But the Detroit Red Wings decided that Bertuzzi should cheer the Griffins on from the sidelines, spending his summer preparing to spend all of next season in the NHL.
"I still have a lot of good buddies down there," Bertuzzi said. "It sucks obviously not going down to battle with them in playoffs, but I kind of want to focus on a good summer and coming back to training camp ready."
Wings coach Jeff Blashill said they considered all the pros and cons when making the decision to keep Bertuzzi out of the AHL playoffs.
"His game is better than maybe his physical attributes right now," Blashill said. "Every night he goes against guys that are probably a little bit stronger and a little bit faster. Every night. And he finds a way with his mind and his will to make that up and become a positive impact in the game. Just think if he matched those guys in those physical attributes, if he's as strong and as fast as a lot of those guys he's going against. He'll be that much better. He'll be more than a complementary player, he'll be a go-to type player.
"I think the positive in this case is at least an extra month of getting after it training-wise, My guidance to him was you gotta get bigger, faster, stronger. Find a strength and sprinting coach that can help you do those things. Get a skating coach that's gonna help you get that much quicker. If he can do those things, he'll be that much a better player next year."
While Bertuzzi would have enjoyed trying to go for back-to-back championships, he understood why the Wings wanted him to focus on training instead.
"Two summers in a row have been short," Bertuzzi said. "I've been kind of hurt to start the summer off and that kind of delayed training. Last year we made a long playoff run and I was hurt. I think this is a big opportunity for me to take full advantage of having a long summer in the gym."
In 48 games with the Wings, Bertuzzi had seven goals, 17 assists and was minus-7. Five of those goals came in the final eight games.
When he was first called up, Bertuzzi played limited minutes.
After the team traded Tomas Tatar to the Vegas Golden Knights, it opened up more ice time for the young winger, who earned a spot alongside captain Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist.
"Down the stretch, I had a lot of fun," Bertuzzi said. "It was fun to play with Z and Gus. It makes it a lot easier. They're fun to be around. We've got such a great group here. We worked hard every night, we battled every night. We're only going to be better next year."
Bertuzzi, 23, is 6-feet, 190 pounds, and will be looking to add muscle.
After some time at home, Bertuzzi plans to return to metro Detroit to train at Barwis Methods with Dylan Larkin and Luke Glendening, among others.
Bertuzzi knows that he can be an important part of the Wings' youth movement along with Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou.
"Those three are huge keys for the future," Bertuzzi said. "I'm just here to try and work hard to be one of those guys. I know Larkin is going to be a huge factor. Double-A and Mantha, he scored over 20 this year. A lot of the young guys that are going to be coming in are going to be huge.
"It's gonna be a good year next year and we'll see where it goes."
