Detroit Red Wings reduce their roster to 22 skaters after victory over Pittsburgh

September 27, 11:16 PMDetroit Red Wings ExaminerMike Mouat

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Detroit Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk looks for a scoring chance against Pittsburgh Penguins' Jay McKee during the third period. (AP Photo/Jerry S. Mendoza)

Following their 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon the Detroit Red Wings made their final roster moves before departing for Sweden.

Brian Rafalski paced the Red Wings attack on Sunday with four assists, and Pavel Datsyuk and Jason Williams had a goal and an assist each. Johan Franzen and Ville Leino also scored for Detroit while Pascal Dupuis scored the Pittsburgh goal. Jimmy Howard had a strong game in goal for Detroit playing all 60 minutes and facing 26 shots.

Following the game, as reported by Ansar Khan of mlive.com, the Red Wings made their final roster moves before going to Sweden to play an exhibition game against Farjestad on Wednesday. The Red Wings will also open the regular season in Sweden with a pair of games against the St. Louis Blues as part of the Compuware NHL Premiere event in Stockholm.

Justin Abdelkader has earned a spot on the opening night roster by his performance in the preseason and because of injuries. Abdelkader played in seven exhibition games and scored one goal and three assists for four points. It is likely he will stay on the Detroit roster until Darren Helm, who has been placed on short-term injured reserve list with a sprained knee, is ready to return to action.

The following players were assigned to the Red Wings primary affiliate Grand Rapids in the American Hockey League (AHL): forwards Mattias Ritola, Johan Ryno, Francis Pare, Evan McGrath, Jeremy Williams, Kris Newbury and Jan Mursak; defensemen Jakub Kindl, Logan Pyett, Andy Delmore, Doug Janik and goaltender Thomas McCollum.

Joining Helm on the short-term injured list is Cory Emmerton who will report to Grand Rapids as soon as he is healthy (one week). Andreas Lilja has been placed on the long-term injured reserve list, and Brad May has been sent to Grand Rapids on an AHL tryout.

Following these moves the Red Wings have 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies on their roster. Based on preseason line combinations and defense pairing it is very likely the Red Wings lineup on opening night in Stockholm will look like this:

Forwards
Johan Franzen (LW) - Pavel Datsyuk (C) -Tomas Holmstrom (RW)
Todd Bertuzzi (LW) -Henrik Zetterberg (C) -Dan Cleary (RW)
Ville Leino (LW) -Valtteri Filppula (C) - Jason Williams (RW)
Kris Draper (LW) -Justin Abdelkader (C) - Patrick Eaves (RW)
Reserve: Kirk Maltby

Eaves gets the nod over Maltby at this point based on his work on the penalty kill during preseason, his superior speed, and he has more potential to score than Maltby.

Defense
Nicklas Lidstrom - Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson - Brett Lebda
Derek Meech

Although based on their play in the preseason, Meech could easily take Lebda's spot in the third pairing as he has vastly outplayed him.

Goalies
Chris Osgood
Jimmy Howard

Daniel Larsson is also travelling with the team but is not officially considered on the roster. He is the third goalie and would only be activated as a roster player in the case of an injury to either Osgood or Howard.