Red Wings brace for 'competitive, wide-open' training camp
Channel: التحضير لمباريات الوظيفة
Date: 2018-09-14

TRAVERSE CITY - After his team missed the playoffs the past two seasons and finished near the bottom of the NHL in 2017-18, Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Thursday, "I think there's tons of spots that are up for grabs."

That might be a stretch, but there appears to be more jobs available in training camp than in years past.

"I think after two years of not being good enough, it's as wide open a camp as we've had here in a long, long time," Blashill said. "I hope that a bunch of guys we've had on our team got better this summer. Then I hope a bunch of young guys are in position to really challenge and try to take other guys' jobs."

The Red Wings anticipate the most competitive camp and preseason they've had in some time. After drafting high the past two years, the team has assembled a group of talented prospects, some who are expected to be NHL-ready this season.
Red Wings' Jeff Blashill counting on ultra-competitive camp

When camp starts Friday at Centre I.C.E., forwards Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina and Evgeny Svechnikov and defensemen Filip Hronek, Joe Hicketts, Libor Sulak and Dennis Rasmussen will be among the group of young players vying for jobs. At least two spots at forward and one on defense are open.

"We're hoping young people not only are pushing for jobs on the team but pushing for bigger roles on the team," general manager Ken Holland said. "Part of that is these younger players got to come in and either take a job or take a bigger role on the team. As we go forward, either this year or next year, the plan is to work more and more young people into our team and then hopefully they're going to have a bigger role on our team and they'll eventually take the team over