Detroit Red Wings Prospect Tournament recap, thoughts, and takeaways

Thoughts and takeaways from the Detroit Red Wings Prospect Tournament.

It’s early yet. The three losses are neither ideal nor what fans wanted to see, but it’s okay. The Detroit Red Wings showed many things to note, mainly on the individual level. Some of these players will head off to various levels of the organization, and some may end up not even being part of the puzzle down the line, but there are plenty of individual storylines.

Though, it was a good thing, as a whole, for the Red Wings to get on the ice with these prospects and get them playing with one another. While they all are at different points in their development, it was a great experience to get them on the ice for prospect camp and see how some of them performed.

Perhaps the most concerning storyline from the weekend was with Carter Mazur. The Red Wings are having Mazur undergo further evaluation on his lower-body injury, seemingly a knee injury, that could leave him out for some time. Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious, and he can get back on the ice.

Goaltending. The other concerning factor was goaltending. Sebastian Cossa played in three games, totaling 84:53 in time between the pipes. Cossa faced 54 shots, allowing 13 goals, making 41 saves—certainly not a top-tier performance for the former first-rounder.

But it’s super early, and Detroit needs to get Cossa into more games, and 2023-24 will be a big season for him. It was good to get him back on the ice, but for Cossa, it’s time to shake it, leave this performance in the past, and come out strong this fall.

On the flipside, there were some positives. The Red Wings ran Marco Kasper, Alexandre Doucet, and Mazur in Game 1 on a line, and it was more than beneficial to see these three players together. They put pressure on the opposition and got after it in the offensive zone.

The Red Wings did a good job of this as a whole. Doucet is one of the players leading the way. The undrafted prospect is intriguing, and he did an excellent job in the offensive zone and was able to show what he does best. To pair with that, Nate Danielson put up five assists and was impressive in the two games he played.

The Red Wings first-round draft pick from this year was held out of the third game as a precaution. But he made an impact in his time in the first two games; he created offense and was true to what the Red Wings were expecting.

He showed signs of a 200-foot player and was smooth up the middle in the face-off dot. There’s room to keep improving from a prospect tournament to an NHL game, but there was plenty to like about Danielson’s performance.

It should also mentioned that Cross Hanas was impressive. The former Red Wings second-rounder did a great job getting involved offensively, leading the way with four goals and two assists for six points on the weekend.

One of the players who shined but without putting up the numbers like Danielson or Hanas was Amadeus Lombardi. He’s been an offensive prospect for the Red Wings for a few years and put up exceptional numbers during the 2022-23 season.

Lombardi managed a goal and two assists for a point-per-game in the Prospect Tournament, but it was his play that was the really impressive part. The youngster did an excellent job showing off the offensive tools, taking advantage of space, and performing well in the offensive zone.

Overall, there was plenty to look forward to with the Red Wings youngsters. However, it will take time, and all of these prospects will take different roads to Hockeytown, but the Red Wings certainly have some players to look forward to seeing down the road.