Red Wings: A Glimpse of Filip Zadina before heading back to Griffins

Filip Zadina is already exempt from the NHL Seattle expansion draft, but keeping him under ten games played for the second straight year will buy the Detroit Red Wings time.

When the Detroit Red Wings called up forward Filip Zadina from the Grand Rapids Griffins, I was excited and a bit confused at the same time. I was excited to see Zadina once again in a Wings’ jersey, mostly to compare this most recent stint in Detroit with the one at the end of last season.

I think we the fans are fascinated with progress, whether it’s positive or negative. We like to overreact and come up with a stance one way or another as quickly as possible. Last summer, after being passed by a few teams, Montreal, in particular, on draft night falling to the Red Wings at six, Zadina exclaimed he would make the Habs pay by filling their net.

I was immediately intrigued by this overly confident young 18-year old prospect whom many predicted would be selected with the 3rd overall pick. Perhaps the scoring forward would enter the league immediately and be one of Detroit’s best scoring threats?

More from Detroit Jock City

That’s what I was hoping for if you had asked me on draft night as I was celebrating the pick, I would have put the youngster in the Hall of Fame. That’s the over-excitement part, placing the horse in front of the carriage.

I had already built up the kid to an unachievable level before he even had a chance to dawn the winged wheel. Can you blame me? I mean the Wings were just entering their ‘rebuild,’ and there wasn’t much to be excited about aside from a handful of names. The truth is, the Wings were trying to rebuild on the fly for quite some time but hadn’t had much success in doing so.

After seeing Zadina compete in his first NHL preseason, it quickly became evident he wasn’t ready to make the leap from junior hockey to the NHL. The outspoken youngster all but admitted it after Hawks captain Johnathan Toews picked his pocket in the neutral zone and barrelled in towards the Wings goal with a scoring chance as Zadina was collecting his jockstrap from the fourth row. Zadina’s reaction said it all. He was looking down at his feet, quickly behind him, before spotting Toews by then five strides away, well into Detroit’s zone.

Don’t get me wrong, Zadina had brighter moments throughout his first training camp, and during the preseason but he wasn’t ready to jump into the Red Wings lineup as a top-six forward. Even in Grand Rapids, it took Zadina a while to find his way that first year, but when he did, he proved to be a sniper regularly showing off his blistering shot.

One year removed Zadina looks more confident; he looked dangerous throughout his first game of the season with the Red Wings. Again displaying some of those traits I was so excited about on draft night. The traits that netted him 44 goals and 82 points in just 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads.

He could make a case for himself over the next two weeks that he deserves to stay in Detroit, but why? How do the Red Wings benefit from keeping him around? If he plays a total of nine or fewer games in the NHL, it will preserve his rookie contract another year.

From a business standpoint, it’s a no brainer. Let him play nine games, send him back to Grand Rapids to hopefully lead the Griffins on a long playoff run when it’s all said and done. If he plays ten games in the NHL, it burns the first year of that Entry-Level Contract meaning the Wings will have to pay him a lot more money one year sooner.

The Wings have other, more seasoned players like Evgeny Svechnikov that can come up and fill in for Red Wings injuries. Svechnikov is also waiver exempt. Matt Puempel isn’t waiver exempt, so if he were to get called up he’d have to clear waivers to be sent back down, but he is lighting it up this year in Grand Rapids, he’s still only 26-years old. The former first-round pick has 9 goals, 19 points in 17 games with the Griffins this year, give him a shot on Detroit’s third line.

But while he’s here, I’m surprised, yet happy head coach Jeff Blashill doesn’t have him buried on the fourth line. He’s playing with Valteri Filppula and Darren Helm on the second line. With Mantha absent, I’d like to see what he can do playing alongside Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi.

The fact of the matter is when it’s all said and done, and Filip edges closer to that nine-game mark, we have to pump the breaks on him for another year because it makes business sense.

Next. Jeff Blashill Amazingly Outlasts Mike Babcock. dark

During 19 games with the Griffins, this season Zadina has scored 7 goals, added 6 assists totaling 13 points and is a minus -7. He’s played one game this year in Detroit and is a minus -1. Last year in his nine regular-season games in Motown he recorded 1 goal and 2 assists and skated as a minus -5.

Home/Detroit Red Wings