This summer, 24-year-old Red Wings center Joe Veleno graduated from the epitome of a prove-it deal (one year, $825,000, a pay decrease from his entry-level deal, signed last summer) to a multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal (two years, $4.55 million total, signed July 19th). Veleno set career highs a year ago with 12 goals, 16 assists, and 28 points in 80 games, but as he looks to transition from young, versatile, and affordable to a long-term contributor in Detroit, where exactly does he fit?
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“I foresee him starting as our [fourth] center there,” coach Derek Lalonde told The Hockey News, when asked about Veleno’s current place in his lineup. “And he’s given us some good games at center. I think he’s a very valuable, versatile player. I like him at the wing at times too. He can play just a little bit North-South, create a little bit on the forecheck. If you recall last year, he had a little run with Larkin and Raymond, and it game them a huge boost because of his legs. He’s gonna start as a center, but he’s one of those versatile guys that can play both center and wing.” Lalonde added that there is a balance to strike between optimizing each individual player’s role with the overall health and effectiveness of the team, saying “It’s all connected. You’re playing to win every night, but you wanna do that to make your team successful [and put] guys [in a role] where they’re at their best.”
Lalonde’s answer—that Veleno will begin the season as his fourth line center but can clearly contribute in other roles, including even as a top-line winger under the right circumstances—is an instructive one as to his path forward. Like a lot of gifted players in their early to mid-20s, Veleno has arrived at something of an inflection point: Will he make a career of being a checking-first role player, or will he push up the lineup and toward a more prolific offensive role?
Over the summer, hockey consultant Jack Han spoke with THN Detroit about the way many young players have to confront this predicament, saying:
If you’re whole identity as a player growing up and in junior is you’re the guy who shoots the puck, you get 30, 40, 50 goals a year, well when you hit the NHL, you have to make a very conscious decision of do I double down on my strength or do I start working on some of the other areas of my game? And the answer is different for everybody, depending on your skillset, your mindset, your mental make-up, the resources you have access to, your physical build. But this idea of finding the product, which is you, and market, which is the team and the league—finding the fit between those two things is really a separating factor between guys who play in the league and do well for a little bit and guys who really have staying power.
Though 28 is his high-water mark for scoring at the NHL level, Veleno was once an 104-point scorer for the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, and, as Lalonde reminded us, he’s had moments of effectiveness in a more attacking role at the NHL level, with his skating and tenacity on the forecheck able to open up offensive opportunity. Even the fourth line role he played for most of the season a year ago was a bit of an unconventional one. He often played beside players like Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong on a line more responsible for secondary scoring than the territorial energy game of a traditional fourth line.
When asked for his opinion on the next steps for his career, Veleno replied, “I wanna up my game in every situation. Every opportunity that I’m given, I wanna take advantage of that, keep striding in the right direction, being more consistent every night, just bringing that energy night in and night out…I wanna be a part of what’s going on here. I wanna be part of this trend moving forward, and I think we got something good going on.”
He went on to explain that he doesn’t see a dissonance between pushing for more offense and playing a reliable two-way game. Instead, for Veleno, the former follows from the latter. “I think it’s all about anticipation and reading the play and knowing when to be above guys and when to get those opportunities offensively,” he explained. “I’ve always been taught that if you’re well positioned defensively [and] don’t cheat the game, offense will come to you. If you’re always in the right spot, somehow you’ll be open and guys will find you. So I think just always being in the right spot defensively, it will lead to good offense. Sometimes it will even surprise you. You’re in a good spot defensively, and the next thing you know, a couple seconds later, you’re getting a Grade A chance in front of the net.”
It’s an answer that seems to walk between the two paths outlined by Han. Yes, Veleno wants to add offense to his game, but in articulating his path to doing so, he speaks about defensive responsibility. It’s an answer his coach would surely approve of.
As far as team success is concerned, like the rest of the returning Red Wings, last year’s near miss leaves a bitter taste for Veleno. “We had over 90 points last year, and we still didn’t get into the playoffs,” he explains. “It might be this year just getting that extra win or getting to overtime maybe. It was definitely hard, but I think we’re all looking forward to this year, and we know that we can be there again in that situation, if not be even better, so I think we’re all gonna give it that extra step this year.”
When asked about the challenge of summoning that sort of playoff desperation in October instead of in the throes of a late season wild card battle, Veleno expresses a sharp sense of urgency: “Look, last year didn’t feel like too long ago for me. Time goes by quick, and I still have every single memory of the last stretch of games here, but you just want to start off strong, start by playing the right way, managing the puck, things that you can control, and the rest of the game will take care of itself by competing.”
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