Mattias Ritola signs 3-year deal
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 8:15 AM CDT
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PrintMattias Ritola is one of the first pieces of the puzzle for the 2010-2011 Detroit roster to be put in place. Ritola signed a three-year contract that will likely earn him some more playing time with Red Wings instead of the Griffins.
Here's a short contract breakdown via Ansar Khan of MLive.com:
It's a two-way deal for the first year: Ritola would earn an NHL salary of $500,000 or an AHL salary of $105,000. He would need to clear waivers, however, to be sent to Grand Rapids.
At only 23 years old, Ritola has a lot of potential in terms of a long-term future in the NHL as well as honing his offensive skills alongside the current Red Wings roster. Ritola is a bit undersized at 5'11" but that hasn't really hampered success all that much in the past for the Red Wings in their system and his puck control--which is pretty good--could help him out of situations that his size can't.
Ritola played in one playoff game and a handful of regular season contests but spent the majority of his time in Grand Rapids. With his old contract expiring, it was expected the Red Wings would re-sign him over Jason Williams and bringing him to the NHL squad. Signing Ritola eliminated any speculation that Williams would return and Ritola could see the playing time that was award to Williams last season.
Ritola's NHL success is yet to be proven but there's a lot that he can benefit from at the NHL level that he couldn't quite get at the AHL level. First, he will likely play alongside either Valtteri Filppula or Jiri Hudler, two guys that are excellent at puck possession and setting up teammates. Ritola will benefit from their passing ability and could have some decent goal totals if he is able to stick with the Wings out of camp.
We'll have more up on Ritola and what it means for the rest of the roster/cap later but in the meantime for all your NHL free agency needs, head on over to the hub at SB Nation.
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so...what is the square root of Darren Helm, anyway?
Official BYB Juju Consultant...now accepting rally creature applications!
No calculator has been constructed yet to handle such mathematical problems as defining the square root of incredibleness.
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 11:54 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
ohhh yeah
I used that a lot during my engineering days.
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 9:33 AM CDT up reply actions
shall we just get it over with?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiii-to-laaaaaaaaaaaaa
(someone had to do it)
Official BYB Juju Consultant...now accepting rally creature applications!
It’s time like these that I wish Mason was the public address announcer for the Wings
by Apocalyptic0n3 on May 19, 2010 8:25 PM CDT up reply actions
Is there a scouting report on this guy
What should we expect?
My two favorite teams are the Tigers and Brewers. Drunk tigers. That sounds about right.
Me in 140 characters
Ok, so Ritola and Hudler in, Williams likely out. As much as I resent Hudler for leaving, I will take that any day of the week. Ritola has shown some great potential in the few games I have seen him play and every scouting report I have read loves the guy. And Hudler… is happy?
That leaves the following players as free agents:
Unrestricted
Maltby
Holmstrom
Bertuzzi
Williams
Lidstrom
Lilja
Lebda
Janik
Williams is likely gone.
I would have to think that Maltby won’t be resigned either.
Lilja might be given the shaft in favor of Janik and Kindl, but only if Lidstrom doesn’t come back; otherwise Lilja will be back I think.
Holmstrom is a no brainer
Lebda, thankfully, will be gone I think.
I expect Janik will be seeing a new deal shortly.
Bertuzzi will be back. Holland loves the guy and he was surprisingly good in my opinion
Restricted
Abdelkader
Miller
Helm
Eaves
Meech
Tollefsen
Abdelkader will be back, probably full time with the Wings too. Hometown hero of sorts and damn good too.
I would like to see Miller back, but not sure it will happen.
Same with Eaves. Just not sure we will have the space for these guys with the youngsters coming off their 2-ways.
Helm will be back. Everyone (and you all I know I am not exaggerating there) in Detroit loves him and he is pretty damn good too.
No more Meech? Finally the day has come. There is a god.
I have no idea about Tollefsen. Since I haven’t seen him in the NHL yet and know next to nothing about him, is it safe to assume he is either not good enough and won’t be resigned or not ready and will be signed to another 2-way?
Franzen – Zetterberg – Bertuzzi
Holmstrom – Datsyuk – Filpulla
Cleary – Helm – Abdelkader
Ritola – Hudler – Draper
Maybe with Eaves and/or Miller sharing time with Draper and Ritola?
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Stuart-Kronwall
Ericsson-Janik/Kindl
Howard
Osgood
Barring any trades and free agent signings, of course. Not sure who is even that tradeable. Maybe Cleary? Definitely has value if we needed to make a move.
Also, anyone else upset about how damn good Leino has been in Philly?
by Apocalyptic0n3 on May 19, 2010 11:21 AM CDT reply actions
this was
one hell of a comment. Very in-depth haha. The line-up will definitely be something to watch over the course of the off-season and pre-season. I think we can finally field a line-up with a grinder/tougher guy on each line (Bert/Homer/Gator/Maltby)
And yes, I told Petrella that Leino was being a d_ _ _ because of his play in Philly being so much better than that in Detroit.
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 11:49 AM CDT up reply actions
Hey, I had to spend my one free hour of the workday doing something useful, right? lol.
Out of curiosity, if Osgood asks to be traded (Holland has said he will do it if Ozzy wants, that he owes Ozzy that much), who becomes the backup? Do we sign someone or do we go along with either McCollum/Larsson?
by Apocalyptic0n3 on May 19, 2010 12:08 PM CDT up reply actions
Larsson
actually just signed a 2 year deal with HV-71 of the Swedish Elite League (post up soon on that) so it would be McCollum or maybe a free agent goalie if the price is right. I don’t know if Holland would be willing to bank a season on such a young goaltending tandem (McCollum)
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 12:14 PM CDT up reply actions
By the way, weren’t we fielding a grinder on each line earlier in the season with Brad May?
by Apocalyptic0n3 on May 19, 2010 12:10 PM CDT up reply actions
yeah
in fact we probably have every year. not sure why i put that haha
by Casey Richey on May 19, 2010 12:16 PM CDT up reply actions
I thought
I was the only one that liked bert this season…. mostly in the reg season he steped up, I didnt like some things he did in the playoffs.
I’ve been a huge fan of Bertuzzi his entire career minus one cold night in Colorado. He played well this season and protected Zetterberg when he needed it (not often, but was still there when the time came). He was inconsistent, but was much more of a positive than a negative in my eyes.
by Apocalyptic0n3 on May 19, 2010 1:08 PM CDT up reply actions
Ritola is a nice move.
But I voted for 3x^2-4x+4=17… Good Will Hunting stuff there. How do you like them apples!
from what i saw of him this year
which wasn’t much i guess it is a good signing…Go Ritolaaaaaaaaaa
TULO = 2010 MVP!
Troy Tulowitzki: "When people think of the Rockies, I want them to think of a winning organization."
Eaves/Miller
With regard to these potential lines posted above:
Franzen – Zetterberg – Bertuzzi
Holmstrom – Datsyuk – Filpulla
Cleary – Helm – Abdelkader
Ritola – Hudler – Draper
Maybe with Eaves and/or Miller sharing time with Draper and Ritola?
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Stuart-Kronwall
Ericsson-Janik/Kindl
Howard
Osgood
I am not sure that Eaves/Miller will be happy to rotate in and out with Ritola and Draper, it would be good if they would, but i saw Eaves as a more permanent roster player. The signing of Ritola and the need for him to clear waivers suggests one of Eaves or Miller isn’t coming back without a trade of another forward or Bert not being resigned.
Oh and Janik!!! Are you serious!?!?!?!
With the first year being a two-way deal
It’s likely that Ritola is in GR this year, basically playing the same injury call-up role that Gator was in this past year. He’ll get the call in 2012.
by handsomerob1 on May 20, 2010 8:02 AM CDT up reply actions
I hope we can find a way to keep Eaves
I really like that guy. He has good energy and is an intelligent player. I don’t know how to make it happen (and I like Miller too), but it sounds like things might get shaken up more than a little bit in our bottom 6, so almost no matter what, someone who I like will probably be on their way out.
No Limits.
I like this. With Hudler and now Ritola, we are getting faster, cheaper and younger. I really wouldn’t be opposed to Lilja, Maltby, Osgood, Bert, Lebda all moving on. Kindl can replace Lilja, Abdelkader replaces Maltby, anyone can replace Ozzy, and perhaps a free agent would need to be acquired to replace Bertuzzi.
Datsyuk
Zetterberg
Franzen
Holmstrom
Filppula
Hudler
Cleary
Draper
Helm
Abdelkader
Eaves
Miller
Ritola
That’s 13 forwards without Bert/free agent, which is quite reasonable since we need depth in case of injuries. I’m currently a little concerned about a lack of pure goal scoring though. Anybody interested in Patrick Marleau? He’s scored 30+ goals in 4 of the past 5 seasons, he’s big, fast, defensively responsible, and can kill penalties and win faceoffs. A lot has been made about his lack of leadership and playoff performance, but he wouldn’t need to be a leader here, and in terms of the playoffs, he was doing really well on weaker Sharks teams before Thornton arrived. Everything went downhill when Thornton joined the Sharks. And Marleau actually had a great playoffs this year, 9 goals in 15 games, and 46 in 106 career playoff games.
Two obvious issues are his age (30) and what kind of contract he is looking for. The Wings could probably stomach something like 4 years/24 mil., anything longer or more expensive wouldn’t fly.
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