It\u2019s not all that unusual for someone to receive an invitation to attend a NHL game for his or her birthday.<\/p>\n
But Carter Mazur\u2019s birthday gift was more special because he was asked to play in that game. The Detroit Red Wings called up Mazur on his 24th birthday Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the (Grand Rapids Griffins) morning skate and coach (Dan) Watson came in and said; \u2018You should answer your phone,’\u201d Mazur said. \u201cAnd then I had a good feeling of what it may be, and especially on my birthday. It was a whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jackson, Mich. native estimated he had 150 friends and family at the game, which ended in a 5-3 Red Wings loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. All Mazur did was tell his father, and he spread the word. The ticket sales were created by the momentum of the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only (bought) four,\u201d Mazur said. \u201cThey got them themselves, thank God. . . It\u2019s good to have that support from Jackson.<\/p>\n
This had the flavor of friends and family celebrating an NHL debut, even though that wasn\u2019t the case. He made his NHL debut over a year ago, March 5, 2025, but he was injured on his second shift and hasn\u2019t played an NHL minute since then.<\/p>\n
Injuries Hardened Resolve<\/p>\n
The hope was that he would be back with the Red Wings early this season, but after an impressive five-game start with the Grand Rapids Griffins he suffered a lower body injury that kept him out of the lineup for 48 games. He rejoined the Griffins earlier this month. The call-up came with Mazur boasting 11 goals in his 14 games with the Griffins.<\/p>\n
Mazur, 24, said he tries not to think about how his career has been undermined by injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you just can\u2019t think about it,\u201d Mazur said. \u201cI think I just got to go out there and play my game no matter what. Injuries are part of the game. They happen to a little more to me than a lot of people, but I\u2019ve gone through every single one of them in a good positive way. \u201c<\/p>\n
The Red Wings believe Mazur can be a feisty scorer because he has done that in both the college game (at Denver) and the American Hockey League. In the offseason, he beefed up to 200 pounds in the offseason with the hope that it will help him be more durable.<\/p>\n
If Mazur ends up playing as well as the Red Wings hope he can, it would be a significant bonus for the organization. He\u2019s one of only five players from the third round of the 2021 NHL draft who has played in league. Ryan Winterton (Seattle Kraken) is the only one of them playing regularly. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough road, but I feel like I got better from it again,\u201d Mazur said. \u201cI\u2019m here for a reason again, but it has been a long road for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not all that unusual for someone to receive an invitation to attend a NHL game for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5338,93,1546,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-531674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-carter-mazur","9":"tag-detroit-red-wings","10":"tag-grand-rapids-griffins","11":"tag-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116320158727354060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}