Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Jakub Vrana Has A Deal With The Detroit Red Wings

08/10/2021 at 11:47am EDT

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today agreed to terms with left wing Jakub Vrana on a three-year contract.

Vrana, 25, was acquired by the Red Wings in a trade with the Washington Capitals on April 12 and combined for 36 points (19-17-36), a plus-10 rating and 10 penalty minutes in 50 games between the two teams. In 11 games with Detroit, Vrana racked up 11 points (8-3-11) and made history with a four-goal game on April 22 vs. Dallas, becoming the 26th player in Red Wings history to score four-or-more goals in a game and the second player in franchise history to record a hat trick within his first four games of joining the team (along with Jud McAtee on Nov. 22, 1944 vs. NY Rangers). It was also one of just three four-goal outings in the NHL during the 2020-21 season. Vrana also tied for sixth in the NHL with seven game-winning goals, three of which came in his 11-game stint with Detroit.

The 6-foot, 197-pound winger has skated in 295 career games between Detroit and Washington, totaling 168 points (84-84-168), a plus-37 rating and 69 penalty minutes over five NHL campaigns. Vrana is coming off the two best point-per-game seasons of his career, including a career-best 52 points (25-27-52) in 69 games during the 2019-20 season. In his first full NHL season in 2017-18, Vrana helped the Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship, posting 27 points (13-14-27) in 73 regular-season contests and chipping in eight points (3-5-8) in 23 playoff games. Vrana was originally drafted by the Capitals in the first round (13th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft – two picks prior to Detroit’s selection of Dylan Larkin at 15th overall.

A native of Prague, Czech Republic, Vrana also skated in 88 games with the AHL’s Hershey Bears from 2014-17, registering 75 points (35-40-75), a plus-21 rating and 48 penalty minutes in addition to 20 points (10-10-20), a plus-eight rating and eight penalty minutes in 38 playoff games. Vrana spent the previous four seasons developing in Sweden, where he debuted professionally with Linkoping in the Swedish Hockey League in 2012-13 and logged 27 points (14-13-27) and 14 penalty minutes in 73 games until 2014-15. He also racked up 58 points (35-23-58), a plus-11 rating and 77 penalty minutes in 59 games in the top Swedish junior league. Vrana was a regular on the Czech Republic national junior teams, recording 20 points (14-6-20) in 18 games at three-straight IIHF World Under-18 Championships (2012-14) and six points (3-3-6) in 16 games at three-consecutive IIHF World Junior Championships (2013-15). He also played for his country at the last two IIHF World Championships, where he was teammates with fellow Red Wings Filip Hronek (2019 and 2021) and Filip Zadina (2021), combining for nine points (6-3-9) in 16 games between the two tournaments.

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.