| Detroit Free Press
How Filip Zadina has grown on the Detroit Red Wings
Filip Zadina is fitting in well with the Detroit Red Wings. Filmed Jan. 31, 2020 in New York.
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press
With an NHL season slated to begin within a month, the players the Detroit Red Wings loaned to European teams are making their way back.
Filip Zadina was headed back to Detroit on Wednesday, after spending the past few months playing in the Czech Extraliga. He was one of a handful of young players or prospects the Wings loaned to teams in Europe while the pandemic delayed the start of professional hockey in North America.
Zadina’s agent, Darren Ferris, told the Free Press via email that Zadina, “is on his way to Detroit.”
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Zadina had eight goals and six assists in 17 games with HC Ocelari Trinec.
The Wings have not officially announced they’ve recalled any of their players from Europe. The NHL is still working on the details of how to stage a shortened season as COVID surges across North America. Temporary geographical realignment is needed because of the travel restrictions between the U.S. and Canada. Games will be played without fan attendance.
Other Wings playing in Europe are: Filip Hronek (Mountfield HK, Czech Extraliga; Moritz Seider (Rögle) and Joe Veleno (Malmö) in the Swedish Hockey League, Gustav Lindstrom and Filip Larsson, both Almtuna in HockeyAllsvenskan (the second-highest league in Sweden) and Michael Rasmussen with Graz in Austria.
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Seider and Veleno are not eligible to return because in order to loan at player to an SHL team, the Wings had to agree to leave them there for the season.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.