Wingtory

The Wings have recalled Jonathon Ericsson from the AHL to play in his first regular season NHL game tonight.

6'5", 230lbs, the Wings equipment manager had to order Ericsson new sweaters because nothing they had on hand would fit.

The Wings haven't had a defenseman over 6'3" since they lost Jiri Fischer in 2005 to a heart ailment that nearly took his life.

Ericsson, a 26-yr old converted forward from the Swedish Elite League was taken with the last pick in the 2002 draft (the year the Wings last won the cup). He has steadily climbed the depth chart nearly making the Wings out of camp this season. His waiver-exempt status has kept him in the AHL as long as Detroit has had healthy, able bodies available. But he is now ranked 2nd overall on the Redwingscentral.com prospect list, behind fellow recent callup, Goalie Jimmy Howard, and with the recent rash of injuries, is needed now.

He skates well, makes excellent passes, has a booming shot, and uses his reach well. Ericsson is not overly physical and can be caught out of position at times. While not as fast or as mean as Jiri Fischer, Ericsson possess some similar raw ability.

Hope Mr. Irrelevant 2002 can make a splash tonight!

wingsnut19

With Chelios being injured in the first period, Ericsson has already almost played 20 minutes, and we're only half way through the 3rd, and is 3rd in IT for the D.

I just can't get over the amount of injuries we're dealing with right now. It's far beyond ridiculous now.

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Sherek X

Jonathon Ericsson played a good game tonight and I am looking forward to seeing him play more often. No way the Flames could have beat the Wings if the top 4 defence would have played.

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datsyukdangler1

Yeah. I like the guy, I was excited when I heard he was coming up. Well Calgary wouldn't have scored that goal if it didn't bounce off of Datsyuk's stick and Lebda's shoulder. He got his first NHL goal last night too! In his 2nd game with the Wings.

Wingtory

Yeah, he got a goal, but that was after he was undressed by Geoff Sanderson who scored a beauty to make it 2-0.

Ericcson has a lot of tools, but he is still a project. He still needs to learn a lot and the Wings will have to commit to at least 3 years in the NHL to see him develop.

I love his size. Watching forwards run at him only to see them end up on the ice is nice. But he's got to get better at reading plays and doing simple things well. The cute passes that end up as turnovers will kill a team more than they will ever help.

Meech is starting to win me over though. I thought he was worthless but he has really used this opportunity to demonstrate that he's a keeper.

datsyukdangler1

No doubt that he still has lots of work ahead of him. Meech I really like now. He has held up well on this team while everyone else is down with injuries.

Wingtory

The difficulty Meech has is this:

Lebda - Years of Experience and Loads of Speed. Not a great player, but often does well enough.

Logan Pyett - Very similar to Meech, but much much younger. Same size, similar ability (maybe slightly better offensively, not sure about his defense).

Brendan Smith - First Round Draft Pick. Very similar to Pyett and Meech, but overall more athleticism and talent.

Jakob Kindl - First Round Draft Pick. Bigger and Faster and Nastier than Meech, but also an excellent skill set.

Jonathon Ericsson - Huge. Showing signs of being quite good. If he had Meech's ability and awareness, he'd be the next Chris Pronger.

Let alone Kronwall, Lidstrom, Chelios, Lilja, and Quincey...

Meech needs to carve out a niche in this organization. I could see where having him makes Lebda expendable. But in 4 years, I could see Pyett or Smith or Kindl taking Meech's spot...

ofhdhdy

I hope Lilja and Lebda are gone next season. We should definitely let Lilja walk as a FA and trade Lebda for picks. I would like the defense as
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Chelios-Kronwall
Ericsson-Meech
Quincey
OR
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Stuart-Kronwall
Ericsson-Meech
Quincey


I am really torn on whether they should re-sign Chelios. He would be much cheaper then Stuart so I would probably prefer to sign Cheli!

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datsyukdangler1

I agree with you about Lilja. I really haven't liked this guy for quite some time now. Just always turns the puck over, although he does stick up for his team when needed sometimes.

Wingtory

Lilja blocks a ton of shots. You need that kind of guy, especially on the penalty-kill.

Until the Wings can bring in another "stay-at-home" type, I don't see a way to get rid of Lilja.

Lilja looks fine when he isn't asked to do too much. But with injuries, he's on the ice too much and then bad things happen. I like him as our #5.