Babcock: Helm Done for Season

Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock doesn’t think forward Darren Helm will return from his back injury this season.

“He’s not going to play hockey, right, this year, I don’t think,” Babcock told the assembled media after today’s practice at Joe Louis Arena.

“We got to get ourselves in the playoffs and be ready to go without him.”

Helm, who signed a four-year deal with an annual salary cap hit of $2.125 million last summer, has appeared in only one game for the Red Wings this season after injuring his back during a preseason workout. He had previously suffered a broken orbital bone in a scrimmage during the lockout.

Last spring Helm missed the final ten games of the season with a sprained MCL. He returned in the playoffs only to have tendons in his forearm slashed by the skate of Nashville’s Alexander Radulov in a freak accident.

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According to tweets from Finnish sportswriter Matias Strozyk, Red Wings’ prospect forward Teemu Pulkkinen will join the Grand Rapids Griffins this week as the team closes out its regular season.