Prospects Watch
Red Wings keeping a close eye on Ritola in contract year ...

By Matthew Wuest - www.RedWingsCentral.com
January 29, 2007

The contract clock is ticking on Mattias Ritola.

The 19-year-old winger transferred to Sweden’s lowest league this week, joining Borlange at the country’s third level. The move came after a disappointing season with Leksands in Sweden’s second-tier league, where Ritola had just two goals and four assists in 26 games.

Leksands hired Finnish head coach Jukka Rautakorpi in the off-season, and the move did little to help Ritola’s development. The good news is Ritola had two goals and three assists in his first two games with Borlange.

“The coach (in Leksands) didn’t want anything to do with junior players, so (Ritola was) a fourth-line player in a league where he has the potential to dominate,” said Red Wings director of European scouting Hakan Andersson. “He is all about work, work, work, over the red line, dump it.

“Ritola’s not that kind of player.”

Andersson believes firmly in Ritola’s skills and potential. The Red Wings picked Ritola in the fourth round (103rd overall) in 2005, and Andersson said the 6-foot, 198-pounder “might be the most talented” 1987-born Swede outside of Washington Capitals first-rounder Nicklas Backstrom.

Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill agrees, describing Ritola’s offensive skills as “high end.” But Nill said his issue is with Ritola’s frustrating inability to put forth a consistent effort every shift.

Nill said that’s the biggest reason why Ritola was left off Sweden’s world junior squad in December, a team he made at age 18.

The Red Wings must decide whether or not to sign Ritola by June 1. Otherwise, he re-enters the draft. The decision won’t be easy.

“Is he one of those guys who shows up at 24 years of age and figures life out and decides he’s going to work hard every night?” Nill asked. “Or is he just another skilled guy who doesn’t learn to compete and disappears in the wind and plays in Europe the rest of his life?”

The Red Wings need to make similar contract decisions by June 1 on a number of other prospects, so if Ritola doesn’t start showing more consistent work ethic in the second half, he could be out of luck.

“We’ve talked to him about it,” said Nill. “Hopefully he learns from it and goes from there. We’re going to watch him and see.”

HOT: Forward Darren Helm (Medicine Hat, Western Hockey League) has gone bananas since winning a gold medal with Canada at the world junior championship. He has six goals and eight assists in his last seven games ... Forward Evan McGrath (Toledo, East Coast Hockey League) should have some swagger back in his step. He’s got seven points in four games since a demotion to Toledo, with an American Hockey League game in the middle.

COLD: Forward Johan Ryno (Timra, Swedish Elite League) has just one assist in his last five games ... Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (Grand Rapids, American Hockey League) has two assists in nine games.

NOTES: Defenseman Derek Meech (Grand Rapids, AHL) scored a goal in the breakaway relay to lead Canada to an 8-6 win over PlanetUSA at AHL all-star weekend in Toronto on Sunday. He also scored once in five attempts in the rapid fire competition, which Canada won. PlanetUSA won the skills competition overall. The all-star game is Monday ... Goaltender Jimmy Howard (Grand Rapids, AHL) remains out with an ankle injury.

The following is this season’s statistical report to date:

NAME TEAM LEAGUE GP G A PTS PIM

A H L
Matt Ellis Grand Rapids AHL 44 14 18 32 30
Jonathan Ericsson Grand Rapids AHL 44 4 18 22 70
Darryl Bootland Grand Rapids AHL 43 13 8 21 150
Eric Himelfarb Grand Rapids AHL 38 8 9 17 24
Kyle Quincey Grand Rapids AHL 39 2 11 13 84
Derek Meech Grand Rapids AHL 44 2 10 12 26
Ryan Oulahen Grand Rapids AHL 46 6 6 12 26
Evan McGrath Grand Rapids AHL 34 3 3 6 23
Valtteri Filppula Grand Rapids AHL 3 2 2 4 2

E C H L
Evan McGrath Toledo ECHL 4 3 4 7 4

R U S S I A
Igor Grigorenko Togliatti RUS 37 9 9 18 67
Alexander Seluyanov Magnitogorsk RUS 42 3 6 9 58
Gennady Stolyarov Moscow Dyn. RUS 29 5 3 8 37
Evgeni Bumagin Togliatti RUS 24 1 3 4 8
Andrei Maximenko Klin RUS-2 39 12 2 14 18

F I N L A N D
Andreas Sundin Jukurit FIN-2 41 20 20 40 8
Juho Mielonen Ilves Tampere FIN-J20 6 2 4 6 22

S W E D E N
Miroslav Blatak Mora SWE 42 4 14 18 30
Mikael Johansson Farjestad SWE 45 5 6 11 34
Johan Ryno Timra SWE 30 5 5 10 16
Anton Axelsson Frolunda SWE 41 4 3 7 14
Christofer Lofberg Djurgarden SWE 31 0 4 4 6
Tomas Kollar Sodertalje SWE-2 27 11 10 21 48
Dick Axelsson Huddinge SWE-2 19 10 6 16 95
Johan Ryno AIK SWE-2 14 2 7 9 14
Mattias Ritola Leksands SWE-2 26 2 4 6 6
Christofer Lofberg Huddinge SWE-2 12 2 1 3 14
Mattias Ritola Leksands SWE-J20 12 5 7 12 16
Anton Axelsson Frolunda SWE-J20 2 4 2 6 4
Christofer Lofberg Djurgarden SWE-J20 3 2 0 2 2
Johan Ryno Frolunda SWE-J20 2 1 0 1 2
Stefan Blom Arlanda SWE-3 21 4 4 8 20
Mattias Ritola Borlange SWE-3 2 2 3 5 2

C H L
Jan Mursak Saginaw OHL 43 18 42 60 34
Cory Emmerton Kingston OHL 35 24 34 58 20
Darren Helm Medicine Hat WHL 44 18 32 50 53
Shawn Matthias Belleville OHL 47 27 20 47 49
Logan Pyett Regina WHL 49 10 32 42 58
Jakub Kindl Kitchener OHL 38 6 31 37 86
Jeff May Prince Albert WHL 50 6 27 33 63
Bretton Stamler Seattle WHL 50 7 13 20 125

N C A A
Justin Abdelkader Michigan State NCAA 21 7 11 18 54
Nils Backstrom Alaska-Anch. NCAA 23 1 7 8 30

U S H L
Nick Oslund Tri-City USHL 29 4 11 15 8
Sergei Kolosov Cedar Rapids USHL 34 1 7 8 50

The following is this season's statistical report for goaltenders to date:

NAME TEAM LEAGUE GP W-L-O GAA SPCT
Stefan Liv Toledo ECHL 3 1-1-1 2.29 .936
Daniel Larsson Djurgardens SWE 21 -- 2.53 .913
Logan Koopmans Toledo ECHL 13 9-4-0 2.81 .913
Jimmy Howard Grand Rapids AHL 28 12-12-1 2.89 .904
Stefan Liv Grand Rapids AHL 20 8-10-1 3.07 .891

LEAGUE LEGEND: AHL -- American Hockey League; ECHL -- East Coast Hockey League; RUS -- Russian Elite League; RUS-2 -- Russian second level; FIN -- Finnish Elite League; FIN-J20 -- Finnish under-20 junior league; SWE -- Swedish Elite League; SWE-2 -- Swedish second level; SWE-3 -- Swedish third level; SWE-J20 -- Swedish under-20 junior league; OHL -- Ontario Hockey League; WHL -- Western Hockey League; NCAA -- National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1; USHL -- United States Hockey League.