Calm, mature Trey Augustine playing beyond his age, continues development with Red Wings

DETROIT — Sometimes, Red Savage will see Trey Augustine trudge along around Michigan State's Munn Arena and just shake his head.

"We call him Gramps sometimes because he's always waddling around the rink," said Savage, a Red Wings prospect talking about his MSU teammate and fellow Wings prospect. "You forget he's just a little 19-year-old. I forget I'm two years older than he is."

Augustine has certainly matured over this last calendar year, from last year's development camp with the Red Wings to this week's, given his experiences and accomplishments.

All Augustine did was help lead a program renaissance at Michigan State and win Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten Tournament. He also won gold at the world junior championships with Team USA, and validated every reason why the Wings selected him in the second round last year.

"Trey is a special player," Savage said. "We have a good friendship and it's something I take a lot of value in. His maturity is something that really stands out. He tries to learn as much as he can every day at the rink. He goes into every practice with the same mentality, to not only make himself better, but the people around him better."

Augustine hasn't skated for over a month, taking time away from the game before arriving in this Wings' camp.

"It's been a good time to reflect over the 12-month span," Augustine said. "I've had some unbelievable opportunities. (So many people) have helped me get these opportunities. Hopefully, I'm going to get some more cool ones in the future.

"I'm definitely way less nervous than last year. I'm familiar with the entire staff now."

Augustine was 23-9-2 at MSU with a 2.96 goals-against average and .918 save percentage and was sensational in the Big Ten Tournament, as the Spartans clinched a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans advanced to the regional final before losing to Michigan.

Augustine feels that with a deep and talented returning class, the Spartans can build on what they accomplished last season.

"A lot of returnees, we're going to have a real good team. I'm excited about playing again," Augustine said. "(But) it's hard to win every night. You have to come into every game with the right mindset and that team will back down, especially this year. It'll be a lot of fun for sure."

Dan Cleary, the Wings' assistant director of player development, was impressed with Augustine's season.

"He just gives me a lot of confidence and I'm not even on his team," Cleary said. "He has a great demeanor about him. A nice calm and cool demeanor but there's a fire that burns inside of him."

Educational camp

As this week's development camp winds down, Cleary has been pleased with the progress.

"It's been going good," said Cleary, who is thrilled to have former teammate Pavel Datsyuk on the ice working with the prospects. "It's been great and pretty exciting to have Pavel around the kids and great to see all of our kids (prospects). The kids are enjoying it. Some of the kids are a little rusty, they haven't been on the ice (in a while)."(But) we tell these kids it's more of an educational week than evaluation."

Cleary used this year's first-round pick, forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, as an example.

"He's had trouble with his skates and falling down," Cleary said. "I told him, 'Listen, I'm not here judging whether you can't stand up or not. We've seen your body of work. (Kris) Draper (amateur scouting director) has seen him all year and our scouting staff.

"It's most important that they take all the information they can (out of this camp). We test, but we get the results and we've met with a few kids and we'll tell them basically, this is what you have to work on, this is what you are good at and give them feedback and go from there."

The camp ends Friday with a three-on-three tournament.

New destination

Defenseman Brady Cleveland (2023 second-round) transferred from Wisconsin to Colorado College recently and the entire experience opened up his eyes, though it sounds like Cleveland sort of had his eyes set out West.

"Before you go into it, you sit down and talk to your family and agent and have a list of teams that you'd like to talk to," said Cleveland, who is likely to see more playing time on the younger Colorado College team. "From there, you go to the next step and talk to a team, or your agent talks to teams, and go from there.

"Just going into the portal, I had a relationship with (assistant) coach (Pete) Mannino there and I had some contact with him and after talking with him, there's nothing really you can't like about what they have going on out there. A brand new facility built just over the last four years since (head coach Kris) Mayotte got there and they've been on an upward climb."

Cleveland is a 6-foot-5, 209-pound defenseman who played in 16 games at Wisconsin. Finding playing time among the veteran Badgers was difficult.

"I just want to get stronger in the offseason," Cleveland said. "That's the big thing for me. I want to work on my upper-body and lower-body strength. I want to be the best for my team. I know the player I am and what I am capable of and it's just getting out there every game and playing and helping my team win.

"Being a good, pass-first shutdown defenseman."

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