RWC REPORT: Prospects seek Memorial Cup glory

By Matthew Wuest – RedWingsCentral.com / February 16, 2010

The Detroit Red Wings will be well-represented when the playoffs open around the Canadian Hockey League in a month’s time.

All eight of the Red Wings’ CHL prospects are expected to be in position to chase the Memorial Cup in March. At the forefront of that charge are Brent Raedeke of the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings, Stephen Johnston of the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires and Andrej Nestrasil of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Victoriaville Tigres.

	Andrej Nestrasil is on what many consider the sleeper team of the QMJHL.

Raedeke, who started the season with the Edmonton Oil Kings, has gone from worst to first after a trade to the Wheat Kings, who are the cream of the WHL crop at 41-16-4 and on a current streak of 11-0-1. Although the Wheaties already feature NHL first-rounders Brayden Schenn and Scott Glennie, Raedeke — who has 50 points in 61 — provides a jolt of speed and energy.

The injury-plagued Johnston benefited from a similar trade, going from the Belleville Bulls to the first-place Spitfires, 44-9-5, at mid-season. Although Johnston won’t have a leading role on the nationally-third-ranked squad with Taylor Hall around, he can salvage his fading chances of a contract by flourishing in a critical checking/penalty-killing role during the stretch run. He already went to the Memorial Cup as a rookie two years ago with Belleville.

Nestrasil, meanwhile, is on a sleeper team in Victoriaville, as the Tigres sit tied for third in the QMJHL with a 39-17-2 record. But his role has diminished since the team made a flurry of trades at the holiday deadline. A top-10 league scorer early in the season, he’s now just 10th on his own team.

The rest of the Red Wings’ youngsters are on mid-pack teams. Defenseman Gleason Fournier stars for the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic, 29-22-6; blueliner Brian Lashoff captains the Kingston Frontenacs, 27-25-4; right-winger Mitchell Callahan is having a strong season with the Kelowna Rockets, 29-26-5; and forwards Willie Coetzee and Landon Ferraro are key contributors for the Red Deer Rebels, who have turned it around after some tough seasons and are 33-21-4.

NOTES: Winger Tomas Tatar (Grand Rapids, American Hockey League) may have hit a wall, with just a goal and an assist in his past 12 games … Watch for defenseman Sergei Kolosov (Grand Rapids, AHL) with Team Belarus at the Olympics this week and next … Defenseman Max Nicastro (Boston University, NCAA) is having a pretty solid freshman campaign for a top-20 program, with two goals and eight assists in 28 games ... Goaltender Jordan Pearce (Toledo, East Coast Hockey League) had his first pro shutout last week and is coming around after a slow start in his first season out of college.

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	54	18	11	29	28
Francis Pare	Grand Rapids	AHL	53	11	15	26	12
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	52	8	17	25	16
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	48	13	11	24	44
Tomas Tatar	Grand Rapids	AHL	39	11	12	23	6
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	55	7	15	22	25
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	48	3	17	20	45
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	53	11	8	19	65
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	51	8	11	19	25
Dick Axelsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	17	2	3	5	6
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	45	1	3	4	17
Travis Ehrhardt	Grand Rapids	AHL	33	0	5	5	32
Sebastien Piche	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	0	0	0	4
E C H L
Sebastien Piche	Toledo	ECHL	28	4	12	16	30
Travis Ehrhardt	Toledo	ECHL	3	1	1	2	0
S W E D E N
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	48	5	12	17	40
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	44	5	6	11	6
Dick Axelsson	Farjestad	SEL	9	4	4	8	8
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SEL	24	2	6	8	10
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	23	0	1	1	8
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	40	6	10	16	30
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	30	2	12	14	4
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SWE-J20	15	5	29	34	14
C H L
Willie Coetzee	Red Deer	WHL	58	25	47	72	24
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	61	22	28	50	82
Mitchell Callahan	Kelowna	WHL	60	19	26	45	139
Gleason Fournier	Rimouski	QMJHL	48	11	32	43	70
Andrej Nestrasil	Victoriaville	QMJHL	40	14	28	42	32
Landon Ferraro	Red Deer	WHL	39	13	24	37	40
Brian Lashoff	Kingston	OHL	46	6	15	21	61
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	28	9	7	16	24
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	28	14	28	42	14
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	28	13	23	36	44
Brian Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	27	5	11	16	39
Max Nicastro	Boston U.	HE	28	2	10	12	26
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud St.	WCHA	32	4	4	8	20
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	ECAC	22	2	3	5	18
U S H L
Nick Jensen	Green Bay	USHL	37	1	15	16	31

Following is an up-to-date statistical report for goaltenders:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	36	16-17-1	2.80	.906
Thomas McCollum	Toledo	ECHL	4	2-1-0	4.48	.864
	Grand Rapids	AHL	22	7-11-0	3.50	.878
Jordan Pearce	Toledo	ECHL	25	10-12-1	3.62	.878
	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	1-2-0	3.82	.875