The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood wonders aloud “what’s next for Marco Kasper?” and the answer is that he plays, and plays significant minutes for the Grand Rapids Griffins:
“Obviously, some scenarios where he could have found himself in a day one lineup, but that’s kind of what I alluded to (Saturday),” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said Monday. “We’re just trying to maximize our roster. And it’s not a bad thing for him to go straight down, be playing 22 minutes in every situation and be a simple call at any time.”
For now, Kasper is back in Grand Rapids, where he is set to play top line minutes as one of the most important players on the team. The way the Red Wings see it, putting Kasper in this role is better for his development than keeping him in Detroit, where he would only play a depth role in the bottom six. At his age, players can learn a lot by playing more minutes and seeing situations in games — especially for a player whose offensive game is still a work in progress, minutes are all the more valuable. The Red Wings don’t want to stunt Kasper’s development by hurrying him to the NHL all for a diminished role.
Kasper’s situation is very similar to that of Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Last preseason, Edvinsson was one of Detroit’s better defensemen in preseason, but the Red Wings sent him down to Grand Rapids so that he could play a larger role and run a power play unit. He still got into 16 games, 14 of which came in the heat of Detroit’s late playoff push. This time around, he leaves training camp as a top four defenseman, one that the Red Wings will lean on a lot during the year ahead.
Kasper’s AHL assignment doesn’t preclude his playing in the NHL at some point. Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde acknowledged how much rosters change during a season, saying Saturday that “Grand Rapids is two hours away. 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 one. In reality, we’re probably going to have 15 forwards and 10 D that are gonna play for us and make our team, so it’ll be very interesting how it plays out in the next couple weeks.”
Continued; Kasper, Carter Mazur and Nate Danielson will all be significant contributors to the Grand Rapids Griffins’ own push for a playoff spot.
