Helm Can Be Red Wings' X-Factor

You know you've reached at least some sort of cult status as a pro athlete, when people start dubbing young, up-and-coming players as a "little" you.

Kris Draper has, believe it or not, achieved that status.

Don't look now, but Draper is a grizzled, 15-year veteran now. He's one of those four-time Stanley Cup winners that dot the Red Wings' roster.

The Draper story is near legend in these parts.

Purchased for $1 from the Winnipeg Jets. Speedy Gonzalez on the ice. Founding member of the Grind Line. Face smashed like an egg shell into the boards by Claude Lemieux. Eventually, one of the premier face-off men in the league, and maybe one of the best penalty killers in history. Scores a goal every other full moon.

Today, Draper is one of the faces of the Wings who kind of functions as an unofficial team spokesman. He's no longer an afterthought with reporters; he's one of the first Red Wings whose opinion is sought out.

Now here comes a player that has been called, by some, a "little Kris Draper." I'm one of the some.

Darren Helm is 21 years old, skates like he was shot out of a cannon, and seems to make the other team nervous out there because of his speed and forechecking ability.

Draper is 37, and with most teams that means he's nearing his swan song, but with the Red Wings, that really doesn't mean jack. How can it, when last year the team employed a 43-year-old goalie and still keeps a 46-year-old defenseman on its roster? And, correct me if I'm wrong (but I'm not), but isn't Nicklas Lidstrom 38? And isn't Lidstrom simply the best defenseman in the NHL, and in Europe, and in the Milky Way?

So it's not like Draper is being booted out the door by the emergence of Helm, who made quite an impression in last spring's playoffs. But there certainly is room for two jitterbugs like Draper and Helm on the payroll.

Helm sat out the first four games of the first round, and was inserted in time for Game 5 against Nashville, when the Red Wings found themselves in a shaky 2-2 series tie. He didn't come out of the lineup the rest of the way.



I was stunned at how much influence Helm, a rookie who had just seven NHL games under his belt come playoff time, had on the tempo of the game whenever he was on the ice. It wasn't just his speed, which is blurring, but it was his puck sense and his knack for being around it. In short, you can usually tell who the veterans are during the playoffs. There's an intangible there. They play with a certain calmness and are able to harness their amped up energy. So here Darren Helm was, flying around the ice, but in control and making things happen. Maybe this is the highest praise: I felt absolutely no uneasiness whenever Helm was on the ice. To the contrary: I WANTED Helm on the ice, and as much as possible.

Helm chipped in four points (2 G, 2 A) in his 18 playoff games.

Yet Helm's place on the 2008-09 Red Wings is hardly sealed. Competition is fierce, and there's no guarantee, none at all, that Helm will be among the Red Wings when they prepare for their season opener a week from Thursday against Toronto. Helm's biggest hurdle, it appears, is Finnish forward Ville Leino.

Coach Mike Babcock had nice things to say about Leino after last night's exhibition against Atlanta, but said this about Helm: "I think Helm's an NHL player. Every time he's on the ice, something happens. He's an elite skater; he's got good hockey sense."

You know, just like a little Kris Draper.