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NHL Week in Review

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NHL Week in Review
by Chris Kober
Hockeytalk.biz

THANKSGIVING EDITION

Shanny Calls it a Career

The roster of the 2002 Detroit Red Wings was nothing short of legendary. On Nov. 9 three players from that team were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and in three years Brendan Shanahan will join his former teammates.

Shanahan officially announced his retirement on November 17. He was drafted second overall in 1987 by New Jersey and went on to play 21 years in the league with five different teams.

One of the great power forwards of his day, Shanahan scored 656 career goals (11th all-time) and 698 assists while racking up 2,489 penalty minutes. He won three Stanley Cups while in Detroit (97, 98 & 02) and added Olympic gold to his resume with Canada at the 2002 games in Salt Lake.

In a testament of his value as a franchise player, and an interesting side note to his career, Shanahan often brought key assets to the teams he left. His 1991 signing with St. Louis as a restricted free agent netted the Devils cornerstone defenseman and long time captain, Scott Stevens. After four years with the Blues he was traded to Hartford for Chris Pronger who spent nearly a decade in The Gateway City. From Hartford he was traded to Detroit for the second greatest rushing defenseman of all-time, Paul Coffey and Keith Primeau who would go on to be a captain with the franchise in Carolina.

During the lockout Shanahan’s off-ice leadership took center stage as he gathered an illustrious group of NHL players, executives, broadcasters and officials to discuss improvements that should be made to the game once the labor standoff ended. The December 2004 meetings, now known as The Shanahan Summit, produced a list of 10 recommendations to the league, several of which were implemented starting in the 2005-2006 season.

In the summer of 2006, after nine years in Detroit, he signed with the Rangers where he turned into a power play specialist, and his hall of fame career came full circle as he played 34 games for New Jersey in 2009 and retired, a Devil.

Future and Former NHLers in Europe

Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward, Nikita Filatov will play the rest of the season in his hometown of Moscow. The 19-year-old prospect was loaned to CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Columbus GM Scott Howson announced on Nov. 19.

“Nikita is a top prospect in our organization and we believe it is in the best interest of his development to play more and in all situations in the KHL,” Howson stated in the team’s official press release.

Is this a step toward solidarity between the two leagues, or just another in a line of skilled European players not living up to potential and/or seeking a bigger payday in their homeland? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, the KHL announced that ASK Stockholm will join the league next season. Formerly known as the Russian Superleague, the KHL currently consists of 24 teams from four countries. 21 of the teams are Russian and the league has designs on expanding across Europe. ASK’s transfer from the Swedish second division will make it KHL’s first foray in to the hockey hotbed that is Sweden.

The big news this week in Swedish hockey, though is the announcement that Peter Forsberg will stay with MoDo of the Swedish Elite League this year, former Vancouver Canuck Markus Naslund will come out of retirement to join him and both will play for the financially troubled club without pay.

Both Forsberg and Naslund played with MoDo in the small Swedish town of Örnsköldsvik before their respective NHL careers.

Naslund explained to the Canadian Press that he has been happy with his retirement and is returning to play in his hometown because the team was “in dead last place and they were struggling financially,” and he and Forsberg both considered it a good way to give back to the franchise.

It had been rumored that Forsberg was attempting an NHL comeback, but his agent Don Baizley told ESPN.com that the two time Stanley Cup champion was “not confident enough” about the foot and ankle issues that have plagued him for the past several years to play an NHL season. The Swedish superstar has not ruled out returning to North America next season.

200’ x 85’

Back on the North American ice surface, one Swede comes back from injury and another replaces him on the IR as Daniel Sedin returned and Niklas Kronwall went down with a knee injury.

Sedin returned to the ice Nov. 22 for his first game since he broke his foot on Oct. 7. He had three shots on goal in just over 18 minutes of ice time, but was held off the score sheet as was his entire team in a 1-0 loss to Chicago.

Kronwall will be out of Detroit’s lineup four to eight weeks with a sprained ligament in his left knee. The injury occurred Saturday, Nov 21 in Montreal on a knee to knee hit by Canadiens’ tough guy Georges Laraque. The NHL suspended Laraque five games without pay for the incident which the enforcer still claims was accidental.

Finally, in the category of the rich getting richer, Marian Hossa made his debut as a Blackhawk Wednesday, scoring 2 goals as Chicago walloped San Jose 7-2. The victory capped an eight game winning streak for the Hawks, who were shut out, 3-0 by the Ducks in a Post-Thanksgiving matinee.

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