The Hockey News’s Jake Tye spoke with Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins forward Nate Danielson as the 20-year-old is wrapping up his summer in his home of Red Deer, Alberta:
When asked about his training focus, Danielson mentioned that, like many young players, he’s working on adding weight. Besides working on fine-tuning his skating, shooting and other basics, he looks to build on his 6-foot-2 frame and use it to his advantage next season.
“I wanted to put on some weight this summer, so just fixing that on the nutrition side of it and then obviously, hitting the gym a lot and trying to put on a little weight was a big thing,” Danielson explained “I guess the whole main goal for the year is to try to get a look with the Wings.”
Red Wings fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about the future arrival of the 2023 ninth overall pick. Danielson was recently mentioned on The Athletic Hockey Show, hosted by Red Wings beat reporter Max Bultman and The Athletic’s Senior NHL Prospect Writer, Corey Pronman. During their breakdown of Detroit’s prospect pipeline, Pronman named Danielson the top prospect in the organization and went a step further, boldly stating that Danielson is ahead of current Red Wings top-six forward Marco Kasper at the same stage of development and even described Danielson as “more toolsy” than Kasper.
While the spotlight and expectations that come with being a high draft pick and top prospect can be intense, Danielson says he doesn’t let the outside noise get to him and he instead tries to focus on his love for the game.
“I feel like the most pressure I feel is just what I put on myself, I’m hard on myself as it is, so I think just if you let all that get to you, then it’s going to be tough mentally to be able to perform,” Danielson said “I’m playing hockey, and that’s what I love to do, so I feel like just kind of going out there and just trying to get better every day and trying to prove my best so I can help with the Red Wings, is my focus right now.”
