from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

A conversation with the Detroit Red Wings’ director of player development inevitably includes hearing him say a prospect needs to spend time in a gym to gain strength.

So what to do when that option has been taken away, as the countries around the world deal with the coronavirus? Get creative, if possible....

“First off, we want them to be safe,” Horcoff said in an interview this week with the Detroit Free Press. “I think the difficult thing is, every country seems to be handling this differently. One thing we have done is reached out to guys to see what they have available at home, or around them — are they close to a track, are they close to hills? Something outside where they can go by themselves, without a big group around them.

“So we’re trying to figure out what do they have available to them, what’s around them, and then construct something around that. That is going to be our approach the next two-to-four weeks, and then everything is kind of fluid.”

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks. The daily change in information regarding the virus makes planning difficult.

“As things start to become open again, we’ll adjust workouts,” Horcoff said. “But as of now, essentially everyone in the hockey world is at home. People are quarantined, people are being told to stay away from crowds as much as possible, if not forced to.

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