Hicketts had a bad start at the beginning of the season here in GR (so did the rest of the team). He is coming around just like the rest of the team and he deserves this call up. Sure he will not put up large offensive numbers like Hronek and Russo will, but he makes up for that by taking out forwards trying to score against us. He is a battler and he will fight in the corners and with his size, he is not afraid to use it in front of his own net. Last night, an IceHog forward thought he had a breakaway on Coreau on the wing when Hicketts came in like a bowling ball and separated the IceHog forward from the puck and prevented the scoring chance away without a shot attempt. You will not see that on the box score, but he puts out game in and game out every night.
Hronek is an offensive minded d-man, who still is in the learning process of playing defense (which is suppose to be his primary function as a d-man). Nelson on Wednesday game took Hronek off the top PP unit and replaced him with Saarijarvi because he was floating out on the ice when the Admirals iced the puck down and he, on two occasions, took his sweet time getting the puck behind our net, only to have an Admirals checker raced down and take the puck away from Hronek and that Admirals player had a great chance to score shorthanded each time. That is what most of you people online do not see and this is what I and most other fans that go to all the home games in GR see. Does not matter what Hronek done in the OHL, he is finding out (just like Sproul learned) that you can score all the points you want in juniors, but when you play here in the pros (ECHL, AHL, or NHL), you better learn to play defense now because if you don't, you will not make it to the NHL. Look where Sproul is at now as your latest example (Hartford AHL).
Ouellet and Jensen better start taking notice of Hicketts because one of them might not be with the Wings much longer.