from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

“With Svech, it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster year,” Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff said in an interview with the Free Press. “I think he’s a little bit frustrated — he wasn’t playing necessarily how he thinks he can play.

“But, he’s coming off a tough injury and that’s not easy to do. When you’re out for that long, it’s very difficult to come back. He has played stretches this year where he has played really good hockey and produced a lot.”...

Svechnikov is no longer waiver exempt, so he’ll be with the Wings when next season begins. (There was a report out of Russia in February that Svechnikov could play in the KHL next season, but the Wings have received no such indication, and Svechnikov has talked of what a dream it would be to play in the NHL since he was drafted.)

He will have to battle to find a role in the bottom six, where competition is expected to include restricted free agents Adam Erne, Christoffer Ehn and Dmytro Timashov, and veterans Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm and Luke Glendening.

Svechnikov should be able to push especially Abdelkader for a job, though, because of how ineffective Abdelkader has been the past two years.

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