The Detroit Red Wings boarded a flight and traveled home to Sweden for a three game set, one against Farjestads BK of the Elite League and the second two as season openers against the St. Louis Blues. Farjestad is a 8 time Swedish League Champion and the currently defending the title.
The game against Farjestad will be on Wednesday at 1 pm while the first game against the Blues–and the season opener–will be on Friday, October 2 at 3 p.m. and will air on Versus and TSN. The second game against the Blues will be Saturday at 3 p.m. and will air on FS-D, FS-MW, or CBC. Both games against St. Louis will be played in Stockholm
Thanks to Ansar Khan of MLive.com we have a quick look at the final roster and the likely depth chart for the majority of the season. Note that Justin Abdelkader is in the line-up for now until Darren Helm recovers.
Forwards (13)
Johan Franzen–Pavel Datsyuk–Tomas Holmstrom
Todd Bertuzzi–Henrik Zetterberg–Dan Cleary
Ville Leino–Valtteri Filppula–Jason Williams
Kris Draper-Justin Abdelkader-Patrick Eaves–Kirk MaltbyDefensemen (7)
Nicklas Lidstrom–Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall–Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson–Brett Lebda
Derek MeechGoalies (2)
Chris Osgood
Jimmy Howard
Another quick note is that goaltender Daniel Larsson will travel as the emergency back-up to Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard. Hopefully he’s not needed.
After the jump is a list of the players that were cut and where they’re headed to. We’ll post a bit more about the Sweden expedition shortly so sit tight.
Players assigned to Grand Rapids:
Brad May (tryout basis), Jakub Kindl, Evan McGrath, Andy Delmore, Jeremy Williams, Mattias Ritola, Kris Newbury, Doug Janik, Thomas McCollum, Logan Pyett, Tomas Tatar, Jan Mursak, Johan Ryno, Francis Pare, and Cory Emmerton.
Dan Cloutier, who was on a tryout basis, was released from his contract after trying to make a comeback in the NHL.
