Red Wings sign Swedish prospect

[arin 0]

Ritola: 'I'm going to show people'

Red Wings hope Swedish winger set to drop "lazy" tag ...

http://www.redwingscentral.com/stories/200.../05_Ritola.html

“He said, opposite to everything I had heard about Mattias Ritola, he was working out three times a day,†said Andersson, the director of European scouting for the Detroit Red Wings. “The guy was up at nine in the morning and (Ritola) had already been out running. On lunch break between 12 and 1:30, he was in the gym, and when they got off the ice at seven, he was there for 30 minutes shooting the puck.â€Â

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Yes it would. The Wings could get lucky, and a guy who was initially a scrub when drafted, could florish here. But instead, the Wings are on the outside looking in, and trying to find ways to constantly address a "quick fix" of the grit issue in the free agent market with a couple of 1 year signings. Most of these guys, by the way, are already packing their bags by seasons end. You were absolutly right when you said Kenny doesn't know tough guys, and he doesn't. He's a good GM, but he has his flaws at that same time.

We could actually use Brian Burke , he knows Grit.

[zetterbergfuturemvp 0]

Very much agreed Kp. Wouldnt it be a good idea to actually have some grit getting groomed in the minors rather than have to search for it outside the organization at the deadline every year?

sounds like we drafted some grit

they'll be up in the nhl before you know it

SCOUT COMMENTS

"There's more to him than points. That's not really his game. He's a really intense guy on the puck and he bangs and crashes. He's a great puck-chaser." -- Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill (January 2006) ... "Abdelkader's in your face. He's a little closer to being ready to play [than some other prospects] with the physical maturity. We had him in at our development camp in July and he was 210 pounds and he could probably carry another 10 pounds and it wouldn't hurt him. He's solid in all areas." -- Nill (January 2007) ...

helm

SCOUT COMMENTS

"He's a gritty up-and-down player and he's quite fearless. He's not afraid to go in the corners, he's not afraid to play in traffic. I'm looking at him as a fourth-line checker. He's a kid who's not going to back down from anything. If you give him some guff, he's going to give it right back." -- Red Wings part-time Western scout Marty Stein (July 2005) ... "He's still in a boy's body. With his character, you just have a feeling he's going to add the strength that he needs. He's a real good skater. It's just a matter of developing physically." -- Red Wings director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell (June 2006)

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

sounds like we drafted some grit

they'll be up in the nhl before you know it

SCOUT COMMENTS

"There's more to him than points. That's not really his game. He's a really intense guy on the puck and he bangs and crashes. He's a great puck-chaser." -- Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill (January 2006) ... "Abdelkader's in your face. He's a little closer to being ready to play [than some other prospects] with the physical maturity. We had him in at our development camp in July and he was 210 pounds and he could probably carry another 10 pounds and it wouldn't hurt him. He's solid in all areas." -- Nill (January 2007) ...

helm

SCOUT COMMENTS

"He's a gritty up-and-down player and he's quite fearless. He's not afraid to go in the corners, he's not afraid to play in traffic. I'm looking at him as a fourth-line checker. He's a kid who's not going to back down from anything. If you give him some guff, he's going to give it right back." -- Red Wings part-time Western scout Marty Stein (July 2005) ... "He's still in a boy's body. With his character, you just have a feeling he's going to add the strength that he needs. He's a real good skater. It's just a matter of developing physically." -- Red Wings director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell (June 2006)

I can tell you right now , Helm wont be a 4th line center. he'll be more of a 2nd/3rd line Center. He has great offensive capabilties , and he's good defensively and he scraps too. Abdelkader can be either a Neil or a Maltby. I love Kirk , but I'd love to have a Neil like player.

These are 2 gritty prospect. We have a bunch of useless european prospects that will probably never make the Wings or the Grand rapids, I mean , Who are you excited about when we sign them ? Im looking forward to Helm and Emmerton , thats about all.

[Kp-Wings 3]

I can tell you right now , Helm wont be a 4th line center. he'll be more of a 2nd/3rd line Center. He has great offensive capabilties , and he's good defensively and he scraps too. Abdelkader can be either a Neil or a Maltby. I love Kirk , but I'd love to have a Neil like player.

These are 2 gritty prospect. We have a bunch of useless european prospects that will probably never make the Wings or the Grand rapids, I mean , Who are you excited about when we sign them ? Im looking forward to Helm and Emmerton , thats about all.

Justin Abeldkader sounds like a good find also. He's an American currently with MSU, so we probably won't get him for a few years until he's done with College, but I'm excited about him coming into the system too. He sounds like he plays a gritty style also.

Still though, the Wings only have about 3 prospects I'm really excited about. The rest of these guys are mostly Europeans, who aren't even known outside of Stockholm. I don't mind drafting a few Europeans, but when you draft 10 guys in one draft, and 6 of them are Swedes who average about 3 points a season while not even playing a physical game, it isn't much to get excited about.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Justin Abeldkader sounds like a good find also. He's an American currently with MSU, so we probably won't get him for a few years until he's done with College, but I'm excited about him coming into the system too. He sounds like he plays a gritty style also.

Still though, the Wings only have about 3 prospects I'm really excited about. The rest of these guys are mostly Europeans, who aren't even known outside of Stockholm. I don't mind drafting a few Europeans, but when you draft 10 guys in one draft, and 6 of them are Swedes who average about 3 points a season while not even playing a physical game, it isn't much to get excited about.

One of these days I'd like to see the headline "Wings trade 10 ,5 point per season Swedish prospects for Jonathan Toews"

That'd be the day , I agree I've had enough of soft swedes that average 3 points per season in the Swedish leagues

[zetterbergfuturemvp 0]

One of these days I'd like to see the headline "Wings trade 10 ,5 point per season Swedish prospects for Jonathan Toews"

That'd be the day , I agree I've had enough of soft swedes that average 3 points per season in the Swedish leagues

your crazy dude , how do you think the wings won all those cups and have the players they have now ?? by drafting gems in europe ........fedorov, kozlov,fischer ,konstantinov ...............on the team now lidstrom,holmstrom,franzen,filppula,hudler,kopecky,zetterberg,datsyuk,kronwall ........im sure im missing past players as well

how can you not be happy with our drafting ?? you'd rather take a shot on someone else whos canadian or american just in the hopes they end up being good ?? we go after who we like and its worked amazingly well for us and theres no need to change it , and as we saw with the drafting of helm,abdelkader,howard ......if theres someone whos north american worth drafting theyll take them , obviously no draft pick is guaranteed to make an impact but how can you not be happy with some of the europeans we got ?? we got some guys with lots of potential

igor grigorenko - yes hes changed since the accident but at one time he was a top prospect , how can you not be excited about him finally coming up ???

johan ryno - 6'5 210 , lots of skill and upside

jonathan ericsson - 6'5 218 physical d man , we got him with the last pick of the draft

daniel larsson- he played awesome last season in the swedish elite league and now that they traded the other goalie he played mostly with hes gonna get most of the starts .......im really excited about him

dick axelsson- hes a pure goal scorer in sweden and hes finally gonna play in the elite league next season

if you look closely enough there are players in europe to be excited about , they might not be ovechkin's but what do you expect when you always draft late ?? you gotta forget about the toews and other guys we cant get and focus on what we got , datsyuk and zetterberg werent expected alot from either and look how they turned out, who knows maybe dick axelsson will be a 30+ goal scorer , or daniel larrson will be a lundqvist , be postive man

Edited May 30, 2007 by zetterbergfuturemvp

[arin 0]

Wow, so all of you "hockey fans" know more than Hakan Andersson about drafting now, eh?

[rick zombo 3,739]

Screw off with the grit talk. God.

[Rick 42]

I like Abdelkader's goal here.

He scores about 2:30 into the video. He should of scored on the first shot.

nice way to kill a 8 game scoreless streak too.

[rick zombo 3,739]

One of these days I'd like to see the headline "Wings trade 10 ,5 point per season Swedish prospects for Jonathan Toews"

That'd be the day , I agree I've had enough of soft swedes that average 3 points per season in the Swedish leagues

What the hell are you talking about?

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

your crazy dude , how do you think the wings won all those cups and have the players they have now ?? by drafting gems in europe ........fedorov, kozlov,fischer ,konstantinov ...............on the team now lidstrom,holmstrom,franzen,filppula,hudler,kopecky,zetterberg,datsyuk,kronwall ........im sure im missing past players as well

how can you not be happy with our drafting ?? you'd rather take a shot on someone else whos canadian or american just in the hopes they end up being good ?? we go after who we like and its worked amazingly well for us and theres no need to change it , and as we saw with the drafting of helm,abdelkader,howard ......if theres someone whos north american worth drafting theyll take them , obviously no draft pick is guaranteed to make an impact but how can you not be happy with some of the europeans we got ?? we got some guys with lots of potential

igor grigorenko - yes hes changed since the accident but at one time he was a top prospect , how can you not be excited about him finally coming up ???

johan ryno - 6'5 210 , lots of skill and upside

jonathan ericsson - 6'5 218 physical d man , we got him with the last pick of the draft

daniel larsson- he played awesome last season in the swedish elite league and now that they traded the other goalie he played mostly with hes gonna get most of the starts .......im really excited about him

dick axelsson- hes a pure goal scorer in sweden and hes finally gonna play in the elite league next season

if you look closely enough there are players in europe to be excited about , they might not be ovechkin's but what do you expect when you always draft late ?? you gotta forget about the toews and other guys we cant get and focus on what we got , datsyuk and zetterberg werent expected alot from either and look how they turned out, who knows maybe dick axelsson will be a 30+ goal scorer , or daniel larrson will be a lundqvist , be postive man

I'd rather we draft some grit. We havent drafted grit since Lapointe and McCarty.

I really think your overating what some of our prospects can do. Larson cant go get his 10-15 wins in the swedish league and Axelson can go score his 30 goals in his elite league.

Our drafting is fine , but we wont be getting guys out of now where like Datsyuk or Zetterberg anymore.

[SweWings 45]

Again with the grit. And Europeans are sissies. And you seem to think that you can throw up guidelines for people who have found diamonds in the rough like Zetts and Dats.

And the fact that some people are crap in the SEL doesn't mean very much. Style-wise it's a different kind of game over there. Zetts wasn't a "star" player when he left for Detroit and now he's one of the best Swedish players. Ryno is a big guy which isn't a very positive thing for him in a league like the Swedish one where a physical game is difficult to play. Especially if you don't want to get a lot of penalties. I truly hope that Ryno get's a decent chance in the line-up in Timrå this year but more importantly gets to play some international games for the experience.

This whole grit thing. The players drafted in Europe are rarely the "grit" players. Why? Because the style of play doesn't encourage those kind of players over there. With the low draft picks it's probably better to risk on potential skill players instead of risking on grit players who might not actually have anything else. I'd rather trade for grit because it's safer. More upside in "talent" players. And if you say that we already have enough of those kind of players then...Meh. Ok buddy.

Daniel Larsson - we'll see how he does this year. He won't become a Lundqvist. Mainly because Lundqvist was the nr.1 goalie in both Sweden and Frölunda for ages before even coming to the NHL. Larsson might develop into that but it remains to be seen. I hope Detroit waits until he's consistently top 3 in Sweden before bringing this guy over.

Dick Axelsson - Maybe he's the "sniper" Detroit needs to really let Dats and Zetts kick ass. Though I sincerely doubt that. Sweden's had one real world-class goal-scorer and that's Näslund. The others like Sundin and others aren't really snipers in the same way. At least he's got some size.

And about grit. I'm not saying Detroit doesn't need it. I'm saying we might not want to risk DRAFTING for it. I'd rather trade prospects for other prospects. Meh. Just my 2 cents.

Oh, and Ritola. I don't expect anything from him other than maybe one season for the Griffins and then him going home.

Edited May 30, 2007 by SweWings

[cap20066 0]

I'd rather we draft some grit. We havent drafted grit since Lapointe and McCarty.

I really think your overating what some of our prospects can do. Larson cant go get his 10-15 wins in the swedish league and Axelson can go score his 30 goals in his elite league.

Our drafting is fine , but we wont be getting guys out of now where like Datsyuk or Zetterberg anymore.

Drunk?

[zetterbergfuturemvp 0]

I'd rather we draft some grit. We havent drafted grit since Lapointe and McCarty.

I really think your overating what some of our prospects can do. Larson cant go get his 10-15 wins in the swedish league and Axelson can go score his 30 goals in his elite league.

Our drafting is fine , but we wont be getting guys out of now where like Datsyuk or Zetterberg anymore.

if your not happy with the way our team works and your not confident in our future prospects maybe you should stick to your hometeam and go for the flames

[arin 0]

Why are you all talking about Abdelkader & grit in a topic about Ritola?

[Kp-Wings 3]

Why are you all talking about Abdelkader & grit in a topic about Ritola?

Because this is LGW of course!

I didn't mean to make the whole grit thing a national issue. I probably should have put it in a few less words. Drop it guys.

[zata40 3]

another swedish player on the wings?

why don't we just rename ourselves the sweed wings!

haha we have enough player too

[Guest jaytan]

http://www.redwingscentral.com/prospects/ritola.html

Looks like we found a replacement for Lang.

Good call.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

if your not happy with the way our team works and your not confident in our future prospects maybe you should stick to your hometeam and go for the flames

Honestly , Prospects mean nothing to me , nothing at all.

My "hometeam" so you know , I only moved to Calgary this year and cant ******* stand the flames. I've been a wings fan since I was 7 years old when my dad bought me my first Yzerman jersey. Do you really think us having a bunch of swedish prospects would make me change teams ? Not like any of them have a chance at making the wings anyway.

Hometeam , pffft

[SweWings 45]

Honestly , Prospects mean nothing to me , nothing at all.

My "hometeam" so you know , I only moved to Calgary this year and cant ******* stand the flames. I've been a wings fan since I was 7 years old when my dad bought me my first Yzerman jersey. Do you really think us having a bunch of swedish prospects would make me change teams ? Not like any of them have a chance at making the wings anyway.

Hometeam , pffft

Great attitude dude! At least you're more subtle about your dislike of non-grit (meaning all Euros) than Don Cherry...Too bad you don't have his suites or I could find a way to like you too...

Edited May 31, 2007 by SweWings

[Systemfel 33]

For those of you wondering, Johan Ryno has told Swedish paper City that he and the Red Wings have agreed on him playing another year in Sweden. He will most likely sign with the Wings before the June 1st deadline, though.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Systemfel

[Guest DetroitIan]

Its about time we get a Swede into this organization. Finally.

[Matt 1,048]

Our drafting is fine , but we wont be getting guys out of now where like Datsyuk or Zetterberg anymore.

Ah, looks like we've got our regular own Zoltar here. People could've said the same thing when the Wings plucked the Konstantinovs, Holmstroms, etc., out of the later rounds, too. :rollleyes:

People bitching about our drafting (no matter what "style" they play) is, well, looking for something to ***** about. The drafting that this franchise has done over the last two decades has, by and large part, helped maintain its success for such a long period of time.

[Guest ZDH]

Ah, looks like we've got our regular own Zoltar here. People could've said the same thing when the Wings plucked the Konstantinovs, Holmstroms, etc., out of the later rounds, too. :rollleyes:

People bitching about our drafting (no matter what "style" they play) is, well, looking for something to ***** about. The drafting that this franchise has done over the last two decades has, by and large part, helped maintain its success for such a long period of time.

Then there are people who ***** about people who ***** just so they can *****. Your point?

Edited May 31, 2007 by ZDH