Scouting the Detroit Red Wings: Ville Leino

August 19, 11:27 PMDetroit Red Wings ExaminerMike Mouat

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Ville Leino

Today's profile: Ville Leino

Height: 6'0"
Weight: 182
Birthdate: October 6, 1983 (25 years old)
Position: Left Wing
Shoots: Left
Uniform #: 21
Contract status: Signed through 2010-11
Salary Cap Figure: $800,000
Salary in 2009-10: $800,000

2008-09

In a limited body of work in Detroit in 2008-09 Ville Leino gave the impression that he can score. He scored a beautiful goal in his very first NHL game January 31st against Washington, and scored a point in each of the first three games of his career. Check out the video of Leino's first goal below:

In just 13 games in Detroit he scored five goals and nine points playing just 12:42 a game mostly on the fourth line. In fact his arrival on the fourth line revitalized the unit. Center Kris Draper had scored just seven points (3-4) in the first 48 games and matched that total (2-5) in the 13 games Leino played on his wing. Kirk Maltby experienced similar numbers having scored seven points (4-3) in 45 games prior to Leino's arrival and scored four points (1-3) while playing on the same line.

Prior to signing with Detroit as a free agent on May 10, 2008, Leino finished second in scoring in the Finnish league with 77 points (28-49) in 55 games and was named the league's best player. Many expected that he would make the Red Wings out of training camp as his offensive skill was hard to overlook with six points in eight preseason games, prompting coach Mike Babcock to admit that Leino was the best player he'd ever had to cut. Instead he started the season in Grand Rapids and played well until January. Leino's strengths are his puck handling and playmaking skills and he his very good on the cycle. He is not blessed with great speed and can hold onto to the puck too long, and he needs to continue to improve his defensive play if he wants to get more ice time and opportunity on offense. He is one of several unknown quantities in the Red Wings roster this season, but in his brief stint in Detroit has shown the ability to make the players around him better offensively. He will not be mentioned in many rookie of the year discussions at the start of the year, but he could be in the mix at the end of the season.

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• Dan Cleary  Pavel Datsyuk  Kris Draper  Patrick Eaves  Jonathan Ericsson  Valtteri Filppula  Johan Franzen  Darren Helm  Tomas Holmstrom  Niklas Kronwall   Brett Lebda   Ville Leino  Nicklas Lidstrom  Andreas Lilja  Kirk Maltby  Derek Meech  Chris Osgood  Brian Rafalski  Brad Stuart  Jason Williams  Henrik Zetterberg