Milestone in Marco Kasper’s career!
The 18-year-old Austrian will make his debut in the NHL on Monday night. Kasper gets his first appearance for the Detroit Red Wings in the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs (01:00 CET).
In the last game of the Red Wings against the Winnipeg Jets, the slightly injured center had to wait for his premiere in the best ice hockey league in the world, now the time has come.
Kasper is the ninth Austrian to play in the NHL after Reinhard Divis, Christoph Brandner, Thomas Pöck, Thomas Vanek, Andreas Nödl, Michael Grabner, Michael Raffl and Marco Rossi.
Kasper becomes the youngest NHL Austrian
Kasper, who turns 19 on Saturday, will be by far the youngest red-white-red NHL debutant to date. Marco Rossi was just over 20 years and three months old when he played his first NHL game on January 6, 2022.
Selected number eight by the Red Wings in the 2022 NHL draft, Kasper signed a three-year contract in July. However, the young striker continued to be loaned out to Swedish top club Rögle, where he was used as a center at the behest of the Red Wings this season and, with eight goals and 15 assists, managed the second most points by a U20 player.
With the club from Ängelholm, Kasper was eliminated in the SHL quarter-finals last Sunday. Shortly thereafter, he got the call from Detroit and was sent straight to the NHL team and not to the AHL farm team Grand Rapids Griffins.