Detroit Red Wings: A Handful of Griffins a Phone Call Away

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The Detroit Red Wings have been lucky enough to have a strong farm system over the past five-plus seasons. The Grand Rapids Griffins have won the Calder Cup twice in their existence, once in 2013 and again in 2017.

The Detroit Red Wings have a nice group of “four A” players in Grand Rapids. The term “four A” is more of a baseball term which means a player is a top minor league player but hasn’t been able to find his way just yet in the show. An “inbetweener” so to speak. Some players play their entire career in the minors.

First a little bit of Grand Rapids Griffins history. The Griffins were actually the minor league club for the Ottawa Senators before the Detroit Red Wings. The Griffins merged into the AHL league in 2001.

The Griffins served as the Ottawa Senators minor league club from 1999-2002. From 2002 to the present day the Grand Rapids Griffins have been tied to the Detroit Red Wings.

The Detroit Red Wings have a lot of players expecting to claw for a job this fall. The younger prospects will look to unseat a veteran or two. Other youngsters will be fighting for roster spots with one another. Some will just try to avoid being sent back to junior like Michael Rasmussen. Rasmussen is expected to avoid being returned to the WHL; Ras is supposed to be a top 9 forward this year.

We often talk about the established players and the young draftees along with high-end prospects. In this article, we are going to give a few of those “four A” players some love. A phrase Don Cherry often refers to as “the black aces”. When you’re in a jam, and you need someone to step right in as a short-term solution with limited growing pains.

(Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Ottawa Senators selected Matt Puempel 24th overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Level Draft. Puempel has struggled to find his way in the NHL.

Matt had a cup of coffee with the Sens in three straight seasons between 2014-17. With the Sens across those three seasons, Puemp played in 52 games, scoring 4 times and adding 2 assists. Matt was a minus 2.

The Sens shipped Matt Puempel out-of-town in 2017 to the New York Rangers. The Essex, Ontario native scored in his first New York Rangers game. Matt would play 27 games for the Rangers in total. Puempel scored 6 goals and added 3 assists for 9 points in New York.

The New York Rangers worked Puempel on their power play as a net presence type of guy. Other than the power play work Matt found himself skating on the 4th line, logging spotty minutes many nights.

The Detroit Red Wings traded Ryan Sproul to the Rangers for Matt Puempel last summer. Matt Puempel finished last season third in Grand Rapids total scoring. Puempel recorded 22 goals and 54 points playing in 57 contests with the Griffins.

Matt Puempel, now 25-years-old, 6’1, 205-pound winger at times hesitant to throw his weight around on the forecheck. Matt isn’t the best skater, average at best. Puempel does have a scoring touch, throughout his junior hockey days, Matt was a point a night type player similar to last season with the Griffins.

Matt has been willing to go to the net in his career, looking to bang home a rebound or redirect a point shot. Last season Detroit decided to leave Matt in Grand Rapids in favor of other options. Domonic Turgeon & Evgeny Svechnikov both got the call instead of Puempel.

Puempel who lacks defensive ability at times, and doesn’t kill penalties. Like we mentioned he’s not a “great” skater and doesn’t play a grinding style needed to be a regular on the 4th line. The Detroit Red Wings would call upon Puempel if they needed a top 9 scoring winger.

I believe Matt is starting to slip into that career AHL type player category. Matt with a small sample size in the NHL is a guy who was a captain in junior. Matt can serve as a good leader in Grand Rapids; he can help the young players develop and push them to the next level. Matt Puempel is there if the Detroit Red Wings need him but Michael Rasmussen, Joe Veleno, Evgeny Svechnikov and Filip Zadina are looking more like the players the Wings will look towards in the future.

Brian Lashoff played in 75 games for the Detroit Red Wings in 2013-14. Since then, “Lash” has played very sparingly only appearing in 17 contests for the Wings.

Lashoff turned 28 years old this past summer. Lashoff will be relied on to help this crop of young defenders develop in the minors. Lashoff a stay at home defenseman can be called up to Detroit if injuries start to mount up.

It seems unlikely Lashoff gets the call with all the young defenders Detroit is eager to mix into their line-up. The health of Niklas Kronwall is a concern, but you can’t assume an injury. Anything can happen to anyone at any time. Detroit will have Nick Jensen hanging around as a depth guy. Luke Witkowski is a swing-man who can play forward or defense whenever he is called upon.

Brian will find himself falling down the list but remains there if needed. Lashoff a guy who can be trusted to make the safe play but generates absolutely no offense to speak of what so ever. Brian is entering the final year of his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of this season.

Brian Lashoff will be able to offer advice to the young players like Villi Saarijavi, Gustav Lindstrom, Joe Hicketts this season in Grand Rapids while they wait for an opportunity to head to Detroit.

Lashoff takes a regular shift for the Griffins as a top 4 defender, his special teams start and end as primarily a penalty killer. Last season with Grand Rapids, Lash scored 5 goals and added 10 assists totaling 15 points.

Dominic Turgeon will try to skate his way onto the opening night roster for the Detroit Red Wings. The son of Pierre played some for the Red Wings last season. Detroit was in need of a 4th line center, and Turgeon got the call.

Turgeon is 22 years old and was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the 3rd round, 63rd overall in the 2014 Entry Level Draft. Turgeon plays a similar game to Luke Glendening. A fourth line center and a penalty-killing forward.

I don’t particularly see any scoring upside with Turgeon. He’s a much different player than his father. Pierre was the 1st overall pick in the 1987 draft. Pierre ended his stellar career with 1327 points in 1294 games played. Pierre was a top 6 forward his entire career. In 1992-93 Turgeon recorded 132 points in 83 games as a member of the New York Islanders.

Pierre’s stops along his glorious career included Buffalo, NY Islanders, Blues, Stars and ended with Colorado. Pierre is currently an assistant coach for the LA Kings. It doesn’t quite make any sense; you see the career numbers, Pierre is not yet a member of the hockey hall of fame.

Dominic played in 5 games last season for the Red Wings and impressed with his work ethic and effort on the ice as the 4th center. If Detroit decided to shed some salary by moving a bottom 6 forward, Turgeon could be a cheap replacement.

If Detroit decided Luke Glendening is expendable, Turgeon would be a player to look towards to fill that role. It has been mentioned Glendening could start the season as Detroit’s third center with the absence of captain Henrik Zetterberg.

That would be such a Ken Holland, Jeff Blashill type move. I have nothing against Turgeon or Glendening, but I feel you can only have so many of those type players on your club. Detroit already has committed to Frans Nielsen as their second line center. Andreas Athanasiou, I would rather see skate as the 2, but Blashill and Holland often prefer safe moves.

I can’t see Detroit skating AA on the wing and moving Glendening up to the 3, but I wouldn’t put any “safe” move past the Detroit Red Wings management.

Dominic Turgeon played 69 games for the Griffins last season, tallying 14 goals and 18 assists. Turgeon was a plus 13. He will be ready if Detroit needs a 4th center at any time this season.

(Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Evgeny Svechnikov cannot afford to start as slow as he did last season for the Grand Rapids Griffins. Svechnikov will turn 22 years old this October. Evgeny was “fighting” a slump all season long last year.

Svechnikov was unable to get anything going early on in the season before waking up a little in the second half. Evgeny ended last season with 7 goals with Grand Rapids. A sniping type player, but could only find twine 7 times in the AHL!

Not a great sign for the Red Wings prospect. I expect Svechnikov to start this season in Grand Rapids. The Detroit Red Wings have a plethora of young possibilities that may push Svechnikov out of immediate favor.

Evgeny needs to hit the ice and produce right away to prove his value and potential still exists. If Svechnikov tears it up early in Grand Rapids, he may find himself back in Detroit skating as a top 9 forward.

Near the end of last season, the Detroit Red Wings called Svechnikov up to finish his season in Detroit. They wanted to evaluate their 2015 first round pick. Svechnikov played in 14 games and produced 2 goals and 2 assists in limited ice-time. I need to stress the word limited, Blashill played Svechnikov about 8 minutes a night.

For a team way out of the playoff picture, Blashill coached as if they were in a playoff race. It must be hard for a young player who found himself often struggling to get into a groove playing so few minutes. If Evgeny makes a return to Detroit this season he needs to be utilized better, he’s not a grinder; he needs to play with skilled players to unlock his full potential.

The Detroit Red Wings brought in veteran forward Chris Terry to play in Grand Rapids to start the season.

It seems Terry was brought in to replace Eric Tangradi who has moved on, becoming a member of the New Jersey Devils system.

Terry, a 5th round pick back in 2007 is 29 years old. Terry spent last season playing for the Laval Rocket, the minor league affiliate of the Montreal Canadians. Terry posted nice numbers scoring 32 goals and adding 39 helpers. An alarming number last season was being minus 33. That is something that drastically needs to be improved.