Marco Kasper is back on the ice after the knee injury that had him on crutches and kept him out of Austria’s lineup at the IIHF World Championship.
Now, the Detroit Red Wings forward is training with other pro hockey players in his hometown of Klagenfurt, Austria, and one of the names alongside him is fellow NHLer J.J. Peterka.
The work is no small lift. The group is going through a daily nine-hour schedule that includes five hours on the ice and four more hours of off-ice conditioning. Former NHLer Yannick Dube, now a well-known skills coach, is running the sessions.
Kasper also plans to return to the Sunshine League, the Austrian summer circuit, where he’ll suit up for the Lendhaffen Sea Lions. Peterka is also in that league, along with Mario Kempe, Damian Clara, and Michael Grabner.
Elsewhere in the Red Wings pipeline, draftee Michal Oršulák has been invited to an elite camp for the top nine goaltenders in Czechia born in 2007 or 2008. The camp, which will feature national team coaches, runs from Sunday, July 26th to Tuesday, July 28th.
Oršulák, 18, put together a strong season with the WHL Prince Albert Raiders, finishing 28-4-4 with a 2.22 GAA and .907 save percentage. Detroit picked the 6-foot-4, 225-pound goalie 79th overall in last month’ NHL Entry Draft.
And in Sweden, Hockey Sverige is rolling out its All-Decade Teams for Swedish NHLers, with two Red Wings-linked players on the 1990s squad. One of them is no surprise: Nicklas Lidstrom. The Hall of Fame defenseman arrived in the NHL with Detroit in 1991 and went on to win seven Norris Trophies, four Stanley Cups, and a Conn Smythe Trophy with the Red Wings.
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