Zetterberg confirms he is out

Captain Henrik Zetterberg confirmed what the Detroit Red Wings have been hinting at and took it one step further, confirming to Swedish media site Aftonbladet.se that he won’t even be attending training camp due to ongoing issues with his back. “I have not managed to work properly throughout the summer,… Zetterberg told Aftonbladet. “So I will miss the training camp and thus also the start of the season. Then we have to wait and see. I'll drive on with rehab here in Detroit now.… While no one in the organization was publicly willing to go on the record and pronounce Zetterberg’s absence due to chronic back problems as a done deal, it was apparent that things were dire. “I don’t know how you go through not being able to train and then be able to play an NHL season,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think it’s almost impossible. “I know it’s been a hard summer for him. I know he hasn’t really been able to train. All signs indicate to me right now that it’ll be very difficult for Henrik to be able to play.… Zetterberg did not practice during the final two months of last season. At the time, the Wings spun it as allowing Zetterberg to rest his 37-year-old body. Now it’s been admitted that his back was already causing him serious problems. “I think when you go through — he gutted it out for two months at the end of the year and it was amazing to see,… Blashill said. “But it’s one thing to gut it out for two months. It’s another thing when you haven’t been able to train at all to be able to play an NHL season.… Blashill confirmed he’s preparing for a life and a lineup without his captain. “I’ve said this lots, my job is to coach guys that are available to me,… Blashill said. “We’ll see the guys that are available to me and we’ll make decisions based on that. “We believe that with Dylan (Larkin), with Frans (Nielsen), with (Luke) Glendening, that we would move (Andreas) Athanasiou probably to center just to start the training camp. That, to me, is his natural position anyway. “The only thing that he has to do better at that position is make sure that he wins faceoffs. But that, to me, is a position that I’d feel totally confident putting him in and I think he could do a good job.… The absence of Zetterberg should also shift the youth movement to full throttle. Look for the club’s last top two draft picks - forwards Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen - to both make the team, as well as defenseman Filip Hronek. Defenseman Dennis Cholowski, Detroit’s first pick in 2016, will likely start the season with AHL Grand Rapids as he makes the adjustment from junior to pro. Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer