Has he worn out his welcome?
Probably not yet.
Was he in need of a wake-up call?
Evidently so.
Consider it delivered.
The only surprise on the list of unprotected players released by the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday for the June 21 NHL expansion draft was that of goalie Petr Mrazek. The Wings opted instead to protect veteran Jimmy Howard, at 33 eight years Mrazek’s senior, and coming off an injury-riddled season, albeit one during which when he was healthy, Howard was the vastly superior of the two netminders.
Detroit general manager Ken Holland wasn’t in the mood to discuss his choice of goaltenders, or any of his choices in terms of the expansion draft for that matter.
“I have no comment,” Holland said. “All the players except one will be back on our team.”
Others of significance left exposed for the expansion draft included forwards Riley Sheahan, Drew Miller, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, and Tomas Nosek, defensemen Niklas Kronwall, Xavier Ouellet, Jonathan Ericsson and Ryan Sproul and goaltender Jared Coreau.
The expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights get to select one of them during the expansion draft, and Holland did acknowledge that unlike some other NHL teams, he won’t be making any backroom deals with Las Vegas GM George McPhee in order to ensure a player or players are passed over by the Golden Knights.
“We had a tough year,” Holland said of missing the playoffs in 2016-17. “We’re trying to build our team.
“I’m not spending any future assets to hang onto players.”
There certainly is a chance that should Holland see someone on the unprotected list that is of interest to him, he could work out a package to get the Golden Knights to draft that player and then flip him to the Wings.
“I talked to George McPhee a number of times this week,” Holland admitted. “I do plan on talking to him through the freeze period. I do know he’s working with a number of teams.
“I talked to most of the managers in the NHL leading into (Saturday’s protected list submissions).”
Thought not so long ago to be Detroit’s goalie of the future, Mrazek, 25, has gone into a downturn since he celebrated his 24th birthday on Feb. 14, 2016.
Overall, Mrazek has a 3.13 goals-against average, .898 save percentage and one shutout in 66 regular-season games since that date.
Beyond his dismal numbers, the Wings also weren’t pleased when Mrazek forced their hand and they were required to file for arbitration last summer. There were also some issues involving Mrazek’s attitude, and it was thought last season’s switch of goalie coaches from Jim Bedard to Jeff Salajko, Mrazek’s goalie coach in AHL Grand Rapids, might help the situation, but that didn’t appear to be the case. He was also said to be very unhappy with the team for not trading Howard last summer.
There have been concerns at times about Mrazek’s work ethic, and that sometimes, his confident swagger goes too far into an uncoachable cockiness.
With the number of quality goalies available in the draft - Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury, Florida’s Roberto Luongo, Philadelphia’s Steve Mason and Michael Neuvirth, Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen of Dallas and Antti Raanta of the New York Rangers - there’s a distinct possibility that Mrazek won’t be selected by the Golden Knights.
Still, that the Wings are willing to risk losing Mrazek for absolutely nothing speaks volumes to how far his stock has fallen so quickly in their eyes.
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