The Detroit Red Wings locked up one of their restricted free agents Wednesday, signing right-winger Teemu Pulkkinen to a one-year contract worth $812,500, and now the pressure is squarely on Pulkkinen to display that he deserves a deal with longer term.
The American Hockey League’s goal-scoring leader in 2014-15, Pulkkinen has yet to display that he can acquire a regular goal-getting knack at hockey’s highest level. Pulkkinen scored six goals in 36 games last season but fell out of favour in the second half of the campaign.
He was a healthy scratch for all but eight of Detroit’s games after the NHL all-star break and didn’t see any action in the Wings’ five-game playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Pulkkinen is equipped with a powerful shot that allowed him to score 34 goals in 45 games for the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins in 2014-15 but his release is the issue at the NHL level. Pulkkinen seems to need to be set and require a significant wind up to unleash his booming blasts and it’s rare that there’s time to find either, let alone both while playing against the world’s best players.
With a glut of forwards in Detroit, Pulkkinen will start the season on injured reserve after undergoing shoulder surgery last month that will require 4-6 months of recovery, meaning he could be back as early as sometime in October or as late as December.
Although he’s tallied just 11 goals in 70 games, it still seems way too early for the Wings to be giving up on Pulkkinen considering the lack of goal scoring on the Detroit roster, but you get the sense that he could already be down to his last chance.
“He finds ways to score goals,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said of Pulkkinen. “He’s not the biggest guy but he knows where to be and he knows how to score goals.
“That’s pretty nice to have that in this game.…
Olympic Wing The Wings will be represented at the Rio Summer Olympic Games. Ray Whitney, a left-winger with the Red Wings in 2003-04, will serve as caddie for Canada’s Graham DeLaet in the men’s golf competition at the Games from Aug. 11-14.
Whitney produced 14-29-43 totals in 67 games in his only season as a Wing. Currently a pro scout for the Carolina Hurricanes, Whitney will fill in for Julian Trudeau, DeLaet’s regular caddie, who is reluctant to make the trip to Brazil due to the Zika virus.
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