Young Red Wings star has failed to make the roster.

It sounds like there is some disappointing news coming down the pipeline for a young Red Wings' star and likely for the fan base as well. 

As you would expect there was a ton of excitement in hockey town when the Detroit Red Wings were able to snag explosive winger Filip Zadina at 6th overall in the 2018 National Hockey League Entry Draft. Zadina was projected by several pundits to go as high as #2 in the draft in the weeks leading up to the event and the Red Wings were thrilled when one of the best offensive talents in the draft suddenly and unexpectedly fell into their laps. 

Zadina did a lot to build up the expectations fans had of him as well, the brash young man did not shy away from the cameras and in fact made it a point to taunt the teams that passed over him in the draft. Zadina's threat to "fill their net with pucks" was widely reported in the hockey media and although you could certainly label the comments cocky they were well received by fans who often find themselves longing for players with a little more personality. Within the Red Wings organization expectations for Zadina in training camp remained tempered but many fans of the organization fully expected that the brash young man would carve out a spot for himself on the main roster by the time training camp and the preseason had wrapped. Zadina after all certainly does not lack for raw talent, but fans who had high expectations for their young star this season are likely going to be very disappointed.

According to a report from Red Wings insider Craig Custance it now appears that young Zadina will not make the Detroit Red Wings opening roster this season and instead will begin his season in the American Hockey League as a member of the Grand Rapids Griffins. As Custance correctly points out this was in fact the expected outcome internally from an organizational perspective but I don't think it would be dishonest to saw that both the Red Wings and their fan base were hoping that Zadina would show something in training camp to warrant an immediate shot in the National Hockey League. 

Unfortunately reports out of training camp seemed to indicate that it was quite the opposite that the Red Wings were seeing in camp and, although it would be unfair to characterize his performance as disappointing from an organizational point of view, he certainly wasn't blowing anyone away with his performances. Zadina did go on to find the back of the net in the preseason but watching him out on the ice it was obvious that he needed more time to adapt to the pro game, and that is likely why he will be sent down to the Red Wings' AHL affiliate team.

Playing in the AHL is not only likely to give Zadina more time to develop but it will also result in him getting more ice time on that team's top lines where he may have only played in a third line role where he to be used at the NHL level out of the gate. The good news is that given his status as a player in the Czech league he does not need to return to junior hockey and will be eligible to be called up should the Red Wings feel the need to bring him up to the NHL level over the course of the season.

[pub]