Shortly after he played his first game for the Detroit Red Wings, Joe Veleno received one text in particular that made him feel good about his performance.
A player’s NHL debut begets many a congratulatory message from family and friends, but in this case, the one that stood out was from teammate Bobby Ryan, who watched the debut while recovering from triceps surgery.
“He sent me a nice message just kind of saying that I looked good out there, keep doing what I’m doing — the production will come eventually, just keep doing the right things,” Veleno said Thursday. “It was nice of him to send me that message and I felt really good about it and kept in consideration what he said and stuck to my game.”
It was a fitting encouragement for a forward who impressed across three leagues in 2020-21, from Malmö to Michigan.
Veleno appeared in five games with the Wings, and scored a power-play goal in his last game. Though it was a small sample size, it was enough to leave an impression.
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“I got some play some pretty good minutes and was trusted in all areas of the ice,” Veleno said. “It definitely boosted my confidence. Now I’ve got a little bit of a taste of it, how those NHL games are, and what to bring to the table. It was just good to have that experience.”
Veleno, 21, was assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins when the Wings’ season ended May 8; the Griffins are scheduled to wrap up Saturday, after which Veleno plans to return to the Montreal area for the offseason. That’s where he spent much of 2020, after COVID-19 shuttered sports in mid-March. The extra time Veleno (6 feet 2, 220 pounds) was able to spend working out and training paid off when he was loaned to the Swedish Hockey League in October. Veleno tallied 11 goals and nine assists in 46 games for Malmö, averaging around 16 minutes per game.
He scored in his first game back with the Griffins. In his first year of pro hockey, 2019-20, he recorded 11 goals and 12 assists in 54 games for the Griffins.
A year later, he looks exponentially better.
“He is bigger, he’s stronger,” Griffins coach Ben Simon said. “He’s playing with confidence. His experience in Europe, it’s helped him mature not only as a hockey player but as a person. He’s got a little bit more of a presence about him. That confidence is translating and correlating on the ice.
“He’s a high-end player who can make plays and he’s got the confidence to make plays. But his play away from the puck — he’s a pretty smart hockey player. He puts himself in good spots. He competes hard. He has a tremendous future ahead of him.”
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If the Wings want Veleno, who they took at No. 30 in the 2018 draft, to play his natural center position, then he projects to slot behind Dylan Larkin and Robby Fabbri. But Larkin spent his first year on the wing, and that could happen with Veleno, too. He’s a smooth skater and hard worker, and improving his 200-foot game has been a key focus for the past two seasons.
“My full year in the AHL helped me a lot, and this year in Sweden helped a lot,” Veleno said. “The whole part of hockey and how you can be successful is playing with confidence, and that’s what I’m going to have to do next year going into camp and fighting for a spot — play my game, play with confidence, and being hard on pucks and winning battles and being physical.
“If I do those things on a more consistent basis, I think my chances will be good to be on the opening night roster.”
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.