Detroit Red Wings: What to expect from Tyler Bertuzzi
By Bob Heyrman
Detroit Red Wings prospect Tyler Bertuzzi has a familiar last name that will catch the eye of even the casual Wings fan. Bertuzzi, the nephew of Todd, plays with a grinding physical style for Detroit that certainly makes uncle Todd proud.
The Detroit Red Wings inserted a some “sandpaper” into their line up last season with prospect Tyler Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi has played a total of 55 NHL games over parts of the previous two seasons.
Tyler often skated alongside captain Henrik Zetterberg last season on the opposite wing of Anthony Mantha or Gustav Nyquist depending whom head coach Jeff Blashill decided to plug in that particular game.
Bertuzzi accumulated 24 points last season, 7 goals and 17 assists in 48 games. Bertuzzi is 23 years old considered a grinder, a pest with his willingness to be a physical net presence on a nightly basis. Bertuzzi was effective working in the corners retrieving the puck for his linemates down low in the offensive zone.
While the Detroit Red Wings had the puck in the offensive zone, Bertuzzi was regularly found near the front of the net causing havoc. A large percentage of Bertuzzi’s goals will be those ugly “muck it up” in front of the net type goals. Every team needs players willing to go into the tough, physical, dirty areas on the ice and chip in with some deflection or rebound goals. The worst case scenario would be Bertuzzi setting a screen and being a distraction for opposing goaltenders. If he doesn’t get the goal himself, he can contribute in other ways without being on the score sheet.
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Although Bertuzzi played with Hank a lot last season, Bertuzzi may be better suited down on a fourth line grinding away. Bertuzzi averaged 14:24 minutes of ice time per game last season.
If you remember; at times last season Detroit dressed seven defensemen and eleven forwards rotating three center’s throughout the line up playing with four sets of wingers. This won’t be the case this season. Detroit has too many forwards chomping at the bit to get into the game, and amongst the extra forwards there will be a couple of young rookies working hard for a spot in the lineup.
Tyler Bertuzzi can be a productive energy guy who in the future will have LCA rocking nightly with Givani Smith on his opposite wing who also loves to punish opponents with his physical play. Until Smith cracks the line-up (which could happen sometime this season) Blashill should have Bertuzzi skating with Luke Glendening and Justin Abdelkader. That gives Blashill three players on his fourth line who are capable of killing penalties along with being able to create some scoring chances which is a bonus for any teams fourth line.
Tyler Bertuzzi will kick the term “prospect” this season as he will be a staple in Detroit’s line up moving forward. Bertuzzi set to play every day for Detroit should also see a boost in his offensive production. Bertuzzi should produce similar statistics to “Abby.”
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Bertuzzi has the potential to be a 35/40 point player next season which would be outstanding production skating as a bottom-six forward. 20 Goals is probably a stretch, but 15 is indeed in reach for Bertuzzi thru 82 games. The future is bright, and it comes with a little chippy style of play, which we, of course, expect nothing less from a “Bertuzzi.”