Dobber Hockey’s Puneet Sharma brings up a Red Wings “Bubble Keeper Prospect” who does have some questions to answer in what is likely a pivotal season for his North American hockey career in one William Wallinder:
William Wallander, D – Detroit Red Wings
Wallander took another step forward in his second North American season, posting 19 points with Grand Rapids. He is a big mobile defenseman that uses his mobility and frame effectively to control space and read plays well in his own zone. Offensively, he makes smart plays under pressure but will not drive production. He projects as a steady third-pair option who could see NHL time with Detroit this season. From a fantasy perspective Wallander is a keep in deeper formats as he is a low-risk, defensively sound option with modest upside.
Bubble Keeper Status: Keep
The Red Wings have two left-shooting defensemen with solid futures in the 6’4,” 190-pound Wallinder, who’s 23, and 6’3,” 222-pound Shai Buium, who’s 22, but I do wonder whether players like Wallinder or right-shooting defenseman Antti Tuomisto, 24, might end up packing their bags for Europe if they don’t make progress this season.
Put bluntly, when European pros hit their third year in North America, they tend to make a decision as to whether they’re willing to ply their trades in the AHL for another season or two in order to make the NHL–or at least make a good living here in North American pro hockey…
Or whether they’re of the mind to head back to European pro hockey, where they can make several hundred thousand dollars more per season while playing a less-demanding schedule in terms of both travel and the number of games played.
In Europe, being an “NHL-merited” or “NHL-drafted” player carries a bit of a cachet, too, and it earns players bigger paychecks as a result.
When you can play about 50 regular-season games in the SHL, Liiga, DEL, Swiss league, Czechia, Slovakia or even the KHL, and earn more money as while not enduring those 8-to-10-hour bus rides and 74 regular-season games of punishing AHL hockey, well…Some guys choose the former option, understandably so.
Given that Wallinder came from a very successful Rogle BK team, and that Tuomisto has already gone back home to Finland and come back to North America, it’s getting close to “fish or cut bait” time for both players, and you and I tend to hope that everybody succeeds, but it’s very difficult to make the NHL, and harder still to stick there.
It’s going to be a climb up the depth chart for Wallinder, Buium and Tuomisto, and it’s not going to be easy for any of them. I certainly wish them all success.
