When it comes to helping prospects grow into bigger, stronger players, the Detroit Red Wings assistant GM Kris Draper offers one word of advice that goes with the weight training and protein shakes.

Patience.

“All these kids that we talk to, they talk about, ‘I got to put weight on, I have to put weight on,’” Draper said. “But in the end, it’s going to happen over time, and we just have to be patient with it.”

Draper said the best example is Carter Mazur, who weighed in at 195 this summer at Little Caesars Arena. Mazur plays a hard game and probably needs the weight to survive all of the collisions he has. He made his NHL debut and was injured on his first shift last season.

“I think he was at 165 when we drafted him…,” Draper said. ” So he’s 23 years old, and he’s finally been able to put all that weight on, and he’s putting on the right weight, and it’s something that he knows he needed to do… And some kids, it takes a little bit longer.”

This has been big summer for Detroit prospect bulking up. Amadeus Lombardi (113th, 2022) has been checking in at 183 or 184 pounds.

“Close to 185,” he said. “Last year, (I) was playing at 170. So weight is a big (issue). Strength.”

Bigger ASP

Lombardi said at the prospect series against the Dallas Stars that defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka (17th, 2023) “looks bigger for sure, and stronger.”

“Just giving the eye test,” Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson said of Sandin Pellikka, “it looks like he went home and had a really good summer, and he’s prepared to challenge for a spot in Detroit.”

Nate Danielson (drafted ninth, 2023), another candidate to make the Detroit roster, said he spent “a lot of time in the gym this summer.”

He’s added eight pounds of muscle to reach 198 pounds. Danielson learned last season, in his first full AHL campaign, that his body needed sculpting.

“Playing against older and stronger guys, you realize that you need that little bit extra, extra weight.,” Danielson said. “I feel great. Especially down low in the corners and just being stronger on my skates. That was the main thing. As the year goes on, tend to lose a little bit of weight. It’s nice
to come into camp a little bit heavier.”

Danielson is only 20. Time is on his side when it comes to growing stronger.

“You have an opportunity to get in the gym, an opportunity to work on things that you need to,” Draper said, “and just kind of let Mother Nature take over on some of these underdeveloped bodies.”