Red Wings trade acquisition Sutter Muzzatti stands at 6’6” and 229 pounds, and the big forward could have chosen to continue the “family business” by following in the footsteps of his father, Jason Muzzatti, an NHL goaltender. According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, a simple “no” got the younger Muzzatti excused from crease duty:
“I tried,” Muzzatti said of netminding. “One game. I didn’t like it too much, so my dad didn’t force me into it. So grateful for that.”
Instead, as Duff notes, Muzzatti is a net-crashing 23-year-old, which has Red Wings prospect coach and Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson intrigued:
“I think it’s something that I’ve figured out I can do and have an impact with,” Muzzatti said. “So it’s definitely a big part of my game.”
Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson is already envisioning all the elements that the first-year pro can bring to the AHL.
“He moves well for his size,” Watson said. “He’s going to learn to protect pucks and make plays out of it, learn to hang on to pucks and spend some time offensively. But what I’ve seen already is he can play on the power play, he can be on the penalty kill, he can play against the other team’s top line. He’s very responsible, and he’s going to be very trustworthy already. So the size certainly helps. We’ve got to make sure that he uses it the right way.”
As he grew into his body, Muzzatti, who played college hockey at RPI and Notre Dame, recognized what destiny held for him as his role in the game. And he willingly embraced it.
“I think it was something that kind of had to get used to, and I kind of enjoyed being able to play the body and protect the puck for sure,” Muzzatti said. “Yeah, it’s definitely something I try to bring every night. Just finishing my hits, playing clean but playing hard.”
