Three Red Wing Storylines to Watch at the Traverse City Prospect Tournament

At long last, the offseason is over, and there is Detroit Red Wings hockey* to watch this afternoon.  Sure, it's only the Traverse City Prospect Tournament, but a team wearing red and white and sporting a winged wheel crest will lace up today in a competitive game.  It might not be the most consequential game on the 2023-24 season calendar, but it's a welcome appetizer for the regular season to come.

Of course, there should be some sort of tiresome disclaimer here—about how a handful of September games populated only by prospects rather than established pros is hardly a representative sample of anything.

Nonetheless, it's the best we've got for now, so let's take a moment to run through some storylines worth monitoring.

I. Soderblom's Progress

At age 22 and entering his second season of North American pro hockey, Elmer Soderblom is still very much a prospect.  

Nonetheless, as a 2019 draft pick (round six, pick 159 to be precise), he will be one of the most experience players at the event.  With that seasoning and as an entry point to his 2023-24 season, it would be wonderful to see Soderblom dominate in Traverse City.

Soderblom has always been a unique prospect.  There aren't many 6-foot-8 people who play hockey, so there was never going to be a surplus of options as comparables.  He has also been perceived as something of a "project" from the moment he was drafted, the expectation having always been that he would require some refinement to crack an NHL roster.

The towering Swede did just that after an outstanding training camp a year ago and played 21 games with the Wings in '22-23, tallying five goals and three assists.  However, after a combination of injuries and a dip in form sent him back to Grand Rapids, Soderblom managed the exact same output (five goals and three assists) in 20 games with the Griffins.  It's a perplexing combination, but scoring doesn't come easily in the AHL and progress is seldom linear.

In Traverse City, you'd like to see something resembling domination out of Soderblom.  Despite his stature, he profiles as more dependent on skill than brawn.  As he looks to re-claim a place in the Wings' line-up, he will need both.  His stickhandling and finishing touch have been essential to his progress thus far as a player, and Detroit will benefit from their presence.  Still, Soderblom realistically needs to be a player who wins battles and makes an impact on the cycle and forecheck to become an everyday NHL player.  The prospect tournament will offer the first sample of his progress for the year.

II. Tangling with Fantilli

If there is a concern about the future of the Yzer-plan, it centers around the notion that, despite some dreadful records, the Yzerman-managed Red Wings have never had the lottery luck to pick right at the top of an NHL Draft.  As such, one wonders whether they will be able to muster the level of elite talent teams tend to find only within the first several picks.

Columbus selected Adam Fantilli third at the 2023 Draft, but the Nobleton, Ontario-native could easily have gone first in a less loaded class (i.e. one without Connor Bedard).  Throughout his season at the University of Michigan, Fantilli showed an ability to command the entire game on each shift.  Whether he had to go around opponents or through them, Fantilli always seemed to find his way to the net, and the puck always seemed to go in once he got there.

It's only a September prospect tournament, but it will be an interesting reference point to see how the Red Wings match up against Fantilli.  If top prospects like Marco Kasper or Carter Mazur wind up with regular shifts against the Hobey Baker winner, that measuring stick will be even more acute.

Even if Kasper and Mazur don't play head-to-head against Fantilli all that often, it will be worth comparing their performances to his.  Whatever happens in year one, Fantilli is going to wind up a top-of-the-lineup NHL star.  It will be exciting to watch the way the Red Wings contend with and counter his gifts.

III. Cossa's Form

Sebastian Cossa had an excellent 2022-23 with the Toledo Walleye in the ECHL after a poor start to the season in a cup of coffee with AHL Grand Rapids.

In 46 games with Toledo, Cossa posted a commendable .913 save percentage and 2.56 goals against average.  In three games in Grand Rapids, Cossa was a .783 SV% and 5.87 GAA.  It's a sample so small as to seem meaningless in the long run.  Still Cossa will be keen to get off to a better start to his '23-24, and that start will more than likely come in Grand Rapids once again.

It would be an overreach to suggest that Detroit using a second round pick on Trey Augustine reflected any kind of displeasure with Cossa's progress so far.  Most prospects don't pan out, and goaltenders are especially fickle; an NHL team has no choice but to adopt something of a volume-based approach when it comes to drafting and development.

Still, Augustine's presence in the organization (and his promise as a prospect) represents something of a pressure point for Cossa, who is no longer the default homegrown netminder of the future in the Red Wings organization.

Traverse City constitutes Cossa's first impression since Augustine's selection and a chance to get his season rolling on the right foot.  For Red Wings fans, it would be great to see Cossa run with that opportunity.