L.A.L.

No, that's not a tri-code for the Los Angeles Lakers. It's an acronym created and tweeted by Yahoo Sports' and former Detroit Free Press writer Nick Cotsonika. It means Life After Lidstrom. As much as we don't want to believe it and really do wish Nicklas Lidstrom was a robot and could play forever, the fact remains that sooner or later The Perfect Human is going to retire. It might be this summer. It might be next summer. It might be three years from now. Lidstrom might not even know at this moment. TPH is still one of the top defensemen in the game and he'll likely continue to play as long as he can compete at a high level.

But what happens when the greatest European player of all-time does retire? I can tell you that it won't be what happened last night to the Red Wings. Let's face it, the Wings didn't show up last night and played like crap (especially defensively). There was a ton of panic and concern that all of the sudden the Wings would forget how to play without their Perfect Leader. I'll tell you right now, that's not going to happen. Not as long as the Illitchs, Ken Holland and Mike Babcock are in charge of this organ-i-zation. The team might not be as great defensively as they've been in the past, but they're not going to be as bad as we saw last night. No Lidstrom means money to spend. Holland isn't going to sit on his hands and do nothing when he does go.

We don't know what Holland will do in free agency or in trades, but what we do know is there is some talent seasoning in the minors and preparing for their chance to wear the Winged Wheel. Some are defensemen some are forwards, all of them have some sort of potential. After the jump, I take a look at some of the Wings prospects and which guys have potential to make an impact in the next decade and in Life After Lidstrom.

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Ferraro's Shootout Goal Ices Icehogs 5-4
Coetzee notches first 2-goal game...
By Jason Kasiorek
www.griffinscentral.com
December 14th, 2011

Landon Ferraro scored a huge goal in the 7th round of the shootout to give the Griffins a 5-4 victory over the Rockford IceHogs. Grand Rapids twice rallied to tie the game and force an extra session before Smith and Ferraro provided the margin of victory. Willie Coetzee scored a pair of goals including a brilliant solo effort, rookie Trevor Parkes scored his first AHL goal, and sniper Frankie Pare showed signs he is breaking out of his season long slump, tallying his fourth of the year. Joey MacDonald hung on to record the win, making 29 regulation stops and closing the door on 6 of 7 in the shootout.

The Griffins got on the board early when Estoclet snared Hutton's clearing attempt and put a shot right back at him that was redirected by Coetzee. The lead was short lived however as Rockford got it back a few minutes later when Shaw skated around MacDonald who was down and deposited the puck into the empty side of the net. Lavin gave the IceHogs the lead later in the period when he snuck a puck between MacDonald and the net. Shaw ran through the crease and bowled over Joey, with no penalty called on them. Grand Rapids killed off a huge 5-on-3 powerplay to keep the score close. Pare came out of the box, followed Tatar in and blistered his pass into the net from the circle. Shots on Goal: GR 6 - Rock 12.

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Griffins digging playoff hole...

By Jason Kasiorek

www.griffinscentral.com

December 1, 2011

These seem to be the days of the season that have done the Griffins in the last few years. As the team gets off to a slow start they dig such a deep hole they are unable to get out and earn a playoff berth. With just three wins to show for their last eleven contests, this team needs to find itself in a hurry if it wants to reverse a trend of 2 straight (and 3 out of 4) years on the golf course. The good news is that for all the adversity the team is facing in the early going, more players are starting to heat up. Chris Conner, Jamie Johnson, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Joakim Andersson and Landon Ferraro to name a few, are all coming online at the same time. With the injury list shrinking and a group of players dispatched to Toledo, there is hope that the bottom two lines might develop some chemistry.

Grand Rapids put up a 4-7 record for November giving them an overall record of 8-11-1-0 on the season which ranks them 4th in the North Division, trailing Lake Erie by 3 points. Their 17 points also leaves them 14th of 15 teams in the conference and 28th of 30th teams in the AHL. The griffins currently have the 18th best offense (59 GF) and 18th ranked defense (61 GA). They are currently 8th in attendance averaging 6155 through 10 home games. The team has a better record on the road (5-5) than on home ice (3-6-1).

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Detroit went into Saturday with nine picks spread among the remaining six rounds after trading out of the first.  Time will tell on all of these picks, but Detroit got a good crop of youngsters with a broad spectrum of talents:

2nd Round
Pick #35: Tomas Jurco RW (Slovakia) - 6'1" 191lbs from the QMJHL
Pick #48: Xavier Oullett D (France/Canada) - 6'0" 179lbs  from the QMJHL
Pick #55: Ryan Sproul D (Canada) - 6'3" 185lbs from the OHL

3rd Round
Pick #85: Alan Quine D (Canada) - 5'11" 184lbs from the OHL

4th Round
Pick #115: Marek Tvrdon RW (Slovakia) - 6'2" 210lbs from the WHL

5th Round
Pick #145: Philippe Hudon C/RW (Canada) - 6'0" 179lbs from Choate-Rosemary (high school)
Pick #146: Mattias Backman D (Sweden) - 6'2" 169lbs from Swedish Juniors

6th Round
Pick #175: Richard Nedomlel D (Czech Republic) - 6'4" from the WHL

7th Round
Pick #205: Alexei Marchenko D (Russia) - 6'2" 183lbs from CSKA Moscow (KHL)

Recap: The Wings drafted along their organizational philosophy very well.  Each of the four defensemen they took have some form of offensive instincts (although Sproul may the the best of the bunch and that may be because of his physicality).  They got a potential gamebreaker in Jurco and a guy who has been compared to Franzen in Tvrdon.  During our 2nd round live chat, prospect expert Kyle Kujawa (@Kyle_Kujawa on Twitter) indicated that Jurco and Sproul will probably be ready to turn pro soonest and that we'll likely see Jurco in Grand Rapids as early as 2012-13.  Nedomlel is kind of the odd man here, as looking for videos of him returns a lot of fights, but no actual hockey-playing highlights.  It feels the Wings took a chance on a guy who could blossom into the next Jiri Fischer, but is more likely to turn into another Andreas Lilja.  Either way, chancing a sixth-rounder on him was a good gamble.  Oullett and Quine may look undersized for defenseman standards, but they're both potentially very good offensive d-men for the future.  Phillipe Hudon is touted as a guy who is responsible in all three zones and is a very good board-battler.

Overall, I feel Detroit had a very successful draft.  What are your thoughts?  Sound off in the comments below.

The Detroit Red Wings start their 2nd round off with three picks, #35, 48, and 55 overall after trading their first rounder to Ottawa (who took Peterborough LW Matt Puempel, my favorite of the on-air first round interviews).

I'll let The Production Line's Michael Petrella break down the reasoning:

Jim Nill let it be known that they were hoping to land a defenseman with their early picks, but likely saw that anyone they had an eye on was selected before their turn, and decided that they’d rather take two good players instead of one “very good” player.

The Red Wings did something similar in 2009 — trading their 29th overall pick to Tampa Bay for the 32nd and 75th overall picks. The Lightning took Carter Ashton, and the Red Wings took Landon Ferraro and Andrej Nestrasil (with Tomas Tatar picked in between with their own selection).

Head over to TPL and give the full article a read.  There's much more good information to be had.

Rounds 2-7 run today as we'll see what other craziness can happen.  Washington can't overpay for Troy Brouwer again and the Sharks can't get run over in another trade for Brent Burns, but there's still plenty of interest to be had.  Join us for a live chat of all the action.

First off, let me say that this is in no way a decision that was made by me or any of the other gentlemen. Instead, we called upon our good friend and draft enthusiast Michael Petrella from The Production Line. You all may remember Petrella picking our guy last year and it was dead on with what the Red Wings actually did as they selected Riley Sheahan from Notre Dame.

Naturally, Petrella was again our go-to-guy for this decision. So who did he pick? Follow the jump to find out.

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Yesterday I spoke with up-and-coming defenseman Brendan Smith. Smith is in his first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins after playing for the Wisconsin Badgers for three seasons. Smith was the 27th overall selection by the Red Wings in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Smith was also the namesake for new WIIM writer Jeff Hancock's blog, Brendan Smithsonian Institution. Smith was gracious enough to take time out of his schedule to chat with us

 WINGING IT IN MOTOWN: You're in your first season in the AHL and you've scored 9 goals and 16 assists in the 46 games that you've played and it looks like you're adjusting pretty well so far. What's the biggest thing that you've had to change in order to adapt to the different style from college?
BRENDAN SMITH: I think just adjusting to the strength and the size of some of the players here. I mean, now I'm playing against men and in college, the oldest guy was pretty much 24. It's just playing against older guys-bigger and stronger guys-that has been the toughest thing for me to adjust to, playing in the corners and stuff but I think I have been doing an alright job just using my skill to get away from the opposition.

Follow the jump for the rest of the talk with Smith.

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It's been a few weeks since this feature has been around. Most of that is my fault, but to be honest -- there isn't a lot to report. A lot of guys are making playoff runs, but just passing on that information could get a little dry. However, there's been a fair bit that's happened scattered over a couple weeks, so I'm going to use this post to keep on top of it all. Since most prospects are done, I'll try to do one final statistical update in two or three weeks, and think about how to keep this feature fresh going into the summer. Suggestions are encouraged.

• Grand Rapids failed to make the playoffs by 12 points. The last month of the season wasn't as bad as the two months before it. Jakub Kindl, Cory Emmerton, Jan Mursak, and Mattias Ritola were particularly good down the stretch.
• Thomas McCollum went from December 13 to March 26 without recording a win, but won three of his final five starts and stole some time away from Daniel Larsson. More on Larsson later.
• Justin Abdelkader was called up and, obviously, earned playing time. However, Kindl, Mursak, Ritola, Larsson, McCollum, and Logan Pyett were recalled to serve as Black Aces. It's particularly interesting to see that Emmerton and Sergei Kolosov are not among that group.
• Mursak was called up late after representing Slovenia at the Division 1 World Championships. Hockey tournament names are always organized poorly, so Division-1 refers to the "second tier" of teams that are fighting to get into the main group. Mursak had five goals and seven points in five games, leading his team. He was called the best player on his team, and is likely the second best Slovenian player period behind Anze Kopitar. Mursak helped Slovenia earn a promotion, so they will be in the top group next season.
  
• Perhaps one reason that Tomas Tatar was not called up as a Black Ace was because he will represent Slovakia at the World Championships, which starts in five days.
• Willie Coetzee, Landon Ferraro, and Brian Lashoff were invited to Grand Rapids on tryouts after their seasons concluded. Coetzee and Lashoff are slated for Grand Rapids next season, and I've never seen a player look so comfortable in a tryout as Lashoff is when he plays in the AHL.
• When I left you last, Brendan Smith and Gustav Nyquist were among the ten nominees for the Hobey Baker, the award for the top player in college hockey. Nyquist ended up making the final three but lost out to Smith's teammate, Nashville prospect Blake Geoffrion.
• Smith saw some action in Detroit -- playing for Wisconsin in the Frozen Four, which was at Ford Field. He had five assists in a particularly impressive performance against RIT, but was on the losing end of a 5-0 beatdown by Boston College in the National Championship.
• Smith is expected to sign with Detroit in a few days to kick off his professional career, foregoing his senior season. Despite leading the nation in scoring, Nyquist, only a sophomore this year, looks like he'll stay for another year.
• Dick Axelsson made some comments indicating to a Swedish newspaper that he would prefer playing in the Swedish Eliteserien over the AHL. A lot of people have just assumed this is reflective of his attitude, but I would like to point out two things. First, of course he'd make these comments to a Swedish paper. Second, just because he says it doesn't mean there isn't a chance that he comes to his senses and realizes that the AHL is the only path to the NHL in Detroit. However, there's no doubt that going back to Sweden for a second straight year will end his time as a prospect.
• Speaking of which, the guy who pulled this stunt last year and did it because he felt he was too good for the AHL and not because he was getting the shaft in ice time, like Axelsson did, is Johan Ryno. He played in the second tier of Sweden, but played for a team with a large following in AIK. The team got promoted to the SEL and promptly decided that Ryno isn't coming back next year. This opens up a slight chance that Ryno might ask to play in the AHL since his favorite team doesn't want him any more. However, that would require a new contract from Detroit in the summer. They do like him though, so all I'm saying is if they get a guarantee, I wouldn't rule him out.
• Speaking of AIK, an article today indicated that they've been in touch with Daniel Larsson's agent about acquiring his services for next year. He is an RFA and is definitely due for a taste of the NHL. There were no comments from Larsson, so it's just a rumor at this point. Reasons he would go: strong play from Thomas McCollum. Reasons he wouldn't go: still in line to start next season.
• Jesper Samuelsson effectively ended his career as a Red Wings prospect by signing with Vita Hasten of Division 1, which is the third best league in Sweden. The Wings drafted him from there but the jump from this league to even the second best is huge. It isn't a serious league for a legitimate prospect. Samuelsson split this season with 4th line SEL duty as well as scoring line time with one of the worst teams in SWE-2.
• Those last four are depressing, so here's two good things about Sweden. As a reminder (mentioned it in the last update) Joakim Andersson signed with Detroit and will play in Grand Rapids next season. I think he can step in immediately as the second or third line center.
• Last summer's 7th round pick Adam Almqvist is a fun story. Scored nearly two points per game in the Swedish junior ranks, then got called up to HV-71 of the SEL due to injuries. He was slated to head to SWE-2, but stuck with HV-71 all season. He scored 11 points in the playoffs as HV-71 won the SEL championship. HV-71 fans called him the team's best defenseman. As an 18-year-old, he played on the top pairing with former NHLer Janne Niinimaa.
• Detroit's two KHLers have an interesting connection. Gennady Stolyarov played just one game this season because of injury, for HC MVD. Jiri Hudler played for Dynamo Moscow, the oldest club in Russia. That club had some financial troubles, released Hudler, and folded a few hours later. They're now combining with HC MVD to form UHC Dynamo; however, Hudler is returning to Detroit and Stolyarov might not be under contract.
• In the junior ranks, Stephen Johnston is still active as Windsor is currently up 2-0 in the OHL Finals. Windsor erased a 3-0 series deficit in the Conference Finals against Kitchener and have been the OHL favorites all season. Johnston missed some time with injury, and only plays a 4th line role when healthy.
• Brent Raedeke and the Brandon Wheat Kings were eliminated in the WHL Conference Finals, but will be back in action later this month as they host the Memorial Cup, which pits a host team against the champions of the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL.
• Landon Ferraro had a particularly disappointing playoff for Red Deer. They were swept in the first round and Ferraro was a healthy scratch for the final game. Ferraro seems as though he'll be traded this summer, as most fans are calling for it. I asked a WHL writer at Hockey's Future hat his deal is, and he believes the fans are merely unhappy with the team as a whole and Ferraro's work ethic is not a problem.
• Detroit signed WHL scrapper Mitchell Callahan to a contract this week. They drafted him last summer and the signing comes as a surprise because they had until next summer to do so. Doing it early doesn't hurt (a year won't go against his contract when he sticks in the WHL next year), but it does indicate that Detroit really likes him. Get familiar with his work (oh yeah, and he scored 20 goals this year, too).
• The top team in the USHL during the regular season, Nick Jensen and the Green Bay Gamblers are down 2-0 in the USHL Finals. Jensen was very productive in the second half of the season and he's taken that into the playoffs with six points in eight games.
• The statistical report is after the jump, containing the last month of the season since I haven't done it in a while. While doing it I realized it's a lot better this way -- looking at trends over a month is better than just a week. Also included in certain leagues is the player's playoff stats, so pay attention to the headings in each league.

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