The Detroit Red Wings’ decision not to qualify Wojciech Stachowiak has already turned into a win for someone else.
After last season with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, the forward became an unrestricted free agent, and the Swedish club Örebro jumped in. It’s early, but the Polish-born German Olympian is wasting no time making noise in the SHL.
He announced himself in his Örebro debut with a highlight-reel goal, and teammate Patrik Karlkvist was instantly sold.
“Oh my God, what a goal he scores,” Karlkvist told Swedish website NA.se.
Karlkvist had even more praise beyond the finish.
“First of all, he’s a great guy,” Karlkvist said. “Very positive and happy and easily fits into the team.
“Then he has hockey in him. You could see that from the very beginning. He’ll only get better and better the longer it goes on.”
While Stachowiak is making a quick impression in Sweden, Igor Larionov managed to spark a different kind of head-turning moment back in his own hockey world.
The Hall of Famer, a member of the famed Russian Five and a three-time Stanley Cup winner with Detroit, was talking about the season debut of SKA St. Petersburg, the club he coaches, after it beat Lada 4-3 in overtime despite 28 turnovers. In that discussion, Larionov reached back to his own Red Wings days - and got the details wrong.
“The first game is always difficult, no matter the level,” Larionov said on the SKA website. “You know, if we’re talking about hockey, let’s say, in my time, the first match at my home stadium, Joe Louis Arena, wasn’t the best.”
Detroit’s own social media history adds a little context: Larionov was 41 when he became the oldest player in Stanley Cup history to get four points in a playoff game, putting up a goal and three assists in a 6-4 win over Vancouver in Game 6 of the Western Conference quarterfinals on April 27, 2002.
As for that supposed shaky home debut, the record shows it came on November 11, 1995 against the Dallas Stars. Larionov scored a goal and an assist in a 5-1 Detroit win.
Apparently, that doesn’t meet his personal standard.
Or he just doesn’t remember it that way.
There was also movement in another Red Wings-related departure story, this one involving Eduards Tralmaks. Last season, after signing with Detroit, he had already agreed to a futures pact with Karlovy Vary of the Czech Extraliga - essentially a deal to join them if North America didn’t work out.
When the summer arrived and the Red Wings let him go, Tralmaks changed course.
“I received an SMS that he doesn’t want to play for us,” Karlovy Vary executive Daniel Tobolka told Czech website iSport.
Karlovy Vary then moved Tralmaks’ Czech rights to Kladno for an undisclosed sum of cash, and Tobolka didn’t hide his satisfaction with how the situation ended.
“We came out of it absolutely great,” Tobolka said. “Really like winners.”
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