FIRST WAVE ARRIVES

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Detroit Red Wings on Friday assigned nine players to the Grand Rapids Griffins, including goaltender Daniel Larsson; defensemen Jakub Kindl, Sergei Kolosov and Logan Pyett; and forwards Randall Gelech, Darren Haydar, Evan McGrath, Ryan Oulahen and Jamie Tardif. Also coming to Grand Rapids are five players on Griffins contracts who were released by Detroit, including defensemen P.J. Atherton, Tom Galvin and Jason Jozsa; and forwards Francis Lemieux and Francis Pare.

In addition, Grand Rapids announced that it has received center Aaron Gagnon on loan from the Dallas Stars, who are without an American Hockey League affiliate this season.

The Griffins also released nine players today upon the conclusion of their training camp at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit: goaltender Isaac Reichmuth; defensemen Johann Kroll, Brett Peterson, Kelly Sullivan and Adam Welch; and forwards Andrew Fournier, Matt McKnight, Evan Rankin and Geoff Walker.

The Griffins will hold their first practice in the Grand Rapids area under the tutelage of new head coach Curt Fraser this Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 11 a.m. at Griff's IceHouse, when they’ll ramp up preparations for the season opener in Cleveland next Saturday, Oct. 11 against the Lake Erie Monsters.

After playing their first three games on the road, the Griffins will make their 2008-09 Van Andel Arena debut on Saturday, Oct. 25 against the Hamilton Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Single-game tickets for all 40 home games are now on sale at all Star Tickets outlets, including the Zone and Meijer stores, or online, while group, full-season and mini-plan ticket packages are available by calling the Griffins at (616) 774-4585.