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The heir to Henrik Zetterberg is apparently not apparent, so the Detroit Red Wings will go the 2018-19 NHL season absent a captain.
The Wings revealed Wednesday that Niklas Kronwall, Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin and Frans Nielsen would wear alternate captain’s A’s on their sweaters this season. Kronwall and Abdelkader each wore A’s last season, but it will be the first letter-wearing campaign for both Larkin and Nielsen.
On the road when everyone is healthy, Frans Nielsen will wear the ‘A’ and at home when everyone is healthy Dylan Larkin will wear the ‘A’ and if everybody is not healthy like tomorrow night (in the season opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets), both Frans, Dylan and Abby will wear the ‘A,’ Wings coach Jeff Blashill explained to Mlive.com. “In reality, all four of them will be assistant captains.”
The Wings were left without a captain when Zetterberg announced on the first day of training camp that a degenerative back condition would bring an end to his playing days. The decision to go sans captain was made following meetings between the team’s coaching and management staff.
“Over the last month, we’ve talked, Jeff Blashill and I, and I’ve also reached out to Kris Draper and (Shawn) Horcoff and (Dan) Cleary and Jim Devellano and Ryan Martin to kind of decide what would be the best direction to go in terms of letters on our team,” Detroit GM Ken Holland said. “We made the decision over the last 72 hours. We wanted to take all of camp, make sure that we felt good about the decision that we made.”
Roster Moves
Although defencemen Joe Hicketts and Filip Hronek were assigned to AHL Grand Rapids, the stay in the minors could be short-lived for one or both of them, considering that Detroit’s injury situation on the back end remains fluid and uncertain.
“We’ll look to make some roster moves.” Blashill confirmed.
Although Trevor Daley (lower body) insisted he was good to go, Blashill wasn’t as sold on the idea.
“I’ve got to make sure with the trainers,” Blashill said. “I know Daley says he’s in, but there’s always a difference in what a player says and what a trainer says.”
Elsewhere, the news is more certain and unsettling. Jonathan Ericsson (lower body) and Kronwall (undisclosed) are out.
“Kronner will not play tomorrow for sure,” Blashill said. “He’s going on the trip with us, so we hope it’s nothing longer than that. Until he gets on the ice and skating we’re not positive. We’ll see. Both him and Johnny will be on the trip with us and hope they’re available Sunday, but we won’t know.”
Mike Green (viral infection of liver) is out long-term and was placed on injured reserve.
“We think it’ll be two more weeks before he’s in full practices, which would leave with two more weeks after that before he’s ready to go,” Blashill said. “We’re looking at a time line of a month before we’d have him fully available to us. That timeline is fluid, but that’s what we’re looking at.”
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