MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Red Wings prospect Carter Bear and Wings director of player development Dan Cleary regarding Bear’s progression this past season with the WHL’s WHL Everett Silvertips. Everett played its way to a WHL Championship this past season, and battled through to the Memorial Cup Final…
“It was good Carter had a long season,” Dan Cleary, Red Wings assistant director of player development, said during development camp in July. “When you go to late May, you lose a little bit of gym time. But he’ll be here all summer. I keep telling these kids my best advice I can ever give you is the harder you train in the summer, the easier the winter will be.”
Bear bounced back from Achilles surgery the previous spring to have a strong final junior season with WHL Everett. He led the Silvertips with 36 goals and was second with 77 points in 53 regular season games. He tallied seven goals and 15 assists in 18 playoff games. Everett lost to Kitchener 6-2 in the championship game.
“Just the amount of memories I gained and the friendships I made, it’s unbelievable,” Bear said. “You watch the Memorial Cup each year and playing in it was pretty special with the group of guys I had. It sucks how we fell short. But I think all that matters is I had fun and learning from my game, too.”
Now Bear, a left wing selected 13th overall, is preparing for his first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins.
“It’s pro now; that’s a whole new level of hockey,” Bear, who turns 20 on Nov. 4, said. “It’s faster, got to be smarter and stronger. I just need to work on the game that Detroit wants me to work on.I think my skating; that’s one big thing. And obviously there’s strength, strength in the gym, off the ice.”
As Khan notes, Bear, who’s listed at 6′ and 187 pounds on EliteProspects, will have a bit of a challenge adjusting to the pace of pro hockey:
“Being a young winger, it’s going to be fast, everything’s going to happen much quicker,” Cleary said. “But he’s smart and he’s very competitive. You lose the puck; you go get it back. The adjustment for him will be the strength of defenders, the big defensemen, people leaning on you against the wall. But he’s smart and he wants it and he’s going to adapt fine.”
