Detroit Red Wings' Filip Zadina could be NHLer in 'a month' or '2 years'

Helene St. James | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Detroit Red Wings on Filip Zadina's NHL readiness: a month to 2 years Filip Zadina is scoring in the AHL, but when will he get a chance to do so in NHL? FIlmed Nov. 15, 2018 in Ottawa, Ont.

OTTAWA, Ont. — The night he was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings, Filip Zadina spoke of how he’d “fill the nets” of teams who passed on him.

One of the teams that did so was the Ottawa Senators, who drafted Brady Tkachuk at fourth overall, two spots before the Wings nabbed Zadina at six. Zadina had been projected to go as high as third, but Montreal picked Jesperi Kotkaniemi at that spot, and Arizona selected Barrett Hayton at fifth.

Zadina has yet to have a chance to make the Senators pay, but he is filling opponents’ nets at the AHL level. He just recorded this third two-goal game of the season, his second in four games, to help the Grand Rapids Griffins win for the fourth time in five games Wednesday.

Wings general manager Ken Holland was at the matinee in Grand Rapids, and passed some encouraging information onto Wings coach Jeff Blashill.

“I talked to Ken Holland this morning, he thought it was the best game Zadina had played, so it’s a good sign in the right direction,” Blashill said Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre, where the Wings have an evening game scheduled against the Senators. “I think the biggest thing I’d say is, it’s a learning process. The time and space in the AHL is like the NHL, and it’s way harder than in junior hockey or in college hockey. So you have to learn how to manage that time and space and then create offense. It was something that he struggled with in the preseason with us, that’s why he went down, and he’s learning it.”

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Zadina, 18, has four goals and one assist his last four games. He’s also had a plus or even rating in four of his last five games, after being a minus rating payer in six of his first seven. Overall, Zadina has six goals and four assists and is minus-seven after 14 games. He’s likely to be selected to represent his native Czech Republic at the World Junior Championship, which runs Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Canada. As for when he’ll join the Wings? That’ll come when Zadina dominates at the AHL level.

“We will not bring Filip Zadina up until Filip Zadina is ready to be a full-time NHL impact player,” Blashill said. “There will be no short cuts for short-term, I don’t even want to say success. There will be no shortcuts to our long-term success here, and we need Filip Zadina ultimately to become an elite player. The best way to do that is not to bring him into a situation where he can potentially lose confidence. He’s just starting to gain confidence down there, let’s let him be and keep gaining tons of confidence and hopefully keep taking steps in the right direction.

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“Whenever Filip Zadina is a superstar in the AHL, that’s when he should come up and play. Is that in a month, is that in two years, is that in a year? I can’t answer that question. But I know what you never want to do is bring young guys up before they are ready to make an impact in games, especially offensive guys. I would just say to everybody patience is critical, when he is ready, that’s when he would come up. We need to make sure we are doing what’s best for Filip Zadina first.”

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