Despite putting up a career high in goals last year with five, it was not a good year for Jakub Kindl.
Kindl was rarely used last season by Mike Babcock, playing in only 35 games and was a frequent healthy scratch.
"It was tough," Kindl said to Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News. "But I was trying to be a good teammate and support the guys at the rink. Some things you can't control, so I just went to the rink and stay positive and it feels like a fresh start."
So there may not be a single Red Wing as excited to see Jeff Blashill as the head coach. The new arrival offers Kindl a brand-new life as a NHL defenseman.
"It's a fresh start, not just for me but for everybody," Kindl said. "Everybody is at the starting line all the same, and at the end of the day it's a competition."
Kindl, a 19th-overall pick in the 2005 draft for the Red Wings, tied for the second-highest selection the Red Wings have had in the last 23 years, has played in 248 games for Detroit. Blessed with size at 6-foot-3 and 215-pounds, Kindl has the body to play as a full-time player.
But with new arrival Mike Green, Kindl is on the outside looking in on a spot. What does Kindl have going for him? According to War on Ice, Kindl had the highest Corsi-For percentage of Red Wings players with at least 30 games last season (Corsi-For percentage is defined as the percentage of on-ice shot attempts on goal, missed, or blocked taken by the player's team, used to measure a players individual possession) at 58.66 percent. If Blashill believes in possession statistics, Kindl might be his guy.
(h/t The Score)
