MACHOVSKY LOOKING TO EARN JOB IN GRAND RAPIDS

By Brendan Savage, MLive.com

Jared Coreau played every minute in goal last spring as the Grand Rapids Griffins won the Calder Cup for the second time in five years.

He also saw considerable action with the Detroit Red Wings, filling in admirably while Jimmy Howard was on the shelf with a knee injury and Petr Mrazek was struggling to find his game.

So, it would only make sense that Coreau would be the next man up if the Red Wings move either Howard or Mrazek at some point this season or one of them goes down and Detroit needs an emergency replacement, right?

Most likely. But if so, who would replace Coreau in Grand Rapids if he makes the jump to the NHL?

Matej Machovsky is a possibility.

The Red Wings signed the 24-year-old netminder as a free agent last season after inviting him to their development camp and liking what they saw.

He spent the 2016-17 season with Plzen HC in his native Czech Republic before signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings.

"Last year I was coming here a free agent, give me my shot," said Machovsky, who was back at the development camp in Traverse City again this year. "I said I'm going to give it my 100 percent and see what you got and I stayed in touch with Detroit for the whole season and I got signed so I was pretty happy about it.

"We have a rookie tournament in September so we got to start there and see how it goes. If I got invite to main camp and get a chance there, it would be super. We'll see how it goes."

The 6-foot-2, 187-pound Machovsky is one of three goalies that will play for the Red Wings in the prospects tournament, which begins Friday at Centre Ice Arena. The others are free agents Kaden Fulcher and Corbin Boes.

Since Machovsky is the only one of the three under contract, it makes sense that he will get the majority of playing time in the prospects tournament.

At the main training camp beginning Sept. 15, he'll battle Coreau and Thomas McCollum for a job in Grand Rapids since Howard and Mrazek are entrenched in Detroit.

"That's the depth we've got in the organization," said Red Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin. "The Detroit Red Wings training camp itself will figure out where those guys end up at the end of the day. Obviously, Jared and Tommy have to go through waivers in order to go down to the minors so there's always the possibility that they won't make it to the American League.

"So, between the three of those guys we think that we have good goaltending options for Grand Rapids, for sure."

Last season marked Machovsky's fourth with Plzen HC, which plays in the top league in the Czech Republic. He had a 21-25-0 record, 2.25 goals-against average, .925 save percentage and two shutouts.

In 178 games with Plzen since 2013-14, Machovsky has a 94-84-0 record, 2.23 GAA, .923 save percentage and 14 shutouts. He led the Czech Extraliga in save percentage (.936) in 2013-14, when he posted a career-best 1.67 GAA with six shutouts.

Before playing for Plzen, Machovsky spent three seasons with the OHL's Brampton Battalion. In his final season with Brampton, Machovsky had a 25-19-7 record, 2.52 GAA, .910 save percentage and three shutouts.

His second trip to the development camp this year gave Machovsky an idea of what the Red Wings are looking for.

"We got lots of attention from the coaches, lots of good stuff, lots of fun," said Machovsky, one of six goalies at the development camp. "I think it's pretty good with the goalies. We got pretty good goalies here with the draft picks and big boys all around. I think I'm the smallest on the ice."