Deadline Detroit’s Paul Harris is a long-time hockey writer, and he posted an article this evening which both summarizes the Red Wings free agency moves, projects the Wings’ opening-night roster, and questions whether GM Steve Yzerman’s moves were the best ones for the growth of top prospects Jonatan Berggren, Simon Edvinsson, Elmer Soderblom:
Before those signings the team was already looking at a potential talent infusion going into the 2022-23 season but from more of its own draft choices who are beginning to come of age.
Defenseman Simon Edvinsson – the team’s first-round pick (sixth overall) in 2021 and who at 19 and 6-feet-6, has been compared to last season’s NHL Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) winner Moritz Seider, late bloomer Elmer Soderblom, 21 (the 159th pick in 2019) a 6-feet-8, 250-pound winger … with hands both signed three-year entry-level deals and are preparing for their first season in North America (both are from Sweden). Another Swede, left winger Jonatan Berggren who is 22, led the Red Wings American Hockey League affiliate the Grand Rapids Griffins with 64 points (21 goals and 43 assists) in 70 games in 2021-22, his first season in North America after being taken in the second round (33rd overall) in the 2018 draft.
All would have gotten a long look in training camp – Edvinsson was expected by most to make the team, Soderblom was expected to ultimately head to Grand Rapids, and the natural progression would have had Berggren heading the opposite direction to Detroit. And maybe they could have rivaled or come close to the impact that Seider and right wing Lucas Raymond had as rookies last season.
Not anymore.
It is always possible that one or more of Edvinsson, Soderblom and Berggren could still play their way onto the team in Traverse City and in exhibition games, but now all three will likely be in Grand Rapids when the regular season begins. Yzerman, like Ken Holland before him, prefers the Red Wings top prospects to get as much seasoning as possible in the American Hockey League as key players getting power-play time, etc., as opposed to being extra players in the NHL who sit out many games and/or go back and forth from Detroit to Grand Rapids before they are ready to be NHL regulars.
Harris continues at length, and I’ll readily admit that I was a bit shocked by the Red Wings’ aggressive draft and free agency moves…
But I have faith that the players who merit NHL ice time will get it, Berggren, Edvinsson and Soderblom included.
