As the 2021 NHL shortened season enters the regular season stretch run, Detroit Red Wings General Manager, Steve Yzerman has a lot of work to do. First Yzerman and the Red Wings scouting department are preparing for this summer’s NHL Draft. Next is the fate of head coach Jeff Blashill which Yzerman said he will address quickly after the season. But what Steve Yzerman is doing now is watching young prospects in the Detroit organization show some marked improvements.
FIlip Hronek, Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen all three players are being counted on heavily to help the Detroit Red Wings begin to look like a playoff contender again. The trio have given the team, GM and fans some good reasons to be encouraged for the Red Wings future.
A side note, None of the three players listed numbers jump off the board. That is not important! What is important is they are competing really hard, not to mention doing a lot of good things and all three have grown as players. Very important, more important than goals and assists. The goals and assists will come.
Filip Hronek, has been the Red Wings best defenseman the past couple seasons and it is not even close. Hronek has grown even more so this season and now plays with a physical edge to his game that had not been there the past couple seasons.
Filip Zadina, has also played much more more physical, and is now willing to chase down the puck and get it himself rather than wait for a teammate to pass it to him. This is exactly the kind of development that will help both Zadina and the Red Wings moving forward.
Michael Rasmussen, in a continuing theme Rasmussen has also become a much (and I do mean much) more physical player this season. The young center, is much stronger on the puck which in the past was sorely missing from his game.
As the Detroit Red Wings look for progress Hronek, Zadina and Rasmussen have shown just that. The three young players are competing and asserting themselves at a much higher level. This is encouraging!
