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Sometime Monday – perhaps even in the a.m. – AM and AA will likely find out that they’re on their way to the A.
Anthony Mantha scored the game-winner as the Detroit Red Wings won their final NHL preseason game 4-3 Saturday over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Joe Louis Arena but it doesn’t sound like it was enough to earn him a spot on Detroit’s season-opening roster.
“I didn’t think him or Double-A (forward Andreas Athanasiou) were good enough, to be honest with you,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said bluntly. “They’ve got to be better than that. These are big games for those guys, and in two of the three, they’ve got to be better.
“I told the young guys in camp to slap me in the face and tell me you’re better than other options.”
Asked if any of his young hopefuls – including defensemen Ryan Sproul and Xavier Ouellet in that equation – Blashill offered an evasive response.
“I think we’ll sit down tomorrow and we’ll make decisions on our roster,” Blashill said, anticipating no announcement on Detroit’s 23-player roster before Monday.
That sure sounds like a no.
“I think Mantha and AA and Ouellet and Sproul and those guys – to some degree AA had some establishment here last year – but the other guys haven’t been established, so they’ve laid out how they play through the preseason and we’ll make decisions,” Blashill said.
Roster Moves
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Wings made several roster moves.
They assigned forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Matt Lorito and Evgeny Svechnikov and defensemen Joe Hicketts and Robbie Russo to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.
Svechnikov scored both goals in Friday’s 2-1 preseason win over Toronto but Detroit’s top pick in the 2015 NHL entry draft still has some kinks to work out before he’ll be a big leaguer.
“I’m just learning about Svechnikov as we move along,” Blashill said. “I met him when we first drafted him. I heard great things about his inner drive and desire, which ultimately is the difference whether guys make it to the level they should or not.
“I think what I’ve seen this year is right away he was noticeably quicker, so he trained really hard off the ice to get quicker. (Friday) night was the first game where he did some real, real special things with the puck. He’s been a good player, he’s done a good job through the preseason but last night he showed a little bit of high-end ability in those areas, so that was a good step in the right direction.”
To make the next step to the NHL, Svechnikov will need to step up his stride.
“I think it’s a couple of things,” Blashill said of areas where Svechnikov must improve. “One, it’s work on quickness. It’s a skating game. He’s not slow but he’s not naturally fast and he’s gotten quicker.
“I think just management of knowing when to pull those toe drags, knowing when to do that. Then staying out of the penalty box.”
The Wings also released forwards Louis-Marc Aubry and Kyle Criscuolo, defenseman Nathan Paetsch and goaltender Cal Heeter from professional tryouts. All of the released players reported to Grand Rapids.
Defensemen Nick Jensen and Brian Lashoff and forwards Martin Frk, Mitch Callahan and Eric Tangradi were placed on waivers and will be assigned to Grand Rapids if they clear.
Additionally, the Wings placed forwards Tomas Jurco and Tomas Nosek and defensemen Vili Saarijarvi and Dan Renouf on injured reserve, reducing the active roster to 32 players (19 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders).
Street Tough
Detroit forward Ben Street is OK following a scary moment during Friday’s 2-1 preseason win over Toronto.
“Ben was cut in the neck,” Blashill said. “They explored the wound. There was no major damages. He was taken to hospital (Friday) night to make sure. He was released from the hospital (Friday) night and he is on his way home.
“We would like to thank the Toronto doctors. They did an outstanding job. Our medical staff couldn't say enough good things about them. He is going to be just fine.”
No major arteries or veins were sliced but regardless, Blashill was impressed by how calmly Street dealt with such a frightening and potential fatal scenario.
“He had unreal composure,” Blashill said. “He had his hand on his neck. I looked up and saw the replay and that’s when I really got scared. I was hoping everything was OK. But we got word pretty quick that it looked like it was going to be just fine.”
Minor Matters
Detroit’s Grand Rapids AHL farm club made some significant roster movement on Saturday to make room for the expected airlift of talent to be coming down I-96 this weekend.
Forwards Zach Nastasiuk, Jack Barre, Carter Sandlak, Mathew Santos and Alex Globke and goaltender Cal Heeter were assigned to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.
Forwards Dane Walters, Erik Bradford, Shawn Szydlowski and A.J. Jenks and defensemen Will Weber, Simon Denis, Jacob MacDonald and Gabriel Beaupre were released from their training camp tryouts.
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