RWC REPORT: Scoring sensation Smith shines

By Matthew Wuest – RedWingsCentral.com / January 5, 2010

The Detroit Red Wings have drafted countless defensemen over the past 20 years, but none have shown offensive promise like Brendan Smith.

The junior defenseman with the Wisconsin Badgers is on a scoring rampage in the NCAA this season, tied for sixth in the country with eight goals and 19 assists for 27 points in 19 games. He is easily the Badgers' leading scorer, while no blueliner in the NCAA is within seven points of him.

It's pretty impressive stuff for the 6-foot-2 190-pounder and exactly what the Red Wings had in mind when they took him in the first round (27th overall) in 2007 from Toronto St. Mike's of the Ontario junior A ranks.

But if Smith is in fact the Red Wings' power-play quarterback of the future, he will have to shore up his significant shortcomings.

"When he turns pro — and even now, in college — he needs to work on being rock-solid defensively," said Red Wings assistant GM Jim Nill. "It doesn't matter who you are, even Nick Lidstrom, you're going to be judged first on what you do in your own end. If you're a defenseman who makes a good first pass and doesn't get beat defensively, the other stuff will take care of itself."

The 20-year-old from Mimico, Ontario, has now posted improvement in each season at Wisconsin with his career-best 27 points. He put up 12 points in 22 games as a freshman in 2007-08 and 23 points in 31 games last season.

Smith has had a somewhat turbulent career at Wisconsin. He was suspended for the Badgers' season-opener last season for violating team rules off the ice and then sat as a healthy scratch in the second game of this season.

But has responded well and his numbers reflect his rapid development.

"He's had a great year," Nill said. "He's got the offensive flair to his game, great offensive thinking … He's shown he has the skills to be an elite player and that's something you can never take away from him."

The Red Wings have signed their past two top NCAA prospects — forward Justin Abdelkader and goaltender Jimmy Howard — after their junior years, and Smith could be poised to follow in their footsteps.

But Nill said a contract hasn't been discussed just yet.

"We'll have to sit down with him, his family and his advisor and see what direction he wants to go," Nill said. "He's got the skillset … It's just you have to look at the player himself, what he wants to do, does he want to finish his four years? That's something we'll discuss after the season is over.

WORLD JUNIOR REPORT: The Red Wings have three players competing nat the world junior championship in Saskatchewan.

Defenseman Brian Lashoff (Kingston, OHL) will suit up for the U.S. in the gold-medal game against Canada on Tuesday night. He has two assists and is a minus-1 in six games while being used in a depth role.

Right-winger Andrej Nestrasil (Victoriaville, QMJHL) had a solid tournament for the Czech Republic, tying for second in team scoring with a goal and six assists in six games in a seventh-place finish, while left-winger Tomas Tatar (Grand Rapids, AHL) played in his second WJC and tied for third in scoring for Slovakia with three goals and two assists in six games in an eighth-place finish.

Nestrasil, who has 37 points in 33 games in the QMJHL, will reportedly be traded from Victoriaville to the P.E.I. Rocket in the off-season. Already on a contending team in Victoriaville, the rumored move will give the 6-foot-2 200-pounder a chance to compete for a championship two seasons in a row.

NOTES: Forward Brent Raedeke was part of a WHL trade last week, going from Edmonton to Brandon for a chance to win a championship. He has 34 points in 42 games … Goalie Thomas McCollum was demoted to the ECHL after a tough stretch in the AHL with Grand Rapids. He'll look to regain his confidence after posting a 3.42 goals-against average and a .877 save percentage in his first 18 pro starts … Jordan Pearce, a rookie pro, got the call to replace McCollum in Grand Rapids for the first AHL stint of his career … Forward Francis Pare (Grand Rapids, AHL) has seven goals and five assists in his past 14 games.

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
A H L
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	36	15	8	23	12
Francis Pare	Grand Rapids	AHL	35	7	12	19	8
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	36	6	13	19	10
Tomas Tatar	Grand Rapids	AHL	22	8	8	16	6
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	30	2	14	16	30
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	32	8	7	15	24
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	37	8	7	15	34
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	37	4	9	13	12
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	35	7	5	12	12
Dick Axelsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	17	2	3	5	6
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	33	1	2	3	8
Travis Ehrhardt	Grand Rapids	AHL	21	0	3	3	22
Sebastien Piche	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	0	0	0	4
E C H L
Sebastien Piche	Toledo	ECHL	13	2	6	8	23
Travis Ehrhardt	Toledo	ECHL	3	1	1	2	0
S W E D E N
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	35	3	9	12	28
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	32	3	6	9	4
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SEL	15	2	4	6	4
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	20	0	1	1	8
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	26	5	3	8	20
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	18	1	5	6	0
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SWE-J20	15	5	29	34	14
C H L
Willie Coetzee	Red Deer	WHL	40	18	36	54	16
Andrej Nestrasil	Victoriaville	QMJHL	33	12	25	37	24
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	42	19	15	34	60
Mitchell Callahan	Kelowna	WHL	42	12	20	32	102
Gleason Fournier	Rimouski	QMJHL	31	6	19	25	56
Landon Ferraro	Red Deer	WHL	21	6	11	17	30
Brian Lashoff	Kingston	OHL	33	4	10	14	51
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	18	6	4	10	16
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	19	12	18	30	12
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	19	8	19	27	26
Brian Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	17	5	7	12	35
Max Nicastro	Boston U.	HE	17	1	7	8	20
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud St.	WCHA	20	3	4	7	16
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	ECAC	15	1	2	3	8
U S H L
Nick Jensen	Green Bay	USHL	24	0	8	8	31

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	20	11-8-1	2.79	.907
Thomas McCollum	Toledo	ECHL	1	0-1-0	5.09	.865
	Grand Rapids	AHL	18	7-7-0	3.42	.877
Jordan Pearce	Toledo	ECHL	18	8-8-1	3.52	.892
	Grand Rapids	AHL	1	0-1-0	5.57	.762