The Detroit Red Wings are only 10 games into the season and have already used 27 players due to COVID-19.
Several clubs have had the same issue or are currently dealing with it. Depth and roster flexibility will be more important than ever before as many players figure to be shuffled regularly from the AHL to the taxi squad to the NHL and back.
Former first-round picks Michael Rasmussen and Dennis Cholowski were among the players the Red Wings assigned this week to the Grand Rapids Griffins, who open their season Friday at Chicago. The Red Wings expect both players to continue developing there in the likely event they will be recalled at some point.
Rasmussen, the ninth overall pick in 2017, had three assists in eight games. He spent time at center, where the team sees his NHL future, and on the wing.
“I thought he took a step forward, did a good job in the games,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He had pretty good opportunity playing on decent lines and was on the power play. The quickness with which he makes decisions offensively, defensively have to still come to a level where he does it a little bit quicker. A lot of times that comes with confidence, so it just comes over time.”
This is Rasmussen’s third pro season. He played for the Red Wings in 2018-19, when he wasn’t eligible for the AHL, and put up eight goals and 10 assists in 62 games. He appeared in 35 games with the Griffins last season (seven goals, 15 assists).
“This, to me, a very normal course of development for him,” Blashill said. “The only difference is he had that year between junior and the American League where he played for us, where I think in a perfect world he would have played in the American League.
“He’s going to do down and work hard and hopefully he looks like he doesn’t belong down there, he looks so good that we’re calling him back up.”
Cholowski earned a roster spot out of training camp in each of the previous two seasons but hasn’t played well enough defensively to stick with the Red Wings. The 20th overall pick in 2016 will not be waiver-exempt after this season, so he is running out of chances to prove himself with the organization.
“What Dennis needs to do is be an elite power-play guy,” Blashill said. “And then he needs to keep working on ending the play with the puck, whether it’s a one-on-one rush, he ends the play on the puck, getting stick on puck. When it’s a two-on-one rush, the puck doesn’t go through him.
“He knows what he has to do and hopefully he can go down there and build confidence.”
Tough games on tap
The Red Wings are not in an ideal spot to try to snap their six-game winless skid (0-4-2) as they visit the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning today (5:30, Fox Sports Detroit) and Friday (7 p.m., FSD).
The Red Wings won the most recent meeting between the teams, 5-4 in a shootout on March 8, 2020, four days before the season was paused due to the pandemic. Before that, the Lightning had defeated Detroit 16 times in a row, including the playoffs.
“They’re missing (Nikita Kucherov, out for the season due to a hip injury), which is a huge miss, but it’s also allowed them to not trade other players and that keeps their roster real deep,” Blashill said. “They’ve got lines that can beat you in a lot of different ways. They have high-end talent up front.”
More: Red Wings get Robby Fabbri, others back from COVID protocol
The Link LonkFebruary 04, 2021 at 01:30AM
https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2021/02/red-wings-look-for-rasmussen-cholowski-to-develop-further-in-grand-rapids.html
Red Wings look for Rasmussen, Cholowski to develop further in Grand Rapids - mlive.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment