RWC REPORT: Pearce a net gain for Red Wings

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / April 20, 2009

The Detroit Red Wings bought themselves some security and a solid goaltending prospect with last week's signing of Jordan Pearce.

The Red Wings, who traditionally like to have at least five goaltenders under contract in a given season so they have enough depth to handle injuries, have played with only four for the past two seasons because their East Coast Hockey League affiliate, the Toledo Storm, temporarily suspended operations.

With Toledo returning to the ECHL in 2009-10, Pearce will battle Daniel Larsson and Thomas McCollum for one of three minor-league spots. Jimmy Howard is expected to serve as Chris Osgood's backup in Detroit.

But Pearce isn't just there to fill a spot. The Red Wings are impressed with what the 6-foot-1, 206-pounder from Anchorage, Alaska, has to offer. He led the NCAA with 30 wins and eight shutouts, finished second with a miniscule 1.67 goals-against average and tied for fourth with a .931 save percentage.

The 22-year-old was named MVP of the playoffs as the Irish won the Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship.

"He's a big body, big blocker, plays big, and he's very cool, very calm in the net," Nill said. "Late in the season, he played very well. He always came up big in pressure situations and that's one of the things we liked about him."

There is plenty of quality on the Red Wings' goalie depth chart. Howard was a record-setting college star who is inching toward the NHL; McCollum is one of the finest players in the Canadian Hockey League; and Larsson was an American Hockey League all-star in his first North American season.

Where will Pearce fit in?

"He's up there with everybody (else)," Nill said. "He's a little older and has some more maturity, but we don't really rate them like that. We let the players come into camp and let them dictate where they belong."

Pearce, who maintained a 3.8 grade-point average while studying anthropology and pre-med, signed a two-year deal on April 10.

* Nill clarified that the Red Wings don't have to sign Swedish forward Joakim Andersson by June 1 because there is no International Ice Hockey Federation transfer agreement. For now, the Red Wings retain his signing rights indefinitely. Andersson is expected to stay in Sweden next season anyway, so the Red Wings are just as well to wait a year before getting a deal done.

* Nill said the Red Wings are still keeping an eye on seldom-mentioned Russian right-winger Gennady Stolyarov, who had a 12-goal, 21-point season with Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League.

"He had an OK year," Nill said. "We don't have to sign him so we'll let him keep developing in Russia and see where he's at."

* Forward Justin Abdelkader (Grand Rapids, AHL) leads the Griffins in scoring with three goals and two assists in two games. His play has helped the squad to a 2-0 lead over the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL first round.

"I'm trying to elevate my game for the postseason, obviously that's important," Abdelkader told the Grand Rapids Press after Game 2. "I think the regular season prepared me well for the post-season."

* Good news for defenseman Brian Lashoff, who Grand Rapids signed to an amateur tryout contract a few weeks ago. He's played his way onto the post-season roster. But that's bad news for rookie Logan Pyett, who has fallen out of favor and has been sitting in the press box more often than not.

* Forward Evan McGrath (Grand Rapids, AHL) is still out with a shoulder injury.

* McCollum (Brampton, Ontario Hockey League) has his Battalion out in front of Stephen Johnston's Belleville Bulls 2-1 in the OHL semifinals. Johnston returned from injury this week and had an assist.

* Defenseman Sebastien Piche (Rimouski, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) finds his team in a 2-0 hole at the hands of the offensively-potent Drummondville Voltigeurs in the QMJHL semifinals.

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
N H L
Ville Leino	Detroit	NHL	13	5	4	9	6
Jonathan Ericsson	Detroit	NHL	19	1	3	4	15
		PLAYOFFS	2	1	0	1	2
Darren Helm	Detroit	NHL	16	0	1	1	4
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	2
Justin Abdelkader	Detroit	NHL	2	0	0	0	0
A H L
Justin Abdelkader	Grand Rapids	AHL	76	24	28	52	102
		PLAYOFFS	2	3	2	5	0
Francis Pare	Grand Rapids	AHL	63	24	24	48	14
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	0
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	68	17	30	47	24
Ville Leino	Grand Rapids	AHL	57	15	31	46	18
		PLAYOFFS	2	1	3	4	0
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	66	15	27	42	32
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	1	1	0
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	55	13	24	37	24
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	69	10	25	35	18
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	0
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	78	6	27	33	76
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	0
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	73	19	12	31	31
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	55	9	9	18	43
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	4
Jonathan Ericsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	2	13	15	48
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	61	3	11	14	12
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	70	4	7	11	36
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	2
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	51	2	7	9	25
Brian Lashoff	Grand Rapids	AHL	6	1	4	5	0
		PLAYOFFS	2	0	0	0	0
Joakim Andersson	Grand Rapids	AHL	1	0	1	1	2
		PLAYOFFS	2	1	0	1	2
Brent Raedeke	Grand Rapids	AHL	2	0	0	0	0
Zack Torquato	Grand Rapids	AHL	1	0	0	0	0
K H L
Gennady Stolyarov	Astana Barys	KHL	44	12	9	21	28
Miroslav Blatak	Salavat Yulaev	KHL	54	4	10	14	14
S W E D E N
Dick Axelsson	Farjestad	SEL	39	11	19	30	42
		PLAYOFFS	9	1	3	4	2
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	52	6	9	15	0
		PLAYOFFS	7	1	0	1	0
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	49	6	6	12	22
		PLAYOFFS	11	0	0	0	4
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	40	2	1	3	10
		PLAYOFFS	3	0	0	0	2
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	21	5	8	13	18
		PLAYOFFS	9	3	5	8	4
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	13	1	5	6	38
Joakim Andersson	Boras	SWE-2	4	2	2	4	2
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SWE-J20	4	2	0	2	2
C H L
Sebastien Piche	Rimouski	QMJHL	62	23	49	72	69
		PLAYOFFS	11	2	4	6	14
Zack Torquato	Erie	OHL	66	29	34	63	78
		PLAYOFFS	5	2	4	6	11
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	70	19	36	55	86
		PLAYOFFS	4	1	1	2	6
Randy Cameron	Moncton	QMJHL	56	19	32	51	24
		PLAYOFFS	10	3	5	8	14
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	58	14	22	36	38
		PLAYOFFS	4	0	2	2	2
Brian Lashoff	Kingston	OHL	60	7	25	32	51
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	38	13	19	32	28
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	29	8	13	21	69
Bryan Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	34	9	10	19	32
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	WCHA	29	4	6	10	30
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud State	WCHA	35	4	3	7	26
Nils Backstrom	Alaska-Anchorage	WCHA	34	4	4	8	38
U S H L
Max Nicastro	Chicago	USHL	57	9	22	31	84

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Thomas McCollum	Brampton	OHL	54	34-16-4	2.11	.927
		PLAYOFFS	12	10-1-1	2.54	.904
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	45	21-18-4	2.54	.916
		PLAYOFFS	2	2-0-0	2.00	.918
	Detroit	NHL	1	0-1	4.10	.857
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	22-12-2	2.76	.907
Jordan Pearce	Notre Dame	NCAA	39	30-6-3	1.68	.931
	Grand Rapids	AHL	1	0-1-0	5.11	.868

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.