RWC REPORT: Rocky road for AHL rookies

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / May 4, 2009

The American Hockey League has not been kind thus far to touted Grand Rapids Griffins rookies Jan Mursak and Logan Pyett.

Mursak and Pyett, a pair of skilled prospects who enjoyed decorated major junior careers, have been in and out of the lineup since joining the Griffins last fall and have slipped slightly on the organization's depth chart.

Mursak, a slick, gifted Ontario Hockey League product who went to the Memorial Cup last season, has seen his production dry up. The 5-foot-11, 173-pound forward has struggled with the size and strength of the AHL game and has two goals and eight assists in 56 regular season and playoff games.

Pyett, a high-scoring blue-liner who won gold with Canada's world junior team last season, has dropped completely out of the Griffins' lineup in the playoffs after producing three goals and 11 assists in 61 regular season games. The 5-foot-11, 198-pounder's lack of size has hurt him defensively, and he has been surpassed by lesser-known prospects Brian Lashoff and Sergei Kolosov.

It's not time to write them off, as they both have plenty of untapped offensive upside. But it does show there is a long road ahead.

* The Griffins trail the Manitoba Moose 2-0 in the AHL quarterfinals after back-to-back road losses. The top line of Justin Abdelkader, Ville Leino and Darren Haydar — which combined for a whopping 31 points in a first-round win over the Hamilton Bulldogs — has been held off the scoresheet.

"I think it's a building block for us," Abdelkader told the Grand Rapids Press. "We had some good chances on (Moose goalie Cory) Schneider. He made some good saves, he got lucky on a few. We've just got to keep that up."

* Forward Evan McGrath (Grand Rapids, AHL) continues to sit out in the post-season with a shoulder injury. It's unfortunate for McGrath, who put himself back on the map with a strong, consistent season. Lashoff might join him on the injured list after sustaining a suspected concussion on the weekend.

* Goaltender Thomas McCollum (Brampton, OHL) is in a tough spot in the OHL final against the high-powered Windsor Spitfires. His Battalion are down 2-0 in the series after 10-1 and 5-3 losses. McCollum was pulled for the first time in the post-season in Game 1 after allowing six goals on 25 shots, although he bounced back in the Game 2 loss by turning aside 37 of 41 shots.

* Watching Jonathan Ericsson and Darren Helm excel in the post-season with the Red Wings, it's hard to believe they could be ranked anything but 1-2 in any prospect ranking, as they have been in RWC's since June 2008. That said, they've officially graduated to the NHL and will be excluded from the 2008-09 end-of-season RWC ranking, which will be released in June.

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	6	1	0	1	15
Darren Helm	Detroit	NHL	16	0	1	1	4
		PLAYOFFS	6	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	8	6	2	8	21
Francis Pare	Grand Rapids	AHL	63	24	24	48	14
		PLAYOFFS	8	1	2	3	2
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	68	17	30	47	24
Ville Leino	Grand Rapids	AHL	57	15	31	46	18
		PLAYOFFS	8	3	10	13	8
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	66	15	27	42	32
		PLAYOFFS	7	0	2	2	0
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	55	13	24	37	24
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	69	10	25	35	18
		PLAYOFFS	7	1	0	1	2
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	78	6	27	33	76
		PLAYOFFS	8	1	1	2	2
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	73	19	12	31	31
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	55	9	9	18	43
		PLAYOFFS	8	1	0	1	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	8	0	0	0	9
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	51	2	7	9	25
		PLAYOFFS	5	0	1	1	0
Brian Lashoff	Grand Rapids	AHL	6	1	4	5	0
		PLAYOFFS	8	1	4	5	2
Joakim Andersson	Grand Rapids	AHL	1	0	1	1	2
		PLAYOFFS	8	1	1	2	4
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	12	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	8	0	2	2	13
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	18	12-4	2.93	.892
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	45	21-18-4	2.54	.916
		PLAYOFFS	8	4-4	2.37	.902
	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.