Edvinsson, Larkin may have a very short ‘runway’ with which to prepare for the Red Wings’ regular season games

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan expressed some concern to MLive’s Ansar Khan regarding the possibility that Simon Edvinsson and/or Dylan Larkin may not be able to get into any exhibition games due to contractual issues and an upper-body injury, respectively:

“If you don’t play in a preseason game, that means you got to play in a regular season game and it gets going obviously a lot faster and more intense then,” coach Todd McLellan said. “So, if we can get them in one based on health and get them up and running, then we’re sure going to try. If not, then it’s regular season and see what we get.”

The Red Wings previously played eight exhibition games. That changed because the NHL expanded the regular season to 84 games.

Edvinsson at least has been skating.

“He’s been able to practice; fit, healthy training in the weight room and stuff like that,” McLellan said. “It’s not the same as getting the reps in exhibition season, but it is what it is. Let’s hope that everybody can get their business done and we can get them back quickly.”

Continued (paywall); getting one’s legs underneath yourself during training camp is pretty damn important for every player, as is participating in an exhibition game or two…

But you go with the runway you’re given, and both Edvinsson and Larkin may simply have to ramp themselves up to game shape over the course of a couple of regular season games.

HSJ in the afternoon: The new CBA forces Red Wings to further truncate training camp for several top prospects

If a truncated exhibition season wasn’t difficult enough for NHL teams to navigate, the Free Press’s Helene St. James reports that the new CBA requires certain players to be given 1 of 4 training camp days off to be able to play in more than one exhibition game. As such, Sunday’s Red Wings roster was missing some important pieces…

Forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Bear and Nate Danielson and defensemen William Wallinder and Sandin Pellikka had Sunday off to satisfy Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding days off during camp.

“That allows them to now play back-to-back, so they will play tomorrow in Columbus, and they are scheduled to play on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, and that gets them two games,” McLellan said. “That leaves two more games – we’ll make decisions on those later on. The players that we think are close will get more games, and as we get to game four, we’d like to have somewhat of a lineup together, with maybe one or two pieces that we’re deciding on playing that night.”

Larkin’s unavailability affects line combinations, but so far it’s been Andrew Copp with Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond; Marco Kasper with Emmitt Finnie and Viktor Arvidsson; Danielson with Brandsegg-Nygard and Carter Mazur, and J.T. Compher with Keegan Kolesar and either of Michael Rasmussen and Mason Appleton.

Continued (paywall) with this regarding the Red Wings’ goaltending plans for tomorrow night and Tuesday evening:

The plan is for designated backup, newcomer Daniil Tarasov, to play the first two periods Monday, and No. 1 John Gibson the first two periods in Pittsburgh. Trey Augustine and Michal Postava will each play one period of those nights, and then Gibson (likely for the finale) and Tarasov will each play a full game at Little Caesars Arena.

Tarasov was signed in free agency for one year at $2 million in free agency. “It’s a huge opportunity, joining this team who is battling in the past years,” Tarasov said. ” I’m just happy to join this team and make it this huge step.”

Coach McLellan explains why Sunday’s special teams battle was unsatisfactory

Updated at 2:28 PM: As previously noted, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan was unhappy with his charges’ showings during Sunday’s final training camp practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center.

As Khan Tweeted, the Red Wings ran a power play vs. penalty-kill scrimmage on Sunday, and the Grand Rapids Griffins’ players defeated Detroit 6-0.

With road exhibition games against Columbus and Pittsburgh looming on Monday and Tuesday night, respectively, Coach McLellan expanded upon his remarks while speaking with MLive’s Ansar Khan:

“Today, the kids were really good,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “They worked their butts off. They made plays, they executed better than the veteran players. It wasn’t even close. That’s a really good sign for our organization. Or maybe it isn’t. It depends how you look at it.”

The Red Wings open their four-game preseason Monday at Columbus (7 p.m., livestreamed on detroitredwings.com).

The Red Wings squad consisted of mostly the regular roster except for Dylan Larkin (upper-body injury), Simon Edvinsson (still unsigned, practicing but not scrimmaging) and some young players pushing for jobs (Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, William Wallinder).

The Griffins squad featured only three players who’ve appeared in games for the Red Wings (Dominik Shine, John Leonard and Sheldon Dries).

Coach McLellan was happier with the ways in which the coaching staff got its points across over the course of the Wings’ 4-day training camp as a whole, though the bitter taste of today’s “big club” struggles persisted:

Continue reading Coach McLellan explains why Sunday’s special teams battle was unsatisfactory

Duff on the Red Wings’ new-look second line

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that the Red Wings currently plan on icing a second line consisting of Viktor Arvidsson, Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie, with the 33-year-old Arvidsson setting the pace for his new linemates:

Arvidsson is no stranger to McLellan’s systems, having played under him with the LA Kings, and he knows what his ‘new’ coach expects of him and how to set the right example for the rest of the roster. The Red Wings, without an official on-ice leader, are needing to pull from a lot of different sources when it comes to establishing the identity McLellan wants.

“Just his leadership is pretty direct. He’s really structured and can push you,” said Arvidsson, “He’s easy to work with and he’ll give it to you in a really honest way.”

The Red Wings will need plenty of structure to support an offense that lost 34 goals and 91 points over the summer. Arvidsson should help to alleviate some of those losses, with six 20+ goal seasons under his belt, but the real barometer will be whether the rest of his linemates are able to follow his lead.

“Me and Emmitt are just trying to listen to him as well, and do the things we do well. He’s been great off the ice too- Just awesome guy all around,” said Kasper.

Continued; if the 2nd line works, the Wings are better off with a rebounding Kasper between the gritty Arvidsson and plucky Finnie.

Coach McLellan’s re-shuffling the Red Wings’ D pairs

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan has broken up the Ben Chiarot-Justin Faulk and Albert Johansson-Axel Sandin Pellikka/Jacob Bernard-Docker defensive pairings, flippping Chiarot and Johansson as the coach attempts to determine who plays best with whom:

“The two starting points of Albert’s season, he’s got better as it went along,” McLellan said. “He started a little bit slow. We want him to start fast, and we want to find out, make sure that he can handle those [top-four] minutes. We think that they’ll complement each other. And then Benny gets to go and play with whoever’s going to be on the [right side of the third pairing].”

Who that might be is anyone’s guess at this juncture. There are certainly plenty of candidates.

“It is going to be competitive,” McLellan said. “You know, we talk about Ax [Axel Sandin-Pellikka], we have a pretty good idea what he can do. [Jacob] Bernard Docker gave us a good run of games last year, earned himself a contract. Then you bring in [William] Wallinder and [Anton] Johansson, who are on the cusp of being NHL players, in my opinion, and [Jacob] Bryson, who’s already played a bunch of NHL games. So there is some depth there.

“Right now, they’re all competing. Who ends up on the initial roster, I couldn’t tell you at this point. And then maybe we have to thin the herd a little bit later on. But we’ll see where we are, what kind of start we get to, who’s playing well, who isn’t, and make some decisions after that.”

Continued with discussion about the Wings’ top pairing of Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider…

Tweets of note: Coach McLellan was an unhappy camper after the Red Wings’ final day of training camp

Of note from Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s press conference after the final day of training camp:

Here’s the video again:

Video: Viktor Arvidsson, Daniil Tarasov and coach Todd McLellan speak to the media after the final day of Red Wings 2026 training camp

New Red Wings forward Viktor Arvidsson and goaltender Daniil Tarasov spoke with the assembled media today, as did Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, marking the end of the Wings’ 2026 training camp:

Update:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a 6:39 clip of McLellan’s presser.

Copp on top (for now)

Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith discusses Andrew Copp’s status as the team’s interim #1 center thanks to his chemistry with Alex DeBrincat, and Smith weighs whether Copp may end up playing as a 2nd or 3rd-line pivot when Detroit’s fully healthy:

The former [Winnipeg Jets] forward is filling in on the top line between Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat while the Red Wings usual top line center and former captain Dylan Larkin sits out with injury. Meanwhile, Copp finds himself in the last year of his contract after he was part of the Red Wings most productive line down the stretch last season.

However, most of Copp’s work doesn’t end up showing up on the stat sheet under his name.

‘He probably didn’t have a great year as far as goals go, offense, five on five, but he produced with the other two [Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane] in different ways.’ Said head coach Todd McLellan.

Now, with the team’s future at center anything but certain, figuring out where Copp lands in the lineup gets hard to predict when, or if Dylan Larkin does return to play for the Red Wings this season.

Continued at length; Copp’s good enough to play as an interim #1 center, but he’s better-suited to 2nd or 3rd-line duty.

Tweet of note: new Red Wings forward Viktor Arvidsson ‘mic’d up’

The Red Wings posted a 1:29 clip of new forward Viktor Arvidsson being “mic’d up” during Detroit’s training camp at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training center:

Update: Here’s the YouTube “short” version:

Continue reading Tweet of note: new Red Wings forward Viktor Arvidsson ‘mic’d up’

Tweets of note from the fourth and final day of the Red Wings’ 2026 training camp: Detroit shifts it focus to preparing for preseason games

Updated 3x at 12:05 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center this morning to participate in their fourth and final day of training camp.

Back-to-back exhibition games loom, in Columbus against the Blue Jackets tomorrow (7 PM EDT start) and Pittsburgh on Tuesday (7 PM EDT start), and both games will be streamed on DetroitRedWings.com.

Here are the Tweets/X posts of note from Sunday’s on-ice sessions.

This post will be updated repeatedly, so “stay tuned!”

MLive’s Ansar Khan kicked off the party by noting the line combinations for the “first group” that hit the ice at 10 AM:

Continue reading Tweets of note from the fourth and final day of the Red Wings’ 2026 training camp: Detroit shifts it focus to preparing for preseason games