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Yesterday some unsigned players from the 2019 draft became free agents. Robert Mastrimone picked at 54 and Ethan Phillips the 97th pick. Both are sub 6’ wingers/centers and both still listed with their current universities (Arizona and Western Michigan respectively).
If you go to the article link, Ethan Phillips has an asterisk by his name. There is a line in the article regarding that marking:
On the flip side, 12 players they expected to remain on teams’ reserve lists hit the free-agent market yesterday. With that in mind, we have a revised, accurate list of players who became unrestricted free agents yesterday. Asterisked players were not originally expected to come off their team’s reserve list.
The article states that trying to figure out collegiate UFAs involves several complex factors, and so the original list didn’t have Phillips listed. Phillips is transferring to WMU from Boston and hasn’t really lit up the score board. With 60 games played (only played 1 his second year to be fair) he has a total of 12 goals and 26 assists. To be fair his rights are still listed as belonging to Detroit but unsigned.
Mastrimone, who also started in Boston (3 yrs) but transferred to AZ has 32 goals and 60 assists in 121 games. I remember he was described as “scrappy… and “hard nosed… etc. We’ll see where his career goes next.
Obviously Seider was the prize of the 2019 draft for Detroit. Soderblom played 21 games last year and Tuomisto is listed to be playing for Grand Rapids this year. The 6’5… right shot Dman spent his draft year overseas, did 2 seasons in Arizona, and went back overseas last year. There was hope that the change would help. In 60 games he garnered 5 goals and 15 assists and a 20 point total matched his total points over 2 seasons in AZ(correction - Denver, thanks Todd 3066 for the heads up) but with roughly the same amount of games played.
Both are big and that trend is coming into the fan appetite again. It would be nice to see Tuomisto show a step forward in camp and cause some perspiration for Holl and even newly acquired Petry. I said before, I do like the Petry add but the win comes when prospects take jobs from veterans. That sounds awful, but that is pro sports. It’s the old Wild West. The young slinger builds their name outdrawing the veteran but one day they hang ‘em up willingly or unwillingly.
Let me know if you have any thoughts, and if you have a rookie pick to cause some long talks around the executive table.