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Grigs The Griff? Not Gonna Happen
by IwoCPO on 09/26/07 at 12:18 PM ET
Comments (4)
Through five games Igor Grigorenko has 4 shots on goal and 1 point. Based on our expectations, realistic or otherwise, his performance to this point has been nothing short of a significant disappointment. If pre-season ended today, he would not make the team...if results were the sole qualifier.
Igor Grigorenko is in danger of not making the Detroit Red Wings. His skating is not really up to snuff and there is a real possibility that he will be sent to Grand Rapids.
Sure that’s a real possibility, but it’s not happening.
Prediction: Still transfixed by his potential, the Wings are going to keep him around. He stays in Detroit and the Wings give him an extended tryout, maybe a month or two. If he can’t prove himself in that amount of time, he’s gone. Gone to Russia, or traded. Igor Grigorenko won’t see the ice in Grand Rapids.
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I respectfully disagree, Bill. If Igor is willing to go to Grand Rapids, I think the Wings will indeed send him there.
The Wings have repeatedly suggested that Grigorenko’s physical shape is “getting there,” albeit indirectly, but, as Babcock says, it’s the pace of the NHL game that’s his biggest issue.
As I’ve seen Grigorenko in exhibition games, I would subjectively say that he isn’t getting pushed off the puck as easily, he’s making more happen with the puck on his stick, and he’s at least got his legs under him—in the Wings’ earliest games, Grigs would chug his legs and get nowhere…
But he’s still lost in terms of the geometry of the NHL rink because the spaces he could lurk in when playing on a 100’ wide rink are gone on the 85’ rink, and the game most certainly moves too quickly for him to assess his situation and make the appropriate play.
I can definitely see the merits of keeping him on the roster to continue to adjust to the NHL style of play while practicing with the team, but that in-game experience the AHL can provide is something I believe the Red Wings will suggest will bring Grigorenko back to the NHL quickly.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/26/07 at 03:33 PM ET
Nopecky has some potential.
Dudler has some potential.
Hell, even McGarbage has some potential.
Dregs has no potential. He regressed from the time he was drafted to now. There’s no potential to get excited about. If he takes away a roster spot from someone else, that’s a crying shame.
But damn, I sure hope he does.
Posted by Thomas on 09/26/07 at 06:55 PM ET
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Grigs goes to GR for a month or so, simply because he can’t get up to NHL speed sitting on the bench in Day-twah. And he won’t get any real time in Detroit in October.
His release clause isn’t triggered until Nov. 1, so the Wings will probably keep either Hartigan or Ellis up until then to give ‘em a shot and to keep the forward lines balanced.
But Grigs will get a shot, eventually. I just think it won’t happen till November.
Posted by mudshark from Divetown, Colorado on 09/26/07 at 02:16 PM ET