Red Wings Catch Glimpse of Future With Evgeny Svechnikov
By Nick Seguin
7 years agoSince being eliminated from playoff contention, the Red Wings were decimated by injury, shutting down Luke Glendening for a shoulder surgery and losing Anthony Mantha to a broken finger. The latest casualty, Drew Miller, fell ill and was unable to play Monday night in Detroit. Evgeny Svechnikov ended up being the Grand Rapids Griffins player who benefited from this. He joined the Red Wings on Monday and Tuesday night for their back-to-back games against the Ottawa Senators.
Nobody can claim that Svechnikov did not earn this NHL trial. He’s been putting up fantastic numbers all season as a rookie in the AHL. In 68 games, he’s put up 18 goals and 44 points, which is good for fourth on the team and seventh among AHL rookies.
He slid into the Red Wings roster on a line with Dylan Larkin and Justin Abdelkader and played a great couple of games. He was moving his feet, confident with the puck, and not afraid to put pressure deep in the offensive zone. He looked particularly good paired with Larkin, catching the fast centre with quick passes through the neutral zone. Through the two games, Svechnikov played 25.39 minutes, recording four shots, two hits, and one block. His 5v5 on-ice CF% was 55.56%. The highlight was surely his shootout winner against the Senators on Monday night, scoring the lone goal through a seven-round shootout.
Now, keep in mind that this is an incredibly small sample size and Svechnikov’s deployment was certainly sheltered by Blashill (and rightly so). He still made his fair share of mistakes, but he played with such energy and hunger. It was so refreshing and exciting that it was able to get the hype train rolling out of the station. It didn’t take long for Red Wings Reddit and Twitter to draw comparisons to Pavel Datsyuk. That’s a little much, in my opinion. I don’t think he’ll hit Datsyuk levels, but can he be a top-6 forward on this team? To help get an idea, I looked at his stats so far compared to those of Tomas Tatar’s and Gustav Nyquist’s rookie seasons in the AHL.
Stats courtesy of theAHL.com
For further context, Svechnikov is 20 years old this year, Tatar was 19 years old as an AHL rookie, and Nyquist was 22 years old. This explains Nyquist’s boosted numbers. As an older player, he already had more experience. Compared to Tatar, though, Svechnikov is already producing at a higher rate in the AHL. So yeah, I’d say he has the potential to be a top-6 forward in the NHL.
Today, it was announced that Svechnikov would be sent back down to Grand Rapids.
This transaction likely means that Drew Miller will be ready to play again by the time Saturday’s game rolls around, but this is not a bad thing for Svechnikov. He needs to be playing as much professional hockey as possible to further his development, so he might as well be doing that this week with the Griffins instead of taking a three day break with the Wings and then probably being scratched on Saturday. Plus, the Griffins, who just clinched a playoff spot, are in the midst of a four game losing streak – the longest of their season. They could use a guy like Svechnikov back in the lineup to break the skid and help them clinch the AHL’s Central Division Title. Then, he’ll be able to get some real professional hockey playoff experience. And the Griffins are in a good spot to make some noise in their post-season.
As for Svechnikov’s future with the Red Wings, we’ve just got to be patient. The coaching staff got exactly what they needed this week: a glimpse at his play at the NHL level. And they liked what they saw. “If he plays at pace, he’s going to be a good NHL player. He’s a big strong kid with good offensive ability,” Blashill said in his post-game presser.
Good things will happen for Svechnikov, but we’ve got to temper our expectations on timing. He hasn’t even played a full season in the AHL yet and, as we saw in his two-game debut, he still needs some time to develop. Don’t be surprised or upset if he starts next season in Grand Rapids, either. He likely needs another year to develop in the AHL before becoming a regular in the NHL. He may not be Datsyuk, but he still gives us a lot to be excited about.
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