Duffer’s Dabbles: Red Wings Will Wait On GR Call Ups

The COVID-19-afflicted Detroit Red Wings will be practising shorthanded again on Monday. Detroit’s AHL Grand Rapids farm club isn’t playing Monday. Their game with the Cleveland Monsters was called off due to a COVID-19 outbreak amongst the Monsters roster.

However, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill won’t be calling up a raft of Griffins to enable his team to run a proper practice to prep for Wednesday’s game at the New York Islanders.

“To be honest, we’re still kind of waiting to hear more from the NHL,” Blashill explained. “What the schedule’s gonna look like and are we gonna play for sure? All of those things will factor into play.”

Red Wings Must Adhere To Roster Issues

There are also salary cap issues and other roster factors above Blashill’s pay grade. He’s leaving those calls to Red Wings management.

“There’s a roster management or cap management side to this that I don’t necessarily deal with but there is consequences to it, so you can’t just necessarily call up anybody,” Blashill said. “We’ll work with our management group on that. 

“I’m waiting to see where things are going here. That’ll dictate a little bit on a number of my decisions. We’re waiting on some testing. There is opportunities for guys to test out (of COVID-19 protocol). “

Currently, 10 Red Wings players are in COVID-19 protocol. Three more NHL games were postponed on Monday but for now, the Detroit-Isles game remains on the schedule. Detroit’s last game, also against the Islanders, was played with five Griffins players and two GR coaches as part of the Red Wings lineup.

“It’s just a very fluid situation,” Blashill said. “I don’t think we’d bring guys up just to practice per se, because now you’re introducing new players into your locker room again.

“The less players introduced the better in terms of not increasing the exposure. But certainly if those players we anticipate were playing on the 29th, then we would potentially bring them in as quick as we can.”

Around The NHL

Detroit: Watch Red Wings 2021 first round draft pick Simon Edvinsson scoring a cracker of a shorthanded goal for Sweden against Russia in the World Juniors.

Islanders It’s easy to wonder whether either of the Isles or Red Wings will have enough players to ice teams on Wednesday. Four Islanders came back from the holiday break and wound up entering COBID-19 protocol.

Pittsburgh: Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues was the latest addition to the team’s list of players in COVID-19 protocol.

Boston: The Bruins lost forward Charlie Coyle to COVID-19 protocol.

Colorado: The Avalanche made a five for five trade. Five Colorado Avalanche players came out of COVID-19 protocol. However, five new players were entering COVID-19 protocol.

Vancouver: Was 2021 the worst year in Vancouver Canucks franchise history?