The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a mid-morning column addressing the three major roster battles on the team in terms of the team’s depth on defense, its bottom-six forwards, and its waiver situation:
My read on the Red Wings’ bottom-six battles has changed in the last 48 hours. Two days ago, I wrote about an apparent duel between Michael Rasmussen and Mason Appleton for a spot on the fourth line — what I presumed would be the final lineup spot. But Appleton had another noticeable game Thursday, and after the Red Wings bumped Carter Mazur to the AHL practice group the last two days, it increasingly looks like Appleton and Rasmussen could end up back in the bottom six.
Again, we’ll see what Saturday brings, but McLellan was complimentary of Appleton on Thursday — pointing out that he also looked good early last season before missing time with a lower-body injury. He started this year’s camp skating outside of the four NHL lines, but with a good preseason, he looks like he might have earned his spot back.
“I don’t think he ever recovered from that (injury last season) and skated like he is now,” McLellan said. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder. He wants to prove — not to me or you or anybody else — he wants to prove to his teammates that he’s the player we believe in. And he’s playing that way.”
Thursday, Appleton was with Emmitt Finnie and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård — the latter of whom was another young player McLellan singled out as “playing better than others.” I wouldn’t read much into the line combination for regular-season purposes (Finnie has generally been with Marco Kasper and Viktor Arvidsson through camp), but all three have looked good this fall and seem ticketed for roster spots.
Assuming the fourth line stays as it’s been, with Michael Rasmussen, J.T. Compher and Keegan Kolesar, that puts Mazur in less certain territory. Danielson, another young player looking to win a spot, hasn’t necessarily wowed this fall, but he’s been solid enough and has trended well as the preseason has gone on. He nearly scored a late game winner Thursday, ringing it off the crossbar, and drew two penalties in the game. Mazur, meanwhile, struggled to make an impact and played just 11 minutes and 30 seconds. That leaves him in a tough spot.
Continued (paywall)
