RWC Report: Kindl prepares for NHL duty

By Matthew Wuest – RedWingsCentral.com / March 9, 2010

Jakub Kindl has all but locked up an NHL roster spot with the Detroit Red Wings next season but remains a work in progress.

The 19th overall selection in the 2005 draft is still working out the kinks in his game in his third season in the American Hockey League with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Blessed with mobility, skill and outstanding size, the 6-foot-3 210-pounder is still learning to play a mistake-free puck-moving game.

"At times, he over-thinks things with the puck on his stick," said Griffins general manager Bob McNamara. "Jakub needs to make better decisions with the puck on a more consistent basis. There are some games where he's fantastic and other games where he over-handles it and over-thinks it."

Kindl plays in all situations and has three goals and 21 assists for 24 points in 58 games along with a minus-8 rating and 104 shots on goal.

He signed a three-year, $2.65-million contract extension that kicks in next season. It's a one-way pact and he is no longer waiver-exempt, meaning it would take a shocking set of circumstances for him to end up in the AHL again.

McNamara said Kind's development is "where you'd expect it to be" and that he hasn't taken a "step backward," as some have suggested. He said Kindl "does a lot of good things" and has shown steady improvement.

"That's life as a young defenseman at the professional level," McNamara said. "Very few guys are on the Niklas Kronwall path where they have one big year in the minor leagues and then they're off to the NHL."

NOTES: Forward Gennady Stolyarov (Balashika MVD, Kontinental Hockey League) returned from injury this week to make his season debut and skated just more than 13 minutes in a game on Saturday ... Forward Gustav Nyquist (Maine, NCAA) continues to push for the Hobey Baker award, now with an NCAA-best 56 points in 34 games ... Forward Mitchell Callahan (Kelowna, Western Hockey League) has 19 fighting majors this season, one behind the co-leaders, Josh Caron and Randy McNaught, per hockeyfights.com. He’s also a goal away from the 20-goal plateau and has 46 points in 69 games, a great step forward.

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	64	20	14	34	38
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	58	15	18	33	46
Francis Pare	Grand Rapids	AHL	63	13	18	31	14
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	61	9	19	28	16
Tomas Tatar	Grand Rapids	AHL	48	13	14	27	10
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	65	9	18	27	27
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	62	13	11	24	70
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	58	3	21	24	70
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	57	8	11	19	25
Dick Axelsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	17	2	3	5	6
Travis Ehrhardt	Grand Rapids	AHL	38	0	5	5	34
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	51	1	3	4	17
Sebastien Piche	Grand Rapids	AHL	9	0	0	0	4
E C H L
Sebastien Piche	Toledo	ECHL	37	5	18	23	49
Travis Ehrhardt	Toledo	ECHL	3	1	1	2	0
S W E D E N
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	52	5	12	17	40
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	48	5	6	11	6
Dick Axelsson	Farjestad	SEL	12	5	4	9	22
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SEL	25	2	6	8	10
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	23	0	1	1	8
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	47	9	11	20	34
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	36	3	13	16	36
Adam Almqvist	HV-71	SWE-J20	15	5	29	34	14
K H L
Gennady Stolyarov	Balashikha MVD	KHL	1	0	0	0	0
C H L
Willie Coetzee	Red Deer	WHL	68	29	50	79	30
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	69	22	33	55	91
Gleason Fournier	Rimouski	QMJHL	55	13	36	49	74
Andrej Nestrasil	Victoriaville	QMJHL	48	15	33	48	38
Mitchell Callahan	Kelowna	WHL	69	19	27	46	163
Landon Ferraro	Red Deer	WHL	49	15	29	44	49
Brian Lashoff	Kingston	OHL	55	6	21	27	71
Stephen Johnston	Windsor	OHL	33	10	8	18	33
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	34	18	38	56	14
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	34	15	25	40	58
Brian Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	34	5	15	20	49
Max Nicastro	Boston U.	HE	34	3	12	15	26
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud St.	WCHA	36	4	5	9	22
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	ECAC	22	2	3	5	18
U S H L
Nick Jensen	Green Bay	USHL	44	5	18	23	33

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

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	43	18-21-1	2.87	.903
Thomas McCollum	Toledo	ECHL	4	2-1-0	4.48	.864
	Grand Rapids	AHL	26	7-14-1	3.61	.874
Jordan Pearce	Toledo	ECHL	29	12-13-1	3.72	.887
	Grand Rapids	AHL	5	1-2-0	3.82	.875