Gorilla Crouch

Detroit’s AHL affiliate had an awful season last year and looks to rebound and regain their position as one of the better franchises in the A. The big move was at the top when they let head coach Mike Stothers go after one season and replaced him with Curt Fraser. Fraser has tons of NHL playing experience in addition to a solid career thus far as a head coach.

Starting from the net out, Jimmy Howard is likely to return for a third and final season as the top netminder. In past seasons he hasn’t had competition that could really push him for playing time and that could be part of the reason he hasn’t been as consistent as the Red Wings expect him to be. This year 2006 draft pick Daniel Larsson should provide plenty of competition in net, as he won rookie of the year and goaltender of the year in the Swedish elite league last season. So if Howard struggles at any point there will probably be an opening for Larsson to try and move up the depth chart for Red Wings goalies.

On defense the Griffins will be young but have pretty solid talent to work with. Jakub Kindl is coming off a terrible season, but given his talent level there’s every reason to expect him to improve once he gets a better handle on the mental part of playing defense. Here’s a quote from Grand Rapids’ general manager [via Red Wings Central]:

“At times he wants to carry the puck and his decision-making sometimes is a little bit questionable and that’s why his plus-minus is where it is. He’s shown flashes. He’s better when he has less time with the puck because he does it on instinct — he just moves it quickly. The more time and space that he has, the more he wants to think it through, rather than just react.

Jonthan Ericsson will be the wildcard. Based on talent and preparation he’s clearly ready to play in the NHL. Both Ken Holland and Mike Babcock have said as much. But given the log-jam on the blueline and the fact he can be sent back to Grand Rapids without clearing waivers he could be SOL. That would be unfortunate so I hope Detroit can work out the trades that are necessary to get his NHL career started. If not he should be dominant in the AHL. He could potentially follow in Niklas Kronwall’s skates and win the Eddie Shore award for best defenseman in the AHL.

Rounding out the Red Wings prospects on the Griffins’ blueline, Logan Pyett and Sergei Kolosov will both play in Grand Rapids. Pyett is coming off a spectacular career in Regina playing for the Pats. He projects to be an offensive defenseman but this will be his first season in Grand Rapids. Kolosov is a big, physical defensive defenesman who will likely replace Kyle Quincey in the Grand Rapids lineup.

The team should be solid down the middle at forward as both Evan McGrath and Cory Emmerton should center the two scoring lines. McGrath seemed to finally find his game at the A-level over the later part of the season and could be a point-a-game player this season. Cory Emmerton has been compared to Jumbo Joe Thornton in terms of his vision and playmaking ability but will get his first taste of regular AHL action. Jan Mursak and Mattias Ritola will both play on the wings on scoring lines and Finnish free agent Ville Leino will likely start the season in Grand Rapids while he gets up to speed with the North American game. He’ll join AHL super sniper Darren Haydar and help round out the scoring lines for the Griffins.

Like Ericsson on defense, the big question is whether Darren Helm plays in Detroit or gets sent to Grand Rapids. A fixture centering the fourth line during the playoffs, does he make the Red Wings? He could benefit from getting stronger and more physically mature spending the season as a Griffin and getting some callups; but does he center a scoring line when you have McGrath and Emmerton, who are both high-end offensive players? If not it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to send him to Grand Rapids to center the third line. It could happen and if it does the Griffins will be stacked at center. Rounding out the final pivot spot Ryan Oulahen has re-upped with Detroit and would likely center the third line if Helm winds up in Detroit. If not he’ll probably center the fourth line.

That pretty much covers each Red Wings prospect who has a good chance at playing in Grand Rapids this season.

Cory Emmerton daniel larsson Darren Haydar Darren Helm evan mcgrath Grand Rapids Griffins Jakub Kindl Jan Mursak Jimmy Howard Jonathan Ericsson Logan Pyett Mattias Ritola Red Wings Ryan Oulahen sergei kolosov ville leino

August 6th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Former Griffins coach Mike Stothers

The intrigue in an organization that is surprisingly bereft of melodrama is that Mike Stothers, who coached the AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, has been sent packing after one season. Removing a coach this early on in his tenure is somewhat controversial, but the Red Wings and Griffins also ended their one-year agreement to have Detroit handle the hiring decisions for Grand Rapids’ coaches. So that likely explains the decision to go in another direction. Bruce MacLeod has the details in this post:

…the Grand Rapids Griffins, however…have reacquired the right to hire and fire coaches. The Red Wings, specifically Jim Nill, were responsible for the coaching staff last season. Not sure why the change, but perhaps it came down to a difference in opinion on Mike Stothers, who coached the Griffins this past season. Stothers was with the Red Wings, as was assistant Jim Paek, throughout the playoff run.

The press release seems to indicate that the Griffins organization wants to return to the level of success they’ve had over the past 9 seasons.

The new head coach will join one of the American Hockey League’s premier franchises. Over the last nine seasons, the Griffins have the most wins (402, tied), regular season championships (two) and division titles (five) of any Triple-A hockey team.

In addition, the Griffins and Red Wings have comprised hockey’s most successful affiliation since their 2002 union, combining for more standings points (1,129) than any other AHL/NHL partnership over the last six seasons. Fifteen former Griffins were on the playoff roster of the 2008 Stanley Cup champions, eight of whom will have their names engraved on the Cup: Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula, Brett Lebda, Darren Helm, Tomas Kopecky, Darren McCarty and Chris Osgood.

There are a whole bunch of questions about this situation that I don’t have the time to go into. Removing Greg Ireland as head coach was questioned after one poor season when the Red Wings had raided the Griffins of all of their top forwards for the 2006-07 season [Jiri Hudler, Tomas Kopecky, Valtteri Filppula]. Ireland is now the head coach for the San Antonio Rampage. Bruce Garrioch suggests Stothers could end up being the head coach for the LA Kings, which would be a nice step up for him.

I thought the decision to have the Red Wings hire the coaching staff in Grand Rapids would be a good way to continue to develop talent. My only guess would be Detroit’s goal of developing Red Wings prospects could in some situations hamper Grand Rapids’ goal of icing the best team possible. And the fact Stothers answered to the Red Wings organization, not the Grand Rapids team, might have caused issues as well.

The latter scenario is the likely explanation, as Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers have both been seen as being largely incompetent in their roles with the Boston Celtics. But once you give them Kevin Garnet and Ray Allen they become champions. That’s why I wanted to see the Pistons trade Sheed and Rip for KG last summer if they weren’t going to get rid of Flip Saunders last summer.

Like I said at the top of the article, this provides a minor amount of intrigue in an organization that does so many things right. I guess they have to have one thing go haywire each season, as last year it was trading Shawn Matthias for a dazed and confused Todd Bertuzzi.

One final note: I checked with Ansar Khan from MLIVE to see if he knows any of the details on the offer the Red Wings made to Valtteri Filppula that he turned down. He said that he doesn’t, there’s no real way to guess what his salary demands are. My guess is still $2.85 million per season.

Grand Rapids Griffins greg ireland mike stothers Red Wings

June 19th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 1 Comment

The Grand Rapids Press reports that Mike Stothers will be named the new head coach for the AHL affiliate. He’s been heavily involved in Philadelphia’s organization as a player and coach and has spent the past five years coaching the Owens Sound Attack in the OHL. His experience likely gave him the edge:

That combination of playing and coaching experience made Stothers the best fit for the Griffins, Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill said. “Experience is huge. We’re not into developing coaches,” Nill said. “We’re into developing players.”

Stothers was an NHL d-man who played for Philadelphia and Toronto. Here is the Wikipedia entry on his coaching experience prior to taking the Owen Sound coaching position:

Mike Stothers was an assistant coach with the Hershey Bears, the Philadelphia Flyers AHL affiliate, from 1992-1996. When the Flyers relocated their AHL team to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia Phantoms, Stothers went along with them, and was an assistant coach from 1996-2000. He also spent some time with the Flyers as an interm assistant coach in the 1998-1999 season, and once again in the 1999-2000 season before getting the job permanently on June 13, 2000. Stothers stayed with the Flyers through the 2001-02 season. On July 17, 2002, Stothers would leave the Flyers organization to take the head coaching job of the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL.

The 2004-05 season looks like the Attack’s best season, with the team winning 40 games, setting a team record with 90 points, and making it to the second round of the OHL playoffs. The team has made the OHL playoffs every season under Stothers.

Oh yeah, if you haven’t seen this you have to check out the first entry in Abel to Yzerman’s “design the Red Wings graphic” contest. It’s from Matt Schwartz from LetsGoWings and it’s a stellar effort.

Over at the NHL Fanhouse Jon “J.P.” Press takes a look at what could be the top 5 scoring lines in the NHL next season. The Z-D-H line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom is listed at 5th. Here is what Press has to say about Homer and the Euro Twins.

This trio of European Red Wings racked up 90 goals in 2006-07 thanks to the dynamic Datsyuk’s and scintillating Zetterberg’s highlight reel moves and the gritty Holmstrom wreaking havoc in front of the net and cleaning up his running mates’ garbage. Each of the three had between 27 and 33 goals, including Zetterberg’s 33 in just 63 games, and the line was responsible in its own end as well, registering a combined plus-75 rating.

The big question is whether Mike Babcock keeps the line together or he has Datsyuk and Zetterberg center separate lines. My guess is he’ll break the line up to try and get two potent scoring lines much like he did last season. If the team struggles to score goals then he’ll likely reunite the line that was dominant at times last season. If they would have played the entire season on one line they would have easily cracked the century mark in goals scored. I think I’ll take a look at this later on and try to calculate what they might be capable of as far as production goes if they played the entire season together.

Finally Christy over at Behind the Jersey has a nice article on a sports poll that suggests the Red Wings are the most popular NHL team in the U.S.. Not only that, they are tied with Notre Dame in football as the team in their given sport that had the largest percentage of fans claim that they are “America’s Team” [whatever that means].

I’m not sure I like having the Red Wings compared with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and Notre Dame Football. At least Mike Illitch isn’t an overzealous ass clown like Jerry Jones and George Steinbrenner, and Mike Babcock isn’t an overinflated [literally] windbag who is in love with the sound of his own voice like Charlie Weis. So Red Wings fans have that going for them I guess.

Grand Rapids Griffins Henrik Zetterberg Mike Strothers Pavel Datsyuk Red Wings Tomas Holmstrom

July 18th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 3 Comments

Matt Ellis and Joey MacDonald say cheese with a Griffins fan
Flickr photo: cjpkwilliams

The Detroit Red Wings announced the signing of several players yesterday.

Left wing Matt Ellis returns to Detroit after spending the last five seasons in the Red Wings’ organization at Toledo (ECHL) and Grand Rapids (AHL). Ellis, who signed a two-year deal, made his NHL debut in 2006-07 appearing in a total 16 games for the Red Wings.

Joining the Wings for the first time are goaltender Adam Berkhoel, forwards Carl Corazzini, Mark Cullen, Randall Gelech and Mark Hartigan, and defensemen Brad Ference and Garrett Stafford. Gelech signed a two-year deal, while the other six signed one-year agreements.

Red Wings assistant general manager said the players will compete for a spot in Detroit’s lineup during training camp. Those who do not make the team will play in Grand Rapids. The players with the best shot out of the group to make the Red Wings might be Matt Ellis, who cracked Detroit’s lineup briefly last season, and Brad Ference, who has played a total of 250 NHL games.

When Ellis played in Detroit it was always on the fourth line and with very short minutes. I think once again he’s likely to be an injury call up this season. He’s strong along the boards and can play the energy role he’d play as a fourth liner.

Brad Ference has one trait the Red Wings tend to lack in their d-men other than Kronner - he likes to hit people. He’s got good size at 6′3″ and is known as a crease clearer but he tends to be a little overzealous with dishing out the punishment. He could play for Detroit as a third pairing defensive defenseman but I suspect that like Ellis he’ll be a guy who might get injury callups but will spend the bulk of the season in Grand Rapids.

One intresting guy out of the group to keep an eye on is Randall Gelech. He has power forward size at 6′3″ and 220. He’s only 23 years old so he could still be developing as far as hockey talent goes. He’s had 25 goal and 30 goal seasons in the WHL but hasn’t broken out against AHL competition over the past three years. But he did tally 17 goals last season. On a team like Grand Rapids with a very good defense and goaltending tandem and a solid corps of forwards he could crack 20 goals, put up solid plus/minus numbers and become a viable prospect.

Will it happen? Who knows.

Dave Mayo from the Grand Rapids Press reports that the Griffins could name a new head coach any day now. Here is some of the commentary on the players the Red Wings just signed.

Matt Ellis - Griffins Central

Where [Ellis] winds up next season, though, is anyone’s guess. The hard working Ellis is a darkhorse to make the Wings this season, but with his work ethic and hustle, he could force the club to keep him. Subject to waivers if assigned to the AHL, he may impress another club enough to claim him for their NHL roster. Of course a return to Grand Rapids for a fifth season is a welcome possibility as well.

Ansar Khan - Ellis, 7 others signed

Joining the Red Wings for the first time will be goaltender Adam Berkhoel (one year), forwards Carl Corazzini (one year), Mark Cullen (one year) Randall Gelech (two years) and Mark Hartigan (one year), and defensemen Brad Ference (one year) and Garrett Stafford (one year).

George Malik over at Snapshots also has extensive coverage of the guys who were signed. He has a nice breakdown of the Griffins roster - assuming none of the guys who played for the team last season make Detroit’s roster.

Goaltenders:

Jimmy Howard
Adam Berkhoel

Forwards:

Carl Corazzini
Mark Cullen
Matt Ellis
Mark Hartigan
Randall Gelech
Darren Helm
Johan Ryno
Mattias Ritola
Ryan Oulahen
Evan McGrath

Defence:

Jonathan Ericsson
Jakub Kindl
Kyle Quincey
Garrett Stafford
Brad Ference
Derek Meech

That defense is going to be very good. They should go a long way towards helping netminder Jimmy Howard have a breakout year. There are contradictory reports on whether or not Derek Meech will have to clear waivers in order to be sent down to Grand Rapids if he does not make Detroit’s roster. But Matthew Wuest over at Red Wings Central said he would not have to clear waivers and since he’s the authority on Red Wings prospects I would defer to him.

brad ference Grand Rapids Griffins Matt Ellis Randall Gelech Red Wings

July 17th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

The Griffins refilled their graduating class of scoring forwards

With Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula and Tomas Kopecky graduating from Griffin-dom last season, Grand Rapids didn’t have much scoring depth left on a team that scored 323 goals, won 55 games and racked up 115 points during the 2005-06 season. Based on the strength of those forwards the team advanced to the third round of the AHL playoffs.

As a result of their departure the team struggled to gain a playoff spot this past season, scoring only 226 goals, winning 37 games and totalling only 85 points. They were able to sneak into the playoffs but lost in the first round after holding a 3-2 lead in their best of seven series against Manitoba.

Red Wings Central reports that the team has signed some forwards who will add some firepower to the Grand Rapids lineup.

The Red Wings confirmed on Friday the signing of center Mark Hartigan to a one-year, two-way contract. He’s the third high-profile minor-leaguer to be signed to a two-way contract by the Red Wings since July 1, joining center Mark Cullen and right-winger Carl Corazzini.

Hartigan (57 points in 59 games) Cullen (52 points in 56 games), Corazzini (57 points in 68 games) were all extremely productive in the AHL last season and should provide significant offensive punch for the Griffins.

Here are the scouting reports on each player from TSN.

Carl Corazzini

Assets: Works extremely hard every time he steps onto the ice. Plays in all situations and is an exemplary teammate.
Flaws: Will never be confused with a natural goal-scorer in the NHL. Is rather smallish in stature for the highest level.
Potential: Reserve forward.

Mark Cullen

Assets: Has solid playmaking skills and on-ice vision. Proved he could score at the collegiate level.
Flaws: His lack of size and strength will always hurt his chances for regular NHL employment. Isn’t a natural goal-scorer.
Potential: Fourth line forward.

Mark Hartigan

Assets: Has put up great numbers at lower levels. Plays an in-your-face style when inserted into an energy role. Adds versatility to the lineup.
Flaws: Must display far more consistency in the NHL to stick once and for all. Will never be a top-six forward at the highest level.
Potential: Fourth line forward.

Detroit Red Wings prospect Darren Helm is definitely expected to play in Grand Rapids next season and could play on a line with any of those players. Evan McGrath could be the biggest beneficiary from the addition of those players since he struggled with the Griffins last season.

The defense should be solid with several of their top blueline prospects likely to stay put in Grand Rapids and top goaltending prospect Jimmy Howard set to backstop the team in 2006-07. The only weakness the team really appeared to have was offensive firepower. The team averaged 4 goals per game in the 2005-06 season. Last year that average dropped to less than 3 goals per game. While none of these players will provide the amount of offense that Jiri Hudler did in Grand Rapids, adding Hartigan, Corazzini and Cullen should add enough offense to put the team near the top of the standings in the AHL.

Carl Corazzini Grand Rapids Griffins Mark Cullen Mark Hartigan Red Wings

July 14th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

The winged eagle-lion and the winged wheel will operate
like a well oiled winged eagle-lion-wheel.

Given the increased role the NHL draft and player development will play with a hard salary cap in place, the Red Wings made the decision to strengthen their ties to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill is working to hire the AHL affiliate’s new coach. I found this article over at George Malik’s snapshots blog.

Grand Rapids Press - Griffins await Verdict from Wings on Coach

Jim Nill, the assistant general manager for the Red Wings, told The Press that a decision on a new coach could come as early as mid-July. Unspecified candidates already have been brought in for some interviews.

Nill said the dismissal of Ireland, who had one year remaining on his contract, was difficult, but the Red Wings are moving toward a system where the parent club assigns coaches to its minor-league affiliates and it wanted more of a say in personnel matters.

“It was very hard,” Nill said. “Greg did a good job for us. But the things we’re doing now in the organization are involving getting our own people in to run the teams. To be fair to Greg, he does have one year remaining on the deal and he will be paid for that year, and we didn’t want to get into a situation where Greg’s contract had expired and he was looking for a new job.”

The Wings extended their partnership with the Grand Rapids hockey club through the 2010-11 season. The Griffins coach will report directly to Red Wings management, which should help with player development.

“We want to have all the ducks in order,” Nill said. “Not that it didn’t work in the past, but it will work better to have the coaching staff reporting to (general manager) Ken Holland and myself. It’s been a pretty smooth transition.”

Given that this is an organization that does pretty well developing players - just about two-thirds of the players currently under contract were drafted by the team - this is a move that makes even more sense with a salary cap in place.

Grand Rapids Griffins Jim Nill Red Wings

June 30th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

The Griffins lost Game 7 to the Manitoba Moose last night 4-1. The Moose were led by Jason Jaffray, who notched the hat trick. Former Griffins goalie Drew McIntyre made 21 saves in helping Manitoba advance to the second round of the AHL playoffs. There was a bit of controversy during the game.

Rookie Scott Parse’s goal at 8:30 of the third period lifted the Griffins into a 1-1 tie, but Manitoba defenseman Yannik Tremblay scored from a sharp angle with 5:51 to play to put the Moose back on top. Jaffray then scored two goals, the last one into an empty net, to seal the Manitoba win.
…
The Griffins dominated much of the third period and thought they had taken a 2-1 lead with 7:35 to play. Referee Steve Kozari ruled no goal, apparently ruling the whistle had blown.

“It was a goal,” said Griffins captain Matt Ellis, who shot the puck.

Red Wings Central has a good article on many of the players in Detroit’s system who joined the Griffins for their playoff run.

AHL Playoffs Grand Rapids Griffins Manitoba Moose Red Wings

May 2nd, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

The Grand Rapids Griffins barely snuck into the AHL playoffs. Their goaltender, who is the Detroit Red Wings’ top prospect, is giving them a chance to score a big upset in round one.

The Griffins are currently up 2-1 in their series against the Manitoba Moose. The Moose finished the regular season with 17 more points and at the top of the North Division of the Western Conference, where the Griffins finished 4th. The Grand Rapids netminder has allowed an average of 0.94 goals per game over 3 games and has a 0.964 save percentage.

Matt Ellis scored both goals tonight the game winner tonight for Grand Rapids in their 2-1 overtime win over the Moose. Manitoba won the first game 1-0 in the series but Grand Rapids has rebounded to take the last two games. Jimmy Howard is standing tall for them in net.

Thanks to Megan from On the Wings for pointing out that Matt Hussey scored the first goal for Grand Rapids last night. I always get the Grand Rapids Matts mixed up for some reason. Jakub Kindl assisted on Matt Hussey’s goal.

AHL Playoffs Grand Rapids Griffins Jimmy Howard Red Wings

April 23rd, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 2 Comments

Megan over at On the Wings has a very good update on the Grand Rapids Griffins. The team struggled early this year but just finished their best month of hockey:

[The team] went 8-2 in February, for a 14-7 record in 2007. This was highlighted by a six game win streak from January 27 through February 17. They have one more game, tonight at Rochester, to close out the month. Their record currently stands at 29-22-4-2. This record is good enough for the final playoff spot of the Western conference, two points ahead of Peoria.

The Griffins lost to the Rochester Americans 3-2. But it was an overtime loss as Darryl Bootland scored to tie the game with 14 seconds left in regulation, so the Griffins picked up a point.

Grand Rapids Griffins Red Wings

March 1st, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments