Nate Danielson on Sunday became the fourth rookie to make his NHL debut this season with the Detroit Red Wings.<\/p>\n
It shows their shift in philosophy from wanting prospects to \u201coverripen\u201d in Grand Rapids to thrusting them into the lineup in place of under-performing veterans.<\/p>\n
It shows a heightened sense of urgency to explore different options in an effort to end their nine-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n
Danielson, 21, is a skilled, two-way center with good hockey sense who was selected ninth overall in 2023. He logged 15:16, mostly centering the third line with Marco Kasper and Mason Appleton and also played on the second power-play unit in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe have been struggling offensively,\u201d coach Todd McLellan said. \u201cNate, had he not been hurt in training camp, I think he would have started with our team based on where he was when he got injured. He worked hard to stay healthy. He had an upper-body injury, and he was able to keep his legs going. And he\u2019s had a pretty good start in Grand Rapids. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, we want to see him now so we can make some decisions, perhaps on some other players. For his first game, I thought he did some really good things on the ice. It\u2019s unfortunate that he leaves like the rest of the players with a loss, but he as an individual certainly wasn\u2019t our problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Dylan Larkin: \u201cWe know he\u2019s got the skill and can skate, and I thought as the game went on, he could adjust the pace a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n Danielson will get a good look over the next few weeks while the Red Wings ponder some roster decisions.<\/a><\/p>\n Michael Rasmussen and Jonathan Berggren were healthy scratches Sunday and appear to be on shaky ground with the organization.<\/p>\n Rasmussen has been scratched twice in eight games. He has one goal and two assists in 14 games, well below expectations after signing a four-year extension worth $3.2 million per season in February 2024.<\/p>\n Berggren has been in and out of the lineup (two goals, two assists in 10 games), unable to secure a spot on a top-three line and out of place on the fourth line because he\u2019s not a checker.<\/p>\n Elmer Soderblom, scratched in five of the first nine games, also hasn\u2019t established himself.<\/p>\n Veteran defensemen Erik Gustafsson and Justin Holl were waived and assigned to Grand Rapids before the season-opener.<\/p>\n The message from management and coaches is simple: If you can\u2019t get the job done, we\u2019ll turn to rookies.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Emmitt Finnie has been a fixture on the top line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond and Axel Sandin-Pellikka is on the second defense pairing. Right wing Michael Brandsegg-Nygard gained valuable experience the first nine games before the Red Wings determined he needs development time with the Griffins.<\/p>\n Gritty winger Carter Mazur might have been promoted by now if he hadn\u2019t been injured two weeks ago in Griffins practice.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s up to Danielson, in his second pro season, to seize this opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThought I was having a good camp and I mean, injuries happen, so just tried to move on and take what I could and just make the best of the opportunity and glad to be here now,\u201d Danielson said.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Danielson on Sunday became the fourth rookie to make his NHL debut this season with the Detroit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-276154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}