Detroit Red Wings' Jeff Blashill: Time to play prospects over veterans

Helene St. James | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: Red Wings prospects Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen on camp Red Wings prospects Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen on development camp finale. June 30, 2018 at Little Caesars Arena.

The Detroit Red Wings are two months away from training camp, which promises extra intrigue as it will include high-end prospects.

The Wings haven’t had many of those recently, but two years of missing the playoffs have led to top 10 draft picks in Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen. Are they both NHL ready? Wings head coach Jeff Blashill shared his thoughts on that topic and more with the Free Press this week.

HSJ: What are your thoughts on Filip Zadina’s NHL readiness after watching him at development camp?

JB: It’s hard to say definitely without watching him play against other guys that are going to play in the NHL. At development camp, there are a lot of young prospects, very good young prospects, but young prospects and until you get a player like Zadina where he is going up against other NHLers, it’s hard to say anything definitely about where he is at. What I like from both what I saw on tape prior to the draft and at development camp were a number of things. One, he has a real ability to score goals. It’s a unique skill that is a huge commodity in the NHL and obviously with our hockey team, we walked away a lot of nights where we thought we played pretty good hockey but didn’t score, and certainly didn’t score easy. And what I mean by that is scoring on one shot, not have to have multiple opportunities to score. I think Filip certainly has shown the ability to score. So that was great to see. What I'm further impressed with was that he didn’t look like a guy whose only ability was to score. Some wingers don’t want the puck until they are ready to shoot, some wingers want the puck all the time. I got to coach Patrick Kane and Johnny Gaudreau at the World Championship — they want the puck all the time. I thought Filip Zadina, both on tape and at development camp, was a guy who wanted the puck and has the hockey sense to make plays.

Certainly by no means did I see a guy who is a one-trick pony. I like what I hear about his inner drive. It sounds similar to Larkin, it sounds similar to Michael Rasmussen. So I think there are a lot of things in place for him to be NHL ready sooner than later. I hope he can come in and make our team. If he makes our team, it means we just got better. He is going to have to earn it, but if he does make it, that means we’re better. I also like the fact that it looks like if he isn’t quite ready at camp, he could play in the AHL and would still be available to us at some point, which means that at some point during the year, we’d be adding a player that would upgrade our hockey team. The biggest question would just be physical maturity — how much strength can be put on during the course of the summer?

More: Detroit Red Wings mailbag: What is status on Dylan Larkin's extension?

HSJ: What kind of looks will Zadina be given during exhibition season — do you anticipate playing him with NHL regulars?

JB: I’ll divide our teams up a little bit different at Traverse City this year than I did last year because I think there is more open competition this year. So there will be more three even teams compared to last year. With that said, on those teams and through exhibition, I’m going to play him with guys that are NHL players to see how ready he is. I want to give him the opportunity to make the hockey team, and if he makes our team, that means we’re a better team. So he will get the opportunity to be the type of player he is, he will get opportunities on the power play and he’ll get opportunities to play with real NHL players.

More: Chris Chelios leaves Detroit Red Wings to move closer to his mom

More: Chris Chelios leaves Detroit Red Wings with highlight reel of quotes

HSJ: Michael Rasmussen had an incredible spring — 14 goals, 17 assists in 14 WHL playoff games. Is there any doubt in your mind he can make the Red Wings this year?

JB: I don’t have any doubt today based on my viewings of him last year in training camp, based on my viewings of him when I went out and watched him play in the WHL and based on my viewings of him on tape. He looks like a guy who is NHL ready. He looks like a guy who has put the work in to make himself ready. He looks like a guy who can help a team by scoring goals in that hard area around the net, an area we don’t score enough goals at. I don’t have doubt today. Now come training camp, he has to continue to show he is as ready as I believe he is today. He’ll have every opportunity to make the team. He has to make it, he can’t just rely on what he has done so far. He has to keep pushing hard and keep showing he makes us a better hockey team.

The whole thing we’re looking at is, how do we get better? If some of these young guys, and in specifics Michael, makes us better, then he is making our hockey team. When I look today, I feel like he’s got a great chance to make it.

HSJ: One could argue that while the team played better the first half of last season compared to 2016-17, it still did not win — so why not put top prospects like Zadina, Rasmussen, Evgeny Svechnikov, Filip Hronek, Dennis Cholowski in the lineup opening night and see what they can do?

JB: Our record wasn’t good enough last year. I know that, you know that, the entire organization knows that. We want to keep looking at how can we be better. If some of those young players make us better, they should absolutely be on our team. The question that we have to answer through exhibition season is do they make us better? Having somebody on the team just because they’re young doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to make you better. That has to be our judgment. What we have to do is turn a whole bunch of one-goal losses into one-goal wins. How do you do that? Maybe it’s adding one guy, maybe it’s adding three guys, maybe it’s adding five guys. There is the potential if you add too many guys and those guys aren’t ready, all of a sudden you go from taking steps towards being better to taking steps backwards. That is all part of the evaluation process.

Somebody asked me at an event I was at: do you like older players or do you like younger players? I said I like the best players. Certainly what has been done isn’t good enough, so therefore we have to make sure we keep an open mind that if there are young players, regardless of if they don’t have a built-in resume, if we believe they are better than guys with better resumes in terms of NHL experience, then they should play.

More: What's ahead for Red Wings? NHL GMs say rebuilds need time, luck

HSJ: Is there a minimum number of prospects that you need to integrate on the team for the sake of rebuilding?

JB: I don’t know that there is a number. I think one of the big keys is that when you are a playoff team on an annual basis, the right move is that when a young player and a veteran player are tied, the tie goes to the veteran. When you are a team that hasn’t made the playoffs for two years and a young player and a veteran player are tied, I think now the tie should go to the young player. And I say that because we need different results, and part of having different results is improving internally, and that can come with new guys being in spots. So I don’t know that there is a number per se — I think it has way more to do with when guys are ready and show that type of promise, that they get the opportunities to deliver on that promise. I don’t think it’s blind hope, though. One of the things that can happen in the sports world is just because there are unknowns, people think everybody should be given opportunity. Our jobs as evaluators are to decide which guys are going to make us better and which aren’t. It’s not just blind hope.

HSJ: What are your expectations regarding Henrik Zetterberg for the coming season?

JB: At this point, I haven’t heard anything from Henrik to say that he is or is not playing. The biggest thing with Henrik is, how healthy is Henrik? I know he spent the whole second half of last season not practicing because of his back. He ground it out because he is the ultimate warrior, one of the best I have ever been around, and was able to still be a real good player. But that continues to take a wear and tear on your body. So I think he is in the process of deliberating to see where is his back at? And only Henrik can answer that and it will be answered I am sure come camp time.

HSJ: I know it’s early, but do you have any lines in mind as you prepare for camp? I’m thinking with Thomas Vanek back, do you put him with Frans Nielsen and Andreas Athanasiou, reuniting a trio that had nice chemistry, or with Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist, as was the case to start 2016-17.

JB: One of the reasons that I wanted to sign Vanek is I think he makes other people exponentially better. Andreas Athanasiou had real good production when he played with Thomas Vanek, but so did Gus Nyquist and Darren Helm — they were arguably our best line coming out of that training camp until Vanek got hurt. Whichever line Vanek is on, he seems to make the other people better offensively. That is the intrigue of having him back, is not only is he going to add his own production, but he can help some of our young players, whether it is a AA, whether it is a Rasmussen — whoever he is paired with, he can help them produce at an even greater rate.

HSJ: Dylan Larkin had a productive finish to the season, another good outing at the World Championship. What’s his growth potential in 2018-19?

JB: Dylan wants to be the best player on the ice every night, he wants to be the best player on a winning team. That’s the approach he takes and that’s what can make him special. I think Dylan took good strides last year to becoming that complete two-way center and still being able to add a good amount of offense. To be an elite player, his production will have to continue to rise, and the area where I think it can absolutely rise is on the power play. Dylan’s production on the power play wasn’t good enough. If Dylan can continue to be a real good two-way player but increase production on the power play, he becomes that much more effective. The other thing I would say is, Dylan is in situations where the game is on the line lots. And I think he’d be the first to say he needs to make sure that when he is in a game where we need to have critical plays made, he has to make more of those critical plays, and that’s both offensively and defensively. So I think Dylan making critical plays at critical times and increasing his production on the power play is where his growth is at.

More: Should Detroit Red Wings retire Sergei Fedorov's No. 91? It's time.

HSJ: Can Anthony Mantha reach 30 goals next season?

JB: There is no question Mantha is capable of 30 goals. Now, the one decision we will make is whether he is net-front on the power play or whether he is more of a shooting spot. If he is not net-front on the power play, he is going to have to make sure that he’s scoring at a pretty good rate from a shooting spot because there are somewhat easy goals to be had when you are willing to go to the net. So he is going to have to make sure he does that five-on-five, if he isn’t there on the power play, to get some of those goals that can really boost your production. And then he is going to have to continue the process that I thought he made at times this year of being consistent in being a skater. When Anthony Mantha skates he is on pucks, he creates turnovers, he has the puck on his stick and then he is a really elite package as a 6-foot-5 guy with good hands who can really score and is good around the net. If he continues to increase the consistency with which he attacks the game and skates, there is no question he’s a 30-goal scorer as soon as this year.

HSJ: What gives you hope you can be more competitive next season than last?

JB: First, I’d say how close the league is. There isn’t that much difference between the teams that are at the top and the teams that were near the bottom like we were. We have to make up those small differences. That’s the number one thing that gives me great hope. Knowing how close we were in so many games last year, if we can find ways to turn those close losses into wins, all of a sudden you’re a way better team. Confidence is a huge thing, and we are going to have to make sure we attack the beginning part of the season like it’s the playoffs, because we need confidence. If we can do that, I have great hope we can have improvement throughout the season.

HSJ: I understand you are involved in a suit drive this month. What is it?

JB: It’s an agreement between the NHL Coaches’ Association and Men’s Wearhouse. Each participating coach is asked to donate gently used suits and sport coats. It’s something I wanted to be a part of. It helps those that may not be able to afford suits and such that are looking to get jobs and job interviews, to be able to present the way that those who can afford would be able to. I think it’s a great initiative and it’s something I’m proud to be a part of. (Note: To participate, bring gently used professional attire to any Men’s Wearhouse location through July 31, and receive a 50 percent off discount in return. Items will be donated to nonprofit organizations to help men and women who need workforce attire).

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.