Detroit Red Wings Weekly Review: Here Come the Kids

It might not be the regular season quite yet, but the Detroit Red Wings prospect tournament starts this week, giving fans some Red Wings related hockey for the first time since May. It’s not the thaw to what is usually a much longer layoff, but it’s better because at least it’s a glimpse of the Red Wings loaded prospect pool.

Attention will be laser focused on Lucas Raymond, Joe Veleno Jonatan Berggren and Sebastian Cossa but as Alex pointed out yesterday, there are some other names to keep a very close eye on as things open up Thursday.

The prospect tournament will give fans the first real glimpse of how the prospects are developing both those in the system for awhile now and those who are just arriving. Veleno carries high expectations from the staff, as evidenced in the Athletic’s Max Bultman’s article. From Director of Player Development Shawn Horcoff:

"Well, I think at this point, Joe at his age and his experience level – obviously having a full year as well last year in Europe – I expect Joe to come in and dominate, really. I mean he should lead the way for us up there in Traverse City and being a guy that’s going to play all situations and big minutes and center that top line."

Veleno has been one of the names expected to challenge for the fourth line center gig in Detroit this season. A dominant prospect camp–as expected by the Detroit brass–would give some positive momentum into training camp. The real litmus test will be during the preseason, but this feels like one of those big chances for Veleno to stake his claim.

If Raymond flashes the skillset that has kept Wings fans salivating for him to get to Detroit faster and dominates, it’s going to ratchet up those expectations pretty quickly. Even though it’s just the first step in the prospects tournament, any sense of Raymond dominating on North American ice will just add to the hope he’ll be in Hockeytown faster.

Red Wings Top Prospect Edvinsson Solid in SHL Debut

Though Frolunda lost 4-2, 2021 first round pick Simon Edvinsson logged 20 minutes of ice time and had an assist along with a solid showing.

Though the Red Wings left some offensive firepower on the draft board, Edvinsson has been nothing but impressive with every game he’s played thus far. To echo what was written above, expectations need to be realistic and tempered until they are met, but man, it’s hard to not look ahead and wonder just how dominant a blue line could be with Moritz Seider and Edvinsson–should he hit the ceiling he’s projected to have.

A thank you to all of our readers

We won’t able to make the trek up to Traverse City, but we’ll be starting our player previews, division previews, and chronicling the prospect tournament as well as training camp the following week. As we get closer to the season and there are exhibition games followed by the regular season, we’ll be adding more in-depth analysis as the full season takes hold.

Thank you for your continued readership and here’s to what should be the start of an exciting season–and God willing–the next step forward in the rebuild.