The Left Wing Lock

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Photo Courtesy of Bobbie Stevens

It’s been a long agonizing offseason for Andrej Nestrasil. The former 75th overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft had until June 1st to ink an entry level deal with the Red Wings or his rights would have been lost.

“Three days before the first of June, my agent called me and said ‘Everything is fine and I am going to continue in the organization’,” Nestrasil said. “I have to say I was really really happy because I was nervous all summer long. It was pretty long waiting, but I am glad that I finally signed a contract.”

The Wings have always liked the raw package of size and skill that 6-foot-2, 200 pound winger offers, but the questions around his skating ability may have been the cause for the contract delay. The Wings may have also been hoping to see Nestrasil breakout offensively with Prince Edward Island of the QMJHL. While 70 points in 58 games isn’t anything to be ashamed of, Detroit’s expectations were likely higher given his contract situation.

Additionally Nestrasil didn’t help his cause with his lackluster performance at the 2011 World Junior Championship. The Prague, Czech Republic native entered the tournament expecting to be a key forward for the Czech team, but only scored 2 goals and 5 points in 9 tournament games. The team finished a disappointing seventh place.

“I think the worst thing the whole year was the World Junior Championship,” he said. “It’s the time when you as a player should show up, but it’s a little bit tougher for us as a Czechs because when you have a bad team and you are losing every single game it’s pretty tough to show up. I know it was really bad and I didn’t play well so I felt like that was a big thing about whether or not they would sign me.”

It’s not as if the big forward didn’t want to play well at the WJC. Matter of fact he entered the tournament knowing exactly what was on the line and admits that he may have put too much pressure on himself especially during the disappointing 7-2 loss against team Canada.

“I think I was over motivated and I did stupid things on the ice,” Nestrasil admits. “I was looking forward to playing against Canada, because it was the only game we played in the Buffalo rink in front of 20,000 fans. I just screwed it up because I didn’t play my game.”

Now that the contract situation is behind Nestrasil, he has focused his efforts on transitioning to professional hockey. The 20 year-old forward started that process by training hard back home in Prague.

“I worked on my acceleration, but it’s a long time thing,” he said. “You just can’t go from season to season and be a new player. It happens in little steps, but hopefully one day I am going to be fast.”

Nestrasil has had help developing his regime of skating and acceleration drills from Red Wings consultant, Jiri Fischer. The two live within 30 minutes of each other in the Czech Republic and met for a few practice sessions over the summer.

“I met Fisch a couple of times and he went to practice with me,” Nestrasil said. “He also emailed me a lot of exercises and drills to help. I think I have all the indications and exercises on how to improve. It is just going to take some time.”

For now though, Nestrasil is hoping he has improved his skating enough to land a full time spot with Grand Rapids of the AHL. He’ll face some stiff competition once main camp opens next week for a limited number of roster spots. A log jam of forwards may cause him to start the season with Toledo of the ECHL.

“It’s about the NHL so there will of course be competion to play in Grand Rapids,” he said. “I just need to compete and work hard and hope that I am going to make the team. I hope it’s going to work out for me.”

Notes:

• The Red Wings will face the undefeated Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night after an off day at Centre I.C.E. Arena in Traverse City, MI. After losing the first two games of the tournament, Detroit is playing for pride and has no chance to play in the championship game.
• Evan Mosher will likely get the start in net for the Wings.
• Well over 70 scouts are attending this years tournament including scouts from USA Hockey, and approximately 15-18 NHL teams.
• The Red Wings have changed their Saturday main camp schedule. The team will not scrimmage after the drills portion of camp so that they can board a flight to attend for former Assistant Coach, Brad McCrimmon. McCrimmon was on the Yaroslavl plane that crashed in Russia killing nearly all the passengers aboard. The practice time will likely pushed up to accommodate these plans which means a start time as early as 7:00 am according to the camp organizers.