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Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist tries to stay between the puck and Phoenix's Boyd Gordon during a game last season.

(AP file photo)

DETROIT – Gustav Nyquist will go from playing in the AHL to playing on one of the Detroit Red Wings’ top two lines tonight when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at Joe Louis Arena (7:30, Fox Sports Detroit).

Nyquist arrived at Joe Louis Arena today and skated briefly, after being recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins.

He will make his Red Wings season debut playing on a line with Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen, coach Mike Babcock said.

“It feels great, obviously, very excited to get in again tonight and it’s going to be a fun game to be a part of,’’ Nyquist said.

The Red Wings are winless in seven games (0-2-5) and are riding an eight-game home winless skid (0-2-6). They desperately need an offensive boost but don’t want to put too much pressure on Nyquist, who was leading the Griffins with 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 15 games.

“I’m just going to try to play my game,’’ Nyquist said. “We all know that we’re in need of a win here as a team and obviously we’ve lost a few in a row up here and at home as well. So that’s something we want to change tonight.”

The Red Wings were forced to send Nyquist to Grand Rapids at the start of the season due to salary-cap and roster limitations. By placing defenseman Danny DeKeyser (separated shoulder, three-to-six weeks) on long-term injured reserve, the club received the needed cap relief to recall Nyquist.

“He was a good player for us last year and a key for us on our second-unit power play,'' Babcock said. "Played real well for us in the playoffs.

"He’s quick, generates offense, gives us another skilled player to play on our top six, which is real positive for us. We knew all along that we were going to try to get him here; we just financially had no way to do that. It’s great to see him here.”

The Red Wings said they will determine after the game whether Nyquist returns to Grand Rapids or stays. Once he plays two more NHL games he will lose his waiver-exempt status. In that case he would be here to stay.

Defenseman Kyle Quincey, who hurt his knee in Tuesday's game against Nashville, skated today and said he is good to go.

Here are the lines and defense pairs for tonight:

Daniel Cleary-Pavel Datsyuk-Todd Bertuzzi

Johan Franzen-Henrik Zetterberg-Gustav Nyquist

Tomas Tatar-Darren Helm-Justin Abdelkader

Drew Miller-Joakim Andersson-Mikael Samuelsson

Injured: Daniel Alfredsson, Stephen Weiss

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall

Kyle Quincey-Brendan Smith

Brian Lashoff-Jakub Kindl

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Jonas Gustavsson

Shanahan to be honored before the game

Before the game, the Red Wings will honor Brendan Shanahan for his recent induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. They will give away 22,000 posters, show his induction speech on the scoreboard from 6:43 to 6:58 and have artifacts from his career on display from the Hockey Hall of Fame on the concourse.

Shanahan will take part in the ceremonial puck drop.