Griffins flying high

[yave1964]

The Red Wings top farm team won the Calder Cup as the best team in the AHL last season with a mix of mostly AHL veterans and a few good solid prospects. This season they got off to a god awful start and as of December 23rd when they lost to Rockford they were battling Cleveland for dead last in the division.

 

  Since then however, they have went on a tear, going 16-4-1 and are right in the thick of things and looking like they are ready to defend their crown. Back to back cup wins is as rare in the AHL as in the NHL as rosters recalibrate quite a bit as organizations want to look at youngsters often at the expense of capable veterans.

 

  The Griffins are led again by quite a few AHL veterans starting with All Stars Matt Lorito and Matt Peumpel who are not really prospects but both can score, Greybeard center Ben Street dishes nicely on the top line. Tangradi and Matthew Ford provide excellent second line scoring on the wing, both are old farts even by AHL standards. Lashoff and Mclrath were huge in the playoff run last year and anchor the blueline. Turner Elson, Cody Eakins and Thomas McCollum are all vets with no future but who play big roles on the team.

 

  I hope it isn't making it sound as if the team is devoid of prospects, we have a few:

 

Evgeny Svechnikov is a top power forward prospect who began the year hurt and who has been borderline awful most of the year, showing occasional flashes of his enormous upside but really has been pretty bad. It reminds me of when Mantha broke his collarbone in the preseason a few years ago and it set his progress back. I think Svechnikov has a nice future and frankly is the Wings best forward prospect.

 

Massive Jared Coreau is having a fine year including a solid shutout last night, he almost certainly will be in Detroit by the deadline as Mrazek almost certainly will be dealt. In action with the big club last year he was a mixed bag, a couple of shutouts and a lot of stinker games.

 

Dominik turgeon didn't embarrass himself as a 4th line center earlier in the season when Glendening was out and with rumors that Glendening is going to either reunite with Jim Nill in Dallas or Babs in Toronto in the next few days Turgeon will likely get a chance to take his role as a 4th line faceoff and P/K guy.

 

Filip Hronek is undersized but has taken over as the Griffs best blueliner by far,he is aggressive with great vision just needs to put on a bit of weight. If/when Green moves out Hronek is a lock to play middle pair defense likely QBing the top power play for the balance of the season to see what he has.

 

 Joe Hicketts is a fire hydrant who hits everything and can move the puck, Villi Saarijarvi is struggling adjusting to the pro game but is talented.

 

Axel Holmstrom is a solid winger adjusting to North America and looks like a potential bottom six winger.

 

  So no real studs but Svechnikov is a likely late bloomer who will be at the least a second line winger, Hronek is playing like a vet anda team leader running the power play andstepping up in all situations. Turgeon and Coreau are ready now in lesser roles, Hicketts cant be any worse than Oullett or Jensen. A few others who are cutting their teeth.

 

  The last two firt rounders, defenseman and flashy puck mover Cholowski and net front pure goal scorer Rasmussen are on their at as well. Not a loaded system but the cupboards aren't bare.

 

  I would love to see the Griffins repeat, I could see guys like Coreau, Turgeon, Hronek and maybe Svechnikov get called up when players get moved at or around the deadline but then when the season is over returned for the playoff push with the Griffins knowing that a strong showing locks them into a job next year. Cholowski and Rasmussen may even sign and join the Griffs for the push as well. Overall I like their chances quite a lot of going back to back.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

Well, for several years, we haven’t had too much trouble playing AHL hockey. We’ve been consistently competitive at that level.

 

Where we seem to struggle is when trying to upgrade from the AHL level to the NHL level. Then we look more pedestrian.

 

And I’m not just talking about our current predicament. Consider guys like Jurco. Or Pulkkinnen. These guys were fine players at the AHL level, but never knew how to adapt their game to the NHL game.

 

I’m wondering if this is something systemic about our farm system development. It just seems like we either bring the talent right in quickly ala Larkin, basically skipping the Griffs, or they play there and if they flourish we bring them up and they just don’t seem to flourish up here.

 

Look at AA: the kid TEARS IT UP offensively at every level, and he STILL did when he first got up here. But now he looks, not pedestrian, but pedestrian as compared with his previous levels. It’s like we brought him up, and the guy who scored suddenly becomes the guy who threatens to score and still does every so often.

 

I dunno. We seem to flourish at developing second and third-tier players. Some of it is talent. But I smell inability to coach to achieve potential.