needs that message more. The media? Fan base? Or is it, Marco Kasper? The Austrian center seems like he has made a serious bid to make the opening day roster. He plays hard, brings considerable energy and his two-goal game Friday showed his scoring may be coming around.
The argument for finding room for him is that he could put a youthful charge into the team. The Detroit Tigers have used that strategy effectively. With Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson also joining Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, adding Kasper would make it seem like we are turning the corner on the rebuild. Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur aren’t far behind Kasper.
Steve Yzerman must change his philosophy.