from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
The Detroit Red Wings will get an infusion of forward depth next week with the return of Jakub Vrana and Robby Fabbri and shortly after that when Filip Zadina is cleared to play.
Roster and lineup decisions loom. They might be difficult choices given how well some of their younger players have performed.
“Probably get through the weekend and have some of those tough roster decisions, but knock on wood, let’s get there,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We’ve been here a few times this year where we thought we were getting the wagon back and someone else went down. Those (young) guys, we want them to make it tough on us.”...
Vrana was required to be on the 23-man roster when he exited the NHL/NHLPA players assistance program two weeks ago. The Red Wings, at the 23-man roster limit, will need to free a spot before activating Fabbri....
The most likely scenario is to assign a waiver-exempt player to Grand Rapids and the most likely candidate could be Elmer Soderblom. He’s played well since returning from the Griffins, with five points (two goals, three assists) in five games. But Jonatan Berggren, it would seem, has played too well to send down with five goals and 12 points in 21 games.
The other possibility is to send down Joe Veleno, but that would reduce their center depth.
Lalonde has used Veleno, Berggren and Soderblom to form an effective line in recent games.
“Gave us a spark offensively, loved the offensive confidence,” Lalonde said. “There’s still some things within their game – two goals against in Buffalo (6-3 loss Thursday), they had their hands all over it. Bergie takes the bad penalty. But they have the ability to make plays. You love that out of young players. That’s part of development. We’ll grow them in some of those developing mistake areas. But we love how assertive they are with their game.”
As well established in KK for the last 15 or 16 years, Im not very bright and cant really count how many forwards the Wings will have.
However, when putting Fabbri and Vrana back in the lineup, sending down either Berggren or Soderblom in order to keep Zadina with the NHL club makes no sense to me. Zadina is still young but so are Berggren and Soderblom and to me they have both produced more than Zadina and have a higher upside as well.
But as I said, Im not very bright and dont have to manage a roster like the GM does.
Simplest part to understand is that Zadina would have to clear waivers to go to the AHL. Berggren and Soderblom would not.
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