Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings prospect Hanas of Griffins out for season

Shoulder surgery halting rookie pro campaign

Published

1 year ago

February 11, 2023

Bob Duff

Detroit Red Wings prospect Cross Hanas of the Grand Rapids Griffins will undergo shoulder surgery and is out for the season.

It was a double whammy for the Grand Rapids Griffins in terms of losses on Friday. A 4-1 home-ice setback to the Manitoba Moose was dropping the Griffins nine points behind the Moose in the AHL playoff race.

Secondly, the top farm club of the Detroit Red Wings was discovering that they’ll be without forward Cross Hanas for the remainder of the season. According to Griffins broadcaster Bob Kaser, Hanas will be undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.

“I didn’t realize that we disclosed player’s injuries to the public,” said Griffins coach Ben Simon, clearly unhappy that word of Hanas’ condition had been revealed. “That’s something I’ll have to take up.”

Per @bkaser1 : Cross Hanas’ season is done. An impressive rookie campaign shut down by shoulder surgery. Huge loss for the Griffins going forward

— Andrew Rinaldi (@FPHGriffins) February 11, 2023

In his rookie AHL season, left-winger Hanas originally suffered a shoulder injury on November 25 that would keep him out of action until January 4. Detroit’s 55th overall choice in the 2020 NHL entry draft was off to a fast start as a pro, collecting 7-5-12 totals in his first 17 AHL games.

“I think that Cross came in this year and had a really good start to his first year pro,” Simon said. “He was very competitive.

Hanas A Quick Learner With Griffins

“Obviously, coming from juniors, you hear about prototypical junior mistakes, cheat the game a little bit. He was able to rely solely on his skill to kind of outscore his mistakes. You could see some of his habits from junior, those kind of junior habits, but I thought as the first month progressed, he did show growth. He learned.

“The biggest thing that we were happen with as a staff, as an organization was that he was competitive. He was physical, he was getting his nose dirty. He wasn’t afraid to get to hard areas.

“Then he got hurt with the shoulder earlier, came back and got injured again. It’s tough for him but knowing Cross, his character his work ethic, he’ll be fine. Hopefully he comes back stronger when he’s ready to go.”

In 30 games with the Griffins, Hanas, 21, was good for 9-8-17 totals.