Man oh man how I loathe this summer.
Obviously, as a prospects blog and proponent of all things Swedish, this is something that probably would have been news-worthy anyways. But with Detroit’s anticipated (in my opinion anyway. Ask any MSM journalist out there — most of them seem to tell you this is the beginning of the end) mass exodus out of the way and the only thing left to discover is the fate of Jiri Hudler (which, and this is based on nothing at all, I still don’t believe is done twisting and turning) and which potential free agent castaway we pick up to replace him (should he leave), there just isn’t much to do. The start to our summer sucked, so obviously this is something we should have seen. I’m not bitter because we’ve lost our 88 goals. I’m just so, so ready to move on to next season, slap St. Louis around in Sweden a couple of times, end any notion of the (likely Hossa-less) ‘Hawks usurping Detroit by throwing them around for a while in our home opener, en route to another 50 win season despite what is supposed to be a “depleted” (do they know that Helm, Ericsson, and Leino weren’t regulars on our team last year?) and “old” (we lost like 7 years on the average age when we lost Chelios) team.
Alas, mother nature doesn’t seem so eager to just skip a month or two and get to October, and it’s still July for some terribly sadistic reason. Detroit was playing hockey six weeks ago. How effed is that?
The news cycle is slowing down. It shouldn’t be, when you look and see there are a handful of team that, not just could, but need, to make moves, you wonder when that first domino is going to fall. You’ve got teams like the Islanders, Nashville, Phoenix, Dallas, Columbus, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Colorado — with zero combined playoff wins this past season — sitting with a spot or two open and $10 million in cap space available. Then you look at San Jose, where it’s still financially impossible for them to fill their remaining roster holes and be under the cap. Or Chicago, where, although they’re under, need to move something significant sometime before next offseason and would be best off doing it sooner rather than later. You’ve got Ottawa, tight to the cap, already paying Dany Heatley $4 million dollars to see him ask for a ticket out. You’ve got the Rangers and Boston who are tight to the cap with high priced RFAs awaiting their arbitration fate. Toronto has like 14 NHL defensemen under contract. What gives? July usually sees teams spend in haste and prepare a full lineup for next season by the 10th. Now we sit on the 26th just waiting for everything to collapse so Detroit can scrounge through the rubble the way they always do.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a short post, so forgive that tangent.
Other than the slightly relevant news that Zack Torquato, a 2007 draftee who was not signed by Detroit this offseason, after it looked like a fairly good bet (but not a huge loss) that he would be, has signed a tryout with the Minnesota Wild, there’s not a whole lot going on. Many players in Torquato’s shoes would return to junior hockey for an overage season, but Torquato’s been very vocal that he feels he’s ready for the pros. Good for him, I hope he finally finds his scoring touch again.
But the big news is that 3rd string by default goaltender Daniel Larsson is under consideration for an Olympic spot. In some semi-official but not really legally binding news, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, coach of Sweden for the Olympic games, named 34 players that will be named to the Swedish Olympic camp. So they’re not officially named yet, but they basically have been. Follow?
He left off some players like the Sedins and Nicklas Backstrom who are probably 98% locks or better. Also, the article mentions that there is only one SEL-contracted player there, and that is Joel Lundqvist, who was in the NHL last season. It seems likely that there will be a few SEL players there, because that’s something Gustafsson tends to do, from what I’ve heard.
Detroit’s usual suspects are there. Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, and Tomas Holmstrom are likely locks for the team, and Jonathan Ericsson has a great shot at one of the final defensive spots. The surprise for Detroit is that Daniel Larsson is there. Obviously, as the former winner of the SEL equivalent of the Vezina Trophy, Larsson is no unknown in Sweden. As an AHL All-Star as just a rookie, and a goaltender that somehow kept more-than-respectable statistics despite playing behind the likes of Garrett Stafford on the Griffin blueline, he’s obviously no unknown in the prospects world and I’m slowly starting to get the hype train on him rolling, because people are noticing more and more that he might be the real deal. I believe those were Curt Fraser’s exact words after the development camp. Sounds vague, but basically, it’s code for “he’s going to be a quality NHL netminder some day.” Every time I’ve seen him, I’ve felt roughly the same, and I’ve always felt a bias toward Jimmy Howard because I’ve been waiting for him longer.
No doubt, Henrik Lundqvist is going to play every single minute that means something to Sweden barring some untimely injury or incriminating seal-clubbing photo, but there is a very real chance that Daniel Larsson will end up as the 2nd or 3rd goalie. Something to throw a parade over? No. But a great shot of confidence to a 23-year-old goalie in a system that sometimes makes youngsters feel left out.
Of the named list, Larsson sees immediate competition from Jhonas Enroth, a goalie two years younger than Larsson, but with a respectable rookie season in the AHL under his belt. There’s also Jonas Gustavsson, the subject of a bidding war and lengthy recruitment that was won by Toronto, where he’ll enter a system not known for being rational with young players under some of the brightest media lights in the NHL. Lastly, there’s Los Angeles’ Erik Ersberg, who’s already going to compete at camp for a full-time NHL job with Jonathan Quick, Jonathan Bernier, and the rumors that the Kings are strongly pushing for a legitimate starter via free agency, possibly the only team left on the market doing so (Manny Fernandez says what’s up). Larsson once said when he signed with Detroit that if Erik Ersberg could play in the NHL, so could he.
So I may have slighted those goalies somewhat, but my point is there’s no clear cut favorite of that group at all, it could really end up being any of them and no one would be surprised. There’s also some guys with NHL experience — Johan Hedberg, Mikael Tellqvist (who’s headed to Russia), Johan Holmqvist, a slew of other quality SEL goalies that would probably make for good candidates based on the fact they’re not Tommy Salo. But Sweden probably benefits more from giving young guys the chance to take those jobs given that they’ve never been known for producing a lot of quality goaltenders, but the youngsters on this list look promising.
More Olympic talk in the coming months. Despite the fact that every player Detroit has lost 4 likely Olympians already (Hossa, Kopecky, Hudler are locks, Samuelsson’s a maybe.. even Chelios is going to be involved with Team USA, but he will not play), Detroit is still looking to be in a pretty good place in that department. I’d wager they send more guys than a lot of teams. But whether or not Larsson makes it, beware.. the Swedish pipeline is not quite tapped yet (and Dick Axelsson, Mattias Ritola, Johan Ryno, Gustav Nyquist, and Joakim Andersson likely have something to say on that matter as well).
And on a business note, I’ve slowed down a bit the past few weeks, but I do have a bit cooking. Sure, it’s filler, but it beats sitting around clicking refresh on transaction pages (which is basically what I do when I’m not writing). Should be more productive this coming week, and August will see some preview-ish stuff cooking, depending on if we ever get through this offseason news logjam.
