The past week at Little Ceasar’s Arena has been quite busy, even if the NHL season still isn’t due to start for almost more than two months now. The World Junior Summer Showcase going on next week in Windsor, Ontario has Team USA temporarily using the Red Wings home as their training center, and for three of the members of the 47 man roster, it isn’t an entirely unfamiliar environment.
Red Wings prospects JP Hurlbert, Victor Plante, and Brent Solomon have been in attendance, battling it out and training with the top US junior hockey players in the country over the past week. Drafted over the last two years in Detroit, the trio aim bring a medal to Team USA this summer instead of a Cup for Hockeytown.
The USA’s Team White selected the three to their roster, giving the Red Wings’ prospects what may have been a sneak preview of what their future could look like in the NHL as teammates.
To that point, while in attendance at practice Thursday I observed Team USA pairing Plante and Hurlbert together quite often during line drills, and Solomon would later join the other two during a power play work period. Hurlbert, Plante, and Solomon are scheduled to play against Team Finland at 12:00 PM est with Team White today.
The Red Wings could certainly use a line of high skill, high motor players like them. Set to lose three of their top five goal scorers from the past season, Detroit needs to add more offense to the roster, and fast. Unfortunately, Hurlbert, Solomon, and Plante are likely out a few years from doing so in a Red Wings sweater, but all three still have plenty of upside and time to get better.
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Marco Kasper looks to be recovering well from the knee injury that required offseason surgery. While Kasper suffered from a very hard crash back down to Earth after the highs of his rookie season, there’s still potential for the young Austrian forward to be a top six contributor. Kasper concluded his summer Sunshine Hockey League run with 20 points in five games this year.
While it is “just” summer hockey, it’s good to see Kasper skating quickly and being dangerous as a scoring threat once more.