| 03 October 2011
To the surprise of noone, it's official, Fabian Brunnstrom has signed with the Wings, albeit a few years late. Per DRW.com:
Brunnstrom, who last scored an NHL goal 20 months ago, was impressive enough in his professional tryout (PTO) with the Wings that he now occupies a spot on the club’s 23-man opening night roster. The Wings open the season Friday when they host the Ottawa Senators at Joe Louis Arena.
“Obviously, he had a good camp,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “Things didn’t work out in Dallas for him, so we’re going to give him an opportunity to show us what he can do.”
It is a two way contract that will pay him 600k in Detroit and 105k in the AHL.In other news:
The Wings also cut 35-year-old center Ryan Johnson on Monday, making room for rookie center Cory Emmerton, who will round-out the 23-man roster.
“We thought that Cory’s camp-run got better and better,” Holland said. “Ryan Johnson can really check and kill penalties, but you hope that Cory can develop into that.”
So that leaves us with the following lineup as the season starts:
Bertuzzi / Datsyuk / Franzen
Filppula / Zetterberg / Cleary
Hudler / Helm / Eaves
Miller / Abdelkader / Holmstrom
(Emmerton, Brunnstrom, Mursak on IR)
Lidstrom / White
Stuart / Kronwall
Ericsson / Commodore
(Kindl)
Howard
Conklin
I think I'd like to see Brunnstrom get a chance in the top 3 lines sometime. We'll have to see how Miller, Abby and Hudler perform, but throwing him up there on Fil and Z's line would be interesting.
Anyways, so there it is boys and girls, your 2011/2012 Detroit Red Wings. Season starts Friday, needless to say, I'm pumped.
