Another Red Wings draft pick Blows Up
It was apropos that on an afternoon where the Detroit Lions drafted yet another high draft pick that should be a bonafide high-level NFL talent [heh], the Detroit Red Wings were led by yet another of their obscure NHL draft picks that has blossomed into one of the better players in the game.
Johan Franzen - a late bloomer if ever there was one who was drafted in the third round - tallied his first career hat trick to pace the Wings to a 5-1 demolition of the Colorado Avalanche. The team hasn’t made much of their former rivalry with Colorado and their play on the ice has only gone to accentuate those differences.
The Avalanche are led in scoring by Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk, who each averaged just about a point a game in the series against the Wild. They’ve combined to tally two points [a goal and an assist] during the first two games of the series thus far. They were both key parts of the Avalanche attack in the late 90’s. Wojtek Wolski is the only younger player who ranks in the top 5 in scoring for the Avs during the playoffs.
For the Red Wings? Their top 5 scorers are Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall, Hank Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Jiri Hudler. Their average age is 27. This is why we laugh knowingly at people who tell us that the Red Wings are so old and slow. Kronner plays on the second pairing and Hudler has been tearing it up on the 3rd and 4th lines. But every other guy is a key contributor on a scoring line.
Datsyuk finished 4th in the league in scoring and should win the Selke award as the best defensive forward. He played 82 games and led the entire league in plus/minus rating. Hank Zetterberg, who missed 7 games during the regular season, finished 6th in scoring and is the odds on favorite to win the Selke.
These guys who are leading the Red Wings right now were - on average - 17 when the Avs-Wings was a big rivarly. Heck, Jiri Hudler was 14, and I’m not even sure they have televisions in Olomouc where he hails from so he might not have even been able to watch those classic matchups between what used to be the two best teams in all of the NHL.
Today everyone who follows the NHL knows about Johan Franzen and that his nickname is the Mule. He was interviewed on NBC following the game and if there’s one person who should have been paying close attention to the exploits of Franzen it’s another player who toiled in Sweden and went undrafted when he was 18 and then 19 years old. His name is Fabian Brunnstrom and he’s a free agent, meaning he can sign with any team in the NHL. The word is that the Red Wings are in the running as being one of the teams the 23 year old forward is considering signing with. If that is indeed the case he should also understand what it took for Mule to make the team.
Mule talked a little bit about what it took for him to make the Red Wings after he was drafted. He came over at the age of 24 and made the team right out of training camp. With Franzen he’s always been a defensively responsible player and that was his ticket to earning a spot on the Red Wings. So it took him four years to become an overnight sensation.
Now Brunnstrom might have much better offesnsive skills than Franzen - the big lug has only scored 22 goals over the past 24 games the Red Wings have played. But even Jiri Hudler, who is a pure point producer and isn’t known as a great two-way player, needed to hone his defensive skills on the fourth line before he was given significant time on a scoring line this season. Hudler put up 96 points in the AHL before being brought up to Detroit and was more than a point a game player at the highest levels of Czech hockey before playing in Grand Rapids.
So if Brunnstrom is seriously interested in joining club Sweden over here in the States the path is pretty obvious. I have no doubts there are easier routes to the NHL and to playing on a scoring line. But Johan Franzen is proof positive that a late-bloomer can succceed in Detroit at the highest levels during the most important time of the hockey season.
fabian brunnstrom Henrik Zetterberg Jiri Hudler Johan Franzen Niklas Kronwall Pavel Datsyuk Red WingsNo Comments
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