RWC REPORT: Kindl making sophomore strides

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / November 17, 2008

Jakub Kindl is looking like a first-round draft pick again.

The 21-year-old defenseman and former 19th overall pick of the Detroit Red Wings is showing signs of having a turnaround year as an American Hockey League sophomore with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Kindl, who had an AHL-worst minus-34 last season in a rocky rookie campaign, has three goals and five assists through 14 games.

"All aspects of his game, he's taken up a notch and he seems a lot more comfortable with the puck on his stick and a lot more comfortable in terms of making passes," said Griffins general manager Bob McNamara. "There was a lot more uncertainty last year. He's definitely taken it to another level."

The 6-foot-3, 202-pound Jiri Fischer-type has seen more ice time than in his rookie year and has also shown more poise on the power play. He'll become the main man in Grand Rapids whenever Jonathan Ericsson graduates to Detroit.

Kindl was one of the best defensemen in junior hockey with the Kitchener Rangers in 2006-07, finishing as runner-up to Marc Staal for the Ontario Hockey League's most outstanding defenseman award. McNamara called higher confidence "a big part" of Kindl's improvement in the professional ranks.

"That leads to better passes and better decision making," he said.

Kindl was the first star in Friday's 3-2 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

* McNamara had this to say about Mattias Ritola, a forward with the Griffins who was featured in last week's edition of RWC Report.

"Laziness is not a factor at all. You know what? If I hadn't heard that before he got here, I wouldn't have known that about him," McNamara said. "In the time he's been with us, he's worked hard. His upside is probably a third-line guy but he can play the fourth line. He's probably going to play in the NHL."

Ritola, a 6-foot, 192-pound winger, has five goals among 11 points in 14 games.

* Ericsson is pairing regularly with rookie Logan Pyett on the blue line in Grand Rapids, while the top two lines are Ville Leino-Darren Helm-Landon Wilson and Mattias Ritola-Justin Abdelkader-Darren Haydar.

Wilson is a journeyman assigned to the Griffins by the Dallas Stars, while Haydar is a former AHL MVP under contract with Detroit.

The Griffins are 8-3-2-1, fourth in the North Division.

* Goaltender Daniel Larsson (Grand Rapids, AHL) has won his last two starts and stopped 46 of 47 shots, shaking off a couple of bad games.

* Forward Gustav Nyquist (Maine, NCAA) is off to a great start in the U.S. college hockey ranks. Nyquist continues to produce at a point-per-game clip, and currently leads his team with five goals and five assists in nine games.

Nyquist is tied for 11th in Hockey East scoring, second among freshmen.

* Forward Dick Axelsson (Djurgarden, Swedish Elilte League) had a four-point game last week with a goal and three assists, helping Djurgarden to a 7-0 win over MoDo. Axelsson has 11 points in 13 games so far.

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
A H L
Ville Leino	Grand Rapids	AHL	12	4	12	16	4
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	12	3	11	14	0
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	14	5	6	11	6
Justin Abdelkader	Grand Rapids	AHL	14	8	2	10	29
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	14	3	5	8	12
Jonathan Ericsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	14	0	7	7	20
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	14	6	1	7	9
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	12	0	5	5	4
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	1	3	4	2
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	13	0	4	4	0
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	2	0	2	2
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	8	0	1	1	6
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	10	0	1	1	4
K H L
Gennady Stolyarov	Astana Barys	KHL	17	5	3	8	14
Miroslav Blatak	Salavat Yulaev	KHL	22	1	5	6	8
S W E D E N
Dick Axelsson	Djurgarden	SEL	13	4	7	11	4
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	20	3	3	6	0
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	21	2	1	3	6
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	21	1	2	3	10
Joakim Andersson	Boras	SWE-2	4	2	2	4	2
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	4	1	2	3	2
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	1	0	0	0	5
C H L
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	25	7	14	21	34
Randy Cameron	Moncton	QMJHL	18	3	15	18	10
Zack Torquato	Erie	OHL	20	9	8	17	31
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	19	5	11	16	12
Brian Lashoff	Barrie	OHL	20	1	9	10	15
N C A A
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	11	3	7	10	32
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	9	5	5	10	12
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud State	WCHA	10	2	1	3	4
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	WCHA	5	1	2	3	6
Bryan Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	8	0	1	1	20
Nils Backstrom	Alaska-Anchorage	WCHA	12	1	0	1	14
U S H L
Max Nicastro	Chicago	USHL	12	2	6	8	56

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Thomas McCollum	Guelph	OHL	20	11-6-2	2.26	.926
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	4-3-1	2.68	.898
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	7	4-2-0	2.85	.902

LEAGUE LEGEND: AHL — American Hockey League; KHL — Kontinental Hockey League; SEL — Swedish Elite League; SWE-2 — Swedish Allsvenskan (second level); OHL — Ontario Hockey League; WHL — Western Hockey League; QMJHL — Quebec Major Junior Hockey League; WCHA — Western Collegiate Hockey Association; ECAC — East Coast Athletic Conference; HE — Hockey East; USHL — United States Hockey League.