Gorilla Crouch

Grigorenko will get his first crack at making Detroit’s roster

The Detroit Red Wings drafted Russian prospect Igor Grigorenko with the 62nd pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft. Shortly after being drafted the 5′10″ winger shot up the prospect rankings, at one point being ranked as the 9th best NHL prospect by the Hockey News in 2002-03 and the 13th best NHL prospect by Hockey’s Future in 2003-04.

The peak of his time as a prospect had to be during 2002-03, when he put up 29 points in 47 games for Lada Togliatti of the Russian Elite League, won a gold medal and won the tournament championship game MVP at the 2003 World Junior Championships, and then played on a line with Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk at the 2003 World Championships. There was no question he projected to be a can’t miss scoring line winger. Red Wings Central recently remarked that the Red Wings were prepared in the summer of 2003 to sign him and bring him over to play in Detroit.

But before that happened he was badly injured in an auto accident in May 2003 and nearly died while in the hospital recovering from the injury. After nearly a month in the hospital he began his road to recovery. There’s no question he’d be playing in Detroit by now if not for the accident but the question as he prepares to compete for a spot in the lineup this season is where his game is at and whether he’s ready right now to compete at the NHL level. Here is how his stats have looked since the 2002-03 season with Lada Togliatti:

2004-05 Salavat Yulaev
30 games played
11 goals
7 assists

2005-06 Cherepovets
50 games played
13 goals
21 assists

2006-07 Lada Togliatti
49 games played
14 goals
13 assists

The good news is his production from last season is close to where it was in the season with Lada Togliatti before the car accident. Red Wings Central has covered his recovery extensively and reported in January that his recovery appears to have plateaued at about 85-90% of his capabilities prior to the accident. He doesn’t appear to have as much quickness as he once had but his hands and the rest of his game are as sound as they’ve ever been.

While only 5′10″ he weighs in at over 2 bills and is a scrappy player. Here is a You Tube clip of a fight that broke out when he went to the net with the puck and took exception to the way Denis Bayev tried to roughhouse him.

Grigorenko was given a five game suspension for his antics, but it shows he can play a physical game, which will certainly be appreciated by Mike Babcock. Jim Nill recently commented that he could see Grigorenko playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk.

“We think he’ll be a really good second-line guy that might suit Datsyuk. He has the potential to be a star, but it’s one day at a time to start. For instance, if we want him to go to the minors to catch up with the speed, how does he accept that? It won’t do him any good to struggle up here and not play much. A lot of Europeans don’t respect the AHL, but four weeks in the minors might be the best way to get up to NHL speed.”

My reading of this quote is that the Red Wings are trying to get Grigorenko to look at the big picture; if he’s willing to perhaps start off in Grand Rapids, play lots of minutes and get acclimated to the speed of the North American game it should help him adapt and speed the process for nailing down a spot on the second line.

In the article linked above Nill again repeats that Grigorenko’s skating is at about 90% of where it was prior to the accident. So at this point it seems like he’s unlikely to gain that skating ability back. The big issue as I see it is that he’s competing with Tomas Holmstrom and Jiri Hudler for a spot on the top two lines. All three players aren’t great skaters so they likely need to play on a line with two forwards who are good skaters and two-way players. So that means there are basically three guys competing for two spots.

Homer is one of the best “net front” guys in the NHL and was very successful on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg last year. But his skill might be best suited to being a power play specialist if both Jiri Hudler and Grigorenko prove to be better offensive threats during even strength play. So if Grigorenko is to make it onto a scoring line it might be at the expense of Holmstrom. This is something Red Wings Central alluded to in this article:

If it weren’t for the car wreck, Grigorenko, 23, would probably be in Detroit already, perhaps — with all due respect to Tomas Holmstrom — even riding shotgun on the wing with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

As much as I’d like to see it happen I don’t see Grigorenko coming in and claiming a scoring line forward slot in training camp. I think there’s a chance the top line stays intact and Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula, Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson all compete to fill out the forward slots on the second line. If Grigorenko doesn’t win a spot on one of the top two lines both he and the organization will have a difficult decision to make.

Grigorenko can opt out of his contract if he spends the first three weeks of the season in Grand Rapids. If he doesn’t claim a spot on a scoring line in Detroit the Red Wings will probably try to convince him that starting off in Grand Rapids is the best way to reach his ultimate goal. But if he’s still in Grand Rapids after three weeks he can decide to leave and that would end his career as a Red Wing.

So if that ends up being the case, do the Red Wings try to convince him to play in Grand Rapids even though there’s a risk he bolts? Or do they keep him in Detroit and play him on the 4th line like Jiri Hudler did last season? Hudler, like Grigorenko, was out of options last season so he made Detroit’s roster. Hudler could not be sent down to Grand Rapids without facing waivers, and he certainly would have been snagged by another NHL team.

It appears Grigorenko wouldn’t have to clear waivers, but given the fact he can skate if he doesn’t make Detroit’s roster I think he’s likely to follow the Jiri Hudler path in Detroit. So I expect him to play on the fourth line when he isn’t scratched and I suspect he’ll show enough flashes given his offensive skill level to earn another contract and compete for that scoring line slot in 2008-09.

Igor Grigorenko Red Wings

July 28th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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