Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson made his Detroit debut by participating in the Wings’ summer development camp on Thursday, skating in a pair of 3-on-3 games at the BELFOR Training Center.
Edvinsson, unlike Team Sweden teammates Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder, was able to bring his equipment (except for his stick) with him, and while the Warrior twigs he was using might not have been his custom-made Bauers, Edvinsson looked dynamic and strong as advertised.
The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi posted an article in which he discusses Edvinsson’s uphill climb in terms of battling for a roster spot on what is now a relatively deep Detroit blueline:
Edvinsson, 19, said at Red Wings development camp Thursday he noticed the flurry of additions to Detroit’s roster — and realizes the challenge that’ll be in front of him when training camp begins.
“It was a lot of free agents that got here, and of course, good players. It’s gonna be hard competition,” Edvinsson said. “It’s just gonna be fun. Everything is getting harder and that’s something that’s gonna develop me as a person, too.”
With a full season of Swedish Hockey League experience under his belt, Edvinsson now will try to make a transition similar to that of Moritz Seider, who in June was named the NHL’s top rookie from a season ago after spending a season in the SHL with Rögle.
When Seider came over, the expectations were a little bit tempered. Not a lot of fans had actually seen him play or could contextualize the news coming out of Sweden that he’d been named SHL’s defenseman of the year. Plus, it’d been awhile since a Wings’ top pick had come in and stolen the show. But after a dominant rookie season, people are starting to draw parallels between the two young Euro defensemen — and they’re excited. Edvinsson said he feels the anticipation.
“Yeah, of course,” he said when asked about whether he can feel the anticipation of his arrival. “You want to take a place, you want to make things happen for the team. You want to be a part of the team, and you want to help the team win a Stanley Cup, also, for the fans. So, yeah, everything is positive about that.”
Continued; quoth the GM:
“If we come in and have too many good players, wouldn’t that be a great problem to have?” Yzerman said. “We’ll figure it out at that point. I’d rather have our young guys … work their way through the steps, as opposed to putting them in the NHL because we just decided that they’re going there, and then at Christmas or middle of November, ‘Jeez, we’re not very good. They’re struggling,’ and have to send them down. It’s not good for the team or the individual.”