Coreau in action at Red Wings camp

Former Northern Michigan University goaltender Jared Coreau signed a three–year entry level deal with the Red Wings in April of 2013. Since then, he has been in the team’s minor league system, competing for playing time with several other goaltenders.

Coreau is in Traverse City, participating in the Red Wings Development Camp. Last year, Coreau did not fully participate in the camp, because he was recovering from a shoulder injury.

Detroit’s top prospects, including the players who were drafted just last month, are all on hand for a five–day grind led by Wings’ coaches and front office personnel. This time around, Coreau is on the ice battling with four other young netminders for playing time.

“There’s a lot of young faces around here and it’s good to see,” said Coreau. “You look at a team like Los Angeles and they’re relatively young and they have a lot of young talent coming up. Last year with (Tomas) Jurco and (Riley) Sheahan, it kind of got the ball rolling on our young guys a bit more. There’s young guys that can play with the older fellas and it’s good to see.”

Coreau described his first season in the pros as ‘up and down.’ But he says that the positives definitely outweighed the negatives. Coreau split time in Grand Rapids with the Griffins and in Toledo with the Walleye. His first season was cut short because of a hand injury.

“I broke my finger at the end of the season, so I didn’t get many AHL (American Hockey League) practices in,” said Coreau. “This (camp) is just to get back in the groove, back in the swing of things and show what I’ve improved on.”

The Red Wings Development Camp wraps up today.