Detroit, MI -- The Detroit Red Wings® and Toronto Maple Leafs® today announced the addition of eight total players who will participate in the festivities surrounding the 2012 Maple Leafs vs. Red Wings Alumni Showdown™ on December 31 at Comerica Park™ as part of the 2012 SiriusXM Hockeytown Winter Festival™. Detroit has added forwards Petr Klima, Dallas Drake, Garry Unger and Paul Ysebaert while Toronto has announced the addition of Hall of Famers Joe Nieuwendyk, Borje Salming, Frank Mahovlich and Mats Sundin.

A seven-time participant in the NHL All-Star Game, Garry Unger appeared in 216 consecutive games for the Red Wings after being acquired in a trade with the Maple Leafs on March 3, 1968. Unger went on to set the league’s ‘iron man’ record (since surpassed by Doug Jarvis) by skating in 914 straight contests during his 1,105-games career which included stints with the Oilers, Kings, Blues and Flames. Selected by the Red Wings in the fifth round (88th overall) of the 1983 entry draft, Petr Klima defected to Detroit from Czechoslovakia prior to the 1985-86 season, making him the first player in history to go directly from the USSR satellite nation to a United States-based NHL team. Klima went on to appear in 293 games for the Red Wings during his first stint in Detroit, tallying 222 points on 129 goals and 93 assists. Traded to Edmonton on November 2, 1989, Klima went on to skate with the Oilers, Lightning, Kings and Penguins prior to returning to the Red Wings in 1998-99, netting one goal in 13 appearances to finish his NHL career with 313G-260A-573P in 786 games played.

Acquired from the Devils 11 games into the 1990-91 season, Paul Ysebaert spent 210 of his 532 career NHL games with the Red Wings, totaling 84G-86A-170P for Detroit and 149G-187A-336P overall. Ysebaert became the first Red Wing to win the NHL’s Plus/Minus Award in 1991-92 after finishing his first full season in the league with a mark of +44. A native of Trail, B.C., Dallas Drake played collegiate hockey with the Northern Michigan Wildcats, earning a WCHA First Team All-Star nod in 1992 to go along with NCAA West First Team All-American honors. Detroit’s sixth pick (sixth round, 116th overall) at the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, made his Red Wings debut in 1992-93 and was traded to the Jets the following season. After a lengthy tenure with the Winnipeg/Phoenix franchise and St. Louis, Drake signed with Detroit as a free agent during the summer of 2007 and the gritty winger went on to end his 1,009-game career in storybook fashion by winning the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings the following spring.

Currently the General Manager of the Dallas Stars, Joe Nieuwendyk won three Stanley Cups over the course of his 20-season playing career (Calgary – 1989, Dallas – 1999, New Jersey – 2003) during which he tallied 1,126 points (564G-562A) in 1,257 games. During his lone campaign in Toronto (2003-04), Nieuwendyk recorded 64GP-22G-28A-50P. In 2011, the Oshawa, Ont., native was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.



A 1981 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, Frank Mahovolich won four Stanley Cups with Toronto between 1962 and 1967, adding two more titles as a member of the Montréal Canadiens in 1971 and 1973. Having helped Canada defeat the Soviet Union at the 1972 Summit Series, Mahovolich was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1998 by then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

The highest-scoring Swedish-born player in NHL history, Mats Sundin is also the Maple Leafs’ all-time leading scorer with 987 points (420G-567A) in 981 appearances (1346GP-564G-785A-1349P overall). A member of Sweden’s Gold Medal-winning squad at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Sundin was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame earlier this year and will be officially inducted in November.



Toronto’s all-time leading scoring amongst defensemen with 1099GP-148G-620A-768P, Borje Salming was a five-time NHL Second Team All-Star (1975, 1976, 1978, 1979 & 1980) and one-time First Team All-Star (1977) during his 17 seasons with the Maple Leafs. The Swedish-born blue-liner was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 and the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1998.

Updated alumni rosters for Toronto and Detroit can be found below. Further additions for both teams will be announced in the coming weeks.