The Detroit Red Wings have re-signed the former first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators Matt Puempel to a two-year deal.
The Detroit Red Wings have locked up Matt Puempel who has struggled to find his way to the NHL so far in his young career. The 25-year-old Essex, Ontario native will look to build on the tremendous season he produced for the Grand Rapids Griffins last season.
Puempel who grew up just a 25-minute drive from downtown Detroit will look to have another kick at the can this fall trying to make the Detroit Red Wings.
Per Peter J Wallner of Mlive.com, It’s indeed a two-year-deal for Puempel. The details of the two-year-deal have yet to be released.
Puempel, a staple last season on the top line in Grand Rapids failed to receive a call from the Red Wings. Detroit promoted others instead. The likes of Dominic Turgeon saw NHL time ahead of Puempel.
Turgeon received the call because at the time of the call the Detroit Red Wings specifically needed a fourth line center. In addition to being a center, Turgeon also is a penalty-killing forward. Luke Glendening went down with an injury, and Turgeon filled in nicely.
The other forward getting a call for a mini-seasons end tryout with the big club was Evgeny Svechnikov. With limited ice-time, only playing 8 minutes a night in Detroit Svechnikov showed some potential in games, other times seeming invisible. Svechnikov notched 4 points in 14 games in Detroit last season.
Puempel is a scoring winger. Matt’s scoring ability has yet to translate in the NHL. Throughout a couple of stints in the show with Ottawa and the New York Rangers, Puempel has combined 79 games played. Puempel has 10 goals and 5 assists totaling 15 points.
The production is much too sparse for a top 9 forward’s style of play, who is not capable of killing penalties. As a staple on the first line for the Griffins, Puempel is nearly a point per game player. Last season playing 57 games, scoring 22 goals and accumulating 54 total points.
We hope Puempel continues to provide the Griffins with the offensive production in the future as he did last season. The Griffins have a new head coach this season. Ben Simon is taking over for the departed Todd Nelson. Nelson is now an assistant coach for the Dallas Stars.
Puempel has often shied away from being a physical player. We would like to see Puempel start to throw his 6’1, 200 plus frame around in the corners on a more regular basis. If Matt commits to being a bit more physical and continues to produce offensively, he may find his way into a winged wheel jersey.