Last week, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reported that Red Wings free agent signing and 28-year-old forward Eduards Tralmaks signed a back-up deal with HC Energie Karlovy Vary of the Czech Extraliga.
That complicates things as the Red Wings were planning to send the hulking 6’4,” 209-pound forward to the Grand Rapids Griffins to start.
As Duff notes this morning, Tralmaks’ back-up plan throws a wrench into the Wings’ hopes of adding a depth winger who has both North American experience, and who led the Extraliga in scoring last season:
Even though he’ll be in training camp with the Red Wings, Karlovy Vary officials remain surprisingly confident that they’ll be getting a chance to suit up Tralmaks at some point in the future.
Will that be the near future? They seem to believe that it could be.
“We were in contact with him when it all happened,” Karlovy Vary sports director Jiri Kalous told Czech website iSport. “Eddie also told us that if the moment doesn’t develop as he would like, that is, when he doesn’t play the NHL consistently, he is very interested in returning.”
The Detroit brass is curious to see what Tralmaks can offer them. They like his size (6-foot-4, 209 pounds).
Unlike most European free agents, he’s well-schooled in the North American ways of hockey. He played youth hockey for the Boston Bandits of the EHL. Tralmaks also played for the USHL’s Chicago Steel.
Following four years with the NCAA Maine Black Bears, Tralmaks played in the AHL with the Providence Bruins and in the ECHL with the Maine Mariners. During the 2021-22 AHL season, he’d produced 14-13-27 numbers with Providence.
Continued; Tralmaks is a heavy late-bloomer, but the Wings may very well not see him for more than a couple of weeks if he uses his back-up contract to opt out of AHL duty.
