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The Malik Report

Red Wings afternoon news: all about European player movement

by George Malik on 09/20/12 at 03:15 PM ET
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This afternoon's crop of Red Wings-related news almost entirely involves European news:

• Czech Extraliga team HC CSOB Pojistnova Pardubice officially announced its signing of Wings defenseman Jakub Kindl, as confirmed by Tyden.cz, Hockej.cz and Sportovni Noviny;
• Tomas Tatar has signed a short-term deal with SHK 37 Piestany of the Slovak Extraliga, and Tatar engaged in Q and A interviews with Sport.sk, Hokej.sk, CAS.sk, Pravda.sk, and Hokejportal.net;

• In important news regarding a non-signing, Expressen's Mattias Ek is reporting that Djugardens IF's GM, Charles Berglund, says that Niklas Kronwall's agent, Claes Elefak, has told Djugarden that Kronwall won't consider heading to Europe until at least Christmas, if he heads to Europe at all;
• As the Detroit News's Ted Kulfan notes, we should expect Valtteri Filppula's signing with Jokerit Helsinki to become official any day now;
• And in Russia, Sovetsky Sport's Pavel Lysenkov reports that Pavel Datsyuk passed his physical and practiced with the team, but didn't play against Barys Astana, and as Yahoo Sports' Dmitry Chesnokov noted on Twitter, CSKA's website posted both this morning's mentioned gallery of Datsyuk passing his physical and a gallery of Datsyuk practicing with CSKA on Thursday morning, Moscow time (which the Free Press's James Jahnke noted).

Back over on this side of the pond...

• MLive's Ansar Khan noted that Wings owner Mike Ilitch was named the 83rd-richest person in America by Forbes, which estimates his total wealth at $2.3 billion, and the Wings have already been named the 4th-most valuable franchise in the NHL at $336 million;
• If you live in Western Canada and want to watch Marek Tvrdon play for his WHL team, the Vancouver Sun's Elliott Pap reports that the Vancouver Giants have reduced upper-bowl tickets by $4 CDN;
• And if we are to believe NHL.com's John Kreiser, Pavel Datsyuk's the second-best "shutdown forward" in NHL history:

2. Pavel Datsyuk: If there were an award for thievery, Datsyuk would win that one as well -- few players in NHL history have been better at taking the puck away from opponents than the speedy Detroit center.

His ability to take the puck away from opponents is a big reason Datsyuk won the Selke Trophy for three years in a row from 2008-10. He's also a premier offensive player -- Datsyuk scored 97 points in each of his first two Selke seasons and has averaged just under a point a game for his career.

Datsyuk makes life miserable for opponents with his speed, skill, positioning and ability to control the puck, and he does it without taking a lot of penalties. He won the Lady Byng Trophy four straight times, including his first two seasons as the Selke winner.

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About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.