Igor Larionov became the oldest player to score in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002. He was part of the Soviet Red Army Team. He centered the Russian five which consisted of Sergei Federov, Slava Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, and Slava Kozlov. Larionov is a future Hall of Famer. He will prove effective leadership to the young Russians, like Datsyuk, who consider him a hero.
13 Pavel Datsyuk
Pavel Datsyuk is a second year player for the Red Wings. Last year, he gained quick popularity. His quick moves, and soft hands made him many highlight plays. The puck seems to almost be attached to his stick at times. Datsyuk is part of the basis for a future Red Wing team. I am looking forward to seeing him in a Wing's uniform for a long time to come.
14 Brendan Shanahan
Brendan came to the Red Wings in 1997. He signaled a change from a completely finesse team. At the time he was a grinding style player. The Red Wings went on to win two Stanley Cups during Brendan's first two years. Since 1997, Shanahan's role has become more that of a shooter and scorer.
15 Henrik Zetterberg
Zetterberg will be a rookie this year. Last year, he played in the Swedish elite team. He was a leading scorer in that league. Detroit fans have heard about him through the papers. He is expected to be a welcome addition to the already star studded line up. I expect Zetterberg's rookie year to be as good as Datsyuk's rookie year last year.
17 Brett Hull
Brett Hull had won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars. The Stars didn't keep him around though. The Red Wings picked him up along with other big name players. He is one of the Wings who has scored over 500 goals. He is definately a welcome addition to this team. All hopes are that he once again has a good year.
18 Kirk Maltby
Kirk was a part of the Grind line of 1997. He has been a constant grinder. He is a good tough man. He also has a bit of a scores touch. Maltby goes up against the toughest on the other team and never backs down.
Steve is a Detroit hockey legend. He lead the Detroit Red Wings to back to back Stanley Cup Championships in the years 1997 and 1998. He also led the Wings to another Stanley Cup in 2002. This was on one bad knee. This past summer he had a reconstructive knee surgery on his rigt knee. He is currently recovering and is expected to be back in the Detroit line up in January. He will be up to speed by the playoffs. He might not make it back to the team. Unfortunately, he has pretty much done all he wanted to.
20 Luc Robitaille
Luc was a trade from the L.A. Kings. This was just a year after the Wings were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. Luc is one of the many 500 goal scorers. He provides another old, but effective offensive punch.
21 Boyd Devereaux
Devereaux is a young speedy forward. He was one of the D's in the 3D line. This line consisted of Devereaux, Datsuyk, and Dandenault. The combination of these three young and very talented players became yet another weapon for the Wings. The future of the Wings looks good when there are players the caliber of Devereaux playing with them.
23 Stacy Roest
Roest is a recent aquisition for the Wings. A couple years ago Roest was traded away by the Red Wings. He has rejoined the Wings. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up with his recent sucess, but his speed will be a great asset to the team.
25 Darren McCarty
McCarty has been with the Wings since before 1995. He has consistantly been the "Enforcer". He was the one who brought what most Detroit's thought was just reward to Claude "The Turtle" Lemieux. McCarty also has a great scoring ability. He proved this with big goals against Philidelphia in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals to seal the Cup, and also against Patrick Roy on March 2, 1997.
29 Jason Williams
Williams is still a part of the vast young talent on the Wings. He had a couple strong games in the 2002 Playoffs. He also played near the end of the 2002 season with Yzerman resting his knee for the playoffs.
33 Kris Draper
Draper is another part of the Grind Line with Maltby and McCarty. He was part of the reason the Wings won two Cups. Unfortunately, it was because he was the victim of a cheap shot from Claude Lemieux. His speed rivals that of the really young players on the team like Devereaux and Dandenault. The biggest goal that I remember him scoring is during the 1998 playoffs. The Wings came back from two two goal deficits to send the game into overtime against the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Finals. He recieved a pass from Martin Lapointe, and one timed it into the goal behind Olaf Kolzig.
36 Derek King
I don't know anything about Derek King. He is a rookie, and I have only been able to see him play once.
42 Sean Avery
Sean Avery has been with the Wings a couple years. He unfortunately sat the bench because of the Wings vast amount of veterans and young talent on the team.
70 Matt Hubbauer
Another rookie that I haven't seen play. But I do expect to learn what they can do, even if I can only watch the game from West Lafayette.
91 Sergei Federov
Sergei has been a life-time Wing. He has been able to thrive because of the talent on the Wings. When Yzerman goes down in any part of the season, it is Federov that is the one to send his game to a new level. To me it seems when Yzerman is healthy, Federov doesn't play to his ablity, but just does average.
96 Tomas Holmstrom
Tomas Holmstrom's hands are infamous. He has the softest hands I have ever seen. During the routing of Colorado in game 7 of the Western Conference Finals Holmstrom tipped a shot into the far corner of the net as he was falling to the ice.
Defensemen
2 Jiri Fisher
The 2001-02 season was a break out season for Fisher. He was a physical force to be delt with on the blue line. He definately grew up from the previous season. He learned from the greats, Chelios and Lidstrom. I expect Fisher to once again have a season that surprises many people.
3 Jesse Wallin
5 Nick Lidstrom
Nick Lidstrom is the greatest defenseman that I have watched. The amount of mistakes that I have seen him make can be counted on my hands. Even when he does make a mistake, they aren't so severe that they lead to a goal or a scoring chance. The defense of the Red Wings is built around this master of the ice.
11 Mathieu Dandenault
Dandenault is one of my favorite players. He hasn't scored too many goals yet. But he is very versetile. He began with the Red Wings playing as a winger. But that wasn't where Scotty Bowman wanted him. Scotty moved him back to defense. This past year though, Dandenault found himself once again at the winger positiion as part of the 3D line.
24 Chris Chelios
Chelios became a Wing after the Wings won thier back to back Stanley Cups. He came as the former captian of the Chicago Blackhawks. He found his place quickly as a supplement D-man to Lidstrom. He has been a teacher to the young D-men. He was paired up with Yiri Fisher throughout most of 2002. He has taught Fisher well, and will help to teach and learn from the defensemen in another year with the Wings.
32 Maxim Kuznetsov
55 Dmitri Bykov
Goalies
31 Curtis Joseph
Curtis Joseph, or Cujo, has replaced the retired Hasek as the number one goalie for the Wings. He came from Toronto, the long time rival of the Wings. I am looking forward to this season with him in net. I learned from watching Hasek for a year that he had way too many weak points. From what I have seen with Cujo, he is a lot more solid goalie with a better style of goaltending.
34 Manny Legace
Once again, Legace is the back-up goalie for the Wings. He has been back up to Osgood, Hasek, and now Cujo. Reguardless, I would rather see him in the Wing net than Ed Belfor, who the Wings were considering picking up over the summer when Hasek left.
