RWC REPORT: Helm making AHL impact

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / January 28, 2008

You wouldn’t know it from looking at statistics alone, but Darren Helm is having one of the best seasons of any prospect in the Detroit Red Wings’ system.

The 21-year-old American Hockey League rookie forward has been one of the few bright spots for the struggling Grand Rapids Griffins, producing five goals and four assists in 40 games in a second-line, penalty-killing capacity.

“Darren has been outstanding — he uses his speed, and that’s his big asset,” Griffins general manager Bob McNamara. “He has high-end NHL speed and he’s been excellent taking it wide, taking it to the net. Penalty-killing, he’s been great.”

Helm, who missed training camp and several early-season games with a shoulder injury, doesn’t have offensive numbers that turn heads, but he isn’t getting much power-play time. That could change down the stretch, McNamara said.

McNamara singled out Helm, along with AHL all-stars Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Ericsson, as Detroit’s standout prospects in Grand Rapids this season.

“He’s gonna play in the NHL, my guess is within a year, year and a half, and maybe a call-up or two here or there,” McNamara said. “If I would compare him to a Red Wing, he’s in the Kris Draper mold, with a little more offensive upside.”

Helm, a 6-foot, 182-pounder, was ranked the world’s 72nd best prospect at this time last year by The Hockey News. He offers a little bit of everything. The Red Wings brass has long been high on Helm, a former 40-goal scorer in junior who won gold with Canada at the world junior championship last January.

Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill agreed that Helm would probably be ready for full-time NHL duty after another year of seasoning.

“He’s not getting rewarded point-wise, but he’s doing everything you want a guy to do,” Nill said. “He kills penalties, he’s got good speed, he’s tenacious on the puck, and he wins battles. He missed half of training camp and the start of the season, but he’s earned his rights and become one of our top forwards (in Grand Rapids).”

• Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson clocked a 100.1 mile-per-hour slap shot during the AHL all-star skills competition on Sunday, second to Rochester right-winger Mark Mancari's record of 102.8. He was well ahead of everyone else, as third-ranked Alexandre Picard of Philadelphia checked in at 96.5.
  
  Goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped four of six shots in the breakaway relay. He also turned aside eight of nine shots in the rapid-fire competition.
  
  PlanetUSA, which features Ericsson and Howard, won the event on cumulative points earned over seven events, 15-9 over Canada.
• Forward Dick Axelsson (Djurgarden, Swedish Elite League) has gone cold after a terrific start. He has just a goal in his last 12 games (12-1-3-4) and three goals in his last 22 (22-3-6-9) after scoring five times in 12 games to start the year.
• Forward Joakim Andersson was called up from Sweden's second level this week and played in three Swedish Elite League games with Frolunda. The 18-year-old saw limited ice time and didn't record a point.

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for skaters:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
A H L
Jonathan Ericsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	45	6	13	19	44
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	46	7	8	15	26
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	44	6	7	13	20
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	43	3	10	13	44
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	41	3	9	12	40
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	5	4	9	12
Randall Gelech	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	4	5	9	22
Kyle Quincey	Grand Rapids	AHL	39	2	7	9	69
Johan Ryno	Grand Rapids	AHL	12	3	4	7	8
Igor Grigorenko	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	0	0	0	4
R U S S I A
Miroslav Blatak	Salavat Yulaev	RUS	45	2	9	11	32
Gennady Stolyarov	Moscow Dynamo	RUS	25	2	2	4	12
Igor Grigorenko	Salavat Yulaev	RUS	18	3	3	6	22
S W E D E N
Dick Axelsson	Djurgarden	SWE	34	8	10	18	26
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SWE	41	6	8	14	6
Johan Ryno	Djurgarden	SWE	16	1	5	6	12
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SWE	3	0	0	0	2
Joakim Andersson	Boras	SWE-2	33	6	17	23	26
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SWE-J20	1	2	0	2	0
C H L
Jan Mursak	Belleville	OHL	41	10	35	45	23
Zack Torquato	Erie	OHL	46	15	26	41	65
Logan Pyett	Regina	WHL	44	16	24	40	38
Cory Emmerton	Brampton	OHL	36	15	25	40	10
Randy Cameron	Moncton	QMJHL	45	11	17	28	20
N C A A
Justin Abdelkader	Michigan State	CCHA	27	11	11	22	49
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	21	2	10	12	26
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud State	WCHA	25	3	0	3	6
Bryan Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	20	1	2	3	6
Nils Backstrom	Alaska-Anchorage	WCHA	14	1	1	2	6

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for goaltenders:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Daniel Larsson	Djurgarden	SWE	35	--	2.36	.917
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	35	16-16-2	2.59	.913

LEAGUE LEGEND: AHL -- American Hockey League; RUS -- Russian Elite League; SWE -- Swedish Elite League; SWE-2 -- Swedish second level; SWE-J20 -- Swedish under-20 league; OHL -- Ontario Hockey League; WHL -- Western Hockey League; QMJHL -- Quebec Major Junior Hockey League; CCHA -- Central Collegiate Hockey Association; WCHA -- Western Collegiate Hockey Association; ECAC -- East Coast Athletic Conference.