Sportbladet met the new Detroit VP in Traverse City
travel city. For 20 years, he himself was a member of the Red Wings who worked through tough training camps in Traverse City in northern Michigan.
Niklas Liedstrom now stands on a bridge over the ice and checks out those battling for a place in the team he has led to four Stanley Cup titles.
“It’s so fun and inspiring to be back in the organization in this role,” says Detroit’s new vice president of hockey operations at the club.
Traverse City in northern Michigan, tucked into a picturesque corner of Grand Traverse Bay, is a classic hockey stadium—not least for reasons. Detroit Red Wings He has long held his annual training camp at local hockey center Ice Arena.
“We started going here in the mid-’90s, and since then we’ve all camped here,” Niklas Liedstrom tells us when we meet him in a high-explosive barn a few kilometers from the park in the middle.
It’s good to stay away this way. If you’re at home, everyone goes home after training sessions. Here you hang out all the time and the team is welded together in a completely different way.
It’s been a decade since Niklas himself engaged in intense training on the two rinks, but now he’s back – as part of club management.
The seven-time Norris Cup winner, one of the greatest in Red Wings glorified history, was appointed Red Wings’ vice president of hockey operations in January, and as such, of course, there should be during the final, crucial preparations for the upcoming NHL season.
He will also help the team and the new coach
– I am based mainly in Sweden and follow the drafted players and we also look at the players to be recruited, he continues.
Now when I go here, I work closely with General Manager Steve Yzerman and Assistant General Manager Sean Horkoff. I will help the team more directly. We have a new coaching staff, headed by coach Derek Lalonde, and I will be around them and I will have meetings with the full-backs in particular and look at the details of the match.
Cole?
– Yes, it is exciting and inspiring to return to the game of hockey and be involved in the management side. It’s a little different, you’re used to staying on the ice and getting ready for the new season, and there are still things I need to know about how it works in the organization. But like I said, it’s above all a lot of fun.
11 Swedes are taking part in the camp
When it comes to Swedish talent, the “Lidas” have a lot to watch during the days in Traverse City, because the Red Wings are once again a true Swedish team.
A total of 11 blue and yellow players are participating in this year’s camp; In addition to already established plays such as Lucas Raymond, Oscar Sundqvist, Robert Haag, Gustav Lindstrom, Jonathan Bergren, Simon Edvinson, Elmer Soderblom, Albert Johansson, Pontus Anderson, Victor Brattström and Marcus Limbar-Lantz.
– Yes, we have crafted a lot of Swedish in recent years. We also have Theodor Niederbach and William Wallander in Ruegel, along with Marco Casper from Austria. It’s fun and I think those here have done a good job, now notes the 52-year-old diamond.
Already in the past week, many youngsters managed to show what they are during the club’s junior camp, and above all Elmer Soderblom and Simon Edvinson made an impression on those who saw them in a number of matches.
Honorable Mention: Incredible Talent
– Elmer was impressed. The first game may have felt too small and he didn’t really get into it, but the second and third game he was really good and he dominated certain moments on the ice with his size, strength and pinch-holding ability, the VP commends.
Then Edvinson, which many hope will become the new you?
– Hey. Yes, he did well. It is, he has to get into the game here. There is less snow, you have less time and you need to make decisions a little faster. You can see he needs to take these steps, but he has an amazing talent, we’ve seen that.
Before he, or anyone else, becomes the size of the former captain with a number 5 on his back, however, it will take some time.
When the many Red Wings fans who have gathered in Traverse City to follow camp see Niklas behind the stands at the Center Ice Arena, it comes alive. Take selfies, secure autographs, and speak compliments.
But if you’re the eternal club icon, then you are.