Detroit Red Wings: Why You Need To Watch Tomas Nosek

Detroit Red Wings prospect Tomas Nosek has turned some more heads this week. That’s to say he’s been garnering attention for over a year now. Last year at this time, MLive’s Brendan Savage wrote an article wondering if Nosek was the next big star in the making for the Red Wings. Nosek spent the season in Grand Rapids during the 2014-2015 season, posting impressive numbers. Said in the article:

But he’s definitely somebody to keep an eye on and don’t be surprised if Nosek emerges as one of the stars on Detroit’s team when the prospects tournament begins Friday vs. the St. Louis Blues at Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City.“Year after year, he just gets better,” said Jiri Fischer, the Red Wings director of player development. “He’s a quiet guy. He takes information from everybody. He’s all about hockey. He’s not into advertising himself through various means.“He’s a great teammate. Year after year, he just gets better.”

That has certainly rung true the past few days–and last season in Grand Rapids.

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Nosek has scored two goals in as many games and been a force on the ice. Nosek,

according to George Malik

, centered the second line with Tyler Bertuzzi on the left and Evgeny Svechnikov to his right. Here’s Malik’s well informed take on Nosek as the third game looms tomorrow:

Tomas Nosek #83 just really looks almost ready to take an NHL spot right now. Nosek scored another goal–another net-front jam–but it’s his patience, his poise and his versatility as a big, rangy two-way center with “sneaky good” passing and scoring skills that make him so useful, and it’s his plain old calmness in traffic and calmness when challenged physically that make him look so very close to being ready to play at the NHL level. He’s very mature, very bright and he understands where he needs to be to work special teams and even strength plays to his and his teammates’ advantage and he really is a catalyst player, someone who simply helps his team’s cause by being on the ice.

Exciting? I thought so. Let’s look closer at the numbers.

Stats Don’t Lie

Nosek’s first season in North American hockey yielded some impressive results. In just 55 regular season games, Nosek scored 11 goals and had 34 points. His Plus/Minus? +30. This after nearly ending his career at home during a potential accident with a knife. It was once again Petr Mrazek with a clutch save, calling for the medical attention Nosek needed and all was well. Though Nosek missed two months of the season, he ended up scoring 32 points in 50 games. In the playoffs, Nosek registered two goals and 7 points in 12 playoff games.

Will he score buckets of goals? No. But that’s not his value. Nosek is a reliable two-way forward who will be valuable back checking, forcing turnovers, and creating scoring chances–if not finishing those chances himself.

While Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, and Andreas Athanasiou are getting the lionshare of attention (which is rightly earned), Nosek should be mentioned with those three. I expect to see Nosek push for one of the final spots on the team in camp, and if he’s sent back to Grand Rapids, he’ll be back up in Detroit pretty quickly. His skillset is one that the Red Wings could absolutely use.

Next: Prospect Tournament Thoughts and Observations After Day 2

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