The Red Wings’ 2022 Prospect Tournament gets underway tomorrow in Traverse City, Michigan, and both MLive’s Ansar Khan and The Athletic’s Corey Pronman posted lists of prospects to watch in Traverse City and throughout the league, respectively.
Khan’s article lists 7 Red Wings prospects of note, including a Swedish rearguard who I’m going to be curious to see…
Albert Johansson: He is a bit under the radar, overshadowed by several other young defensemen and prospects in the organization. But the Red Wings believe Johansson can be a solid NHL defenseman one day. He’ll begin his AHL career in Grand Rapids this season after appearing in 141 games over the past four years with Farjestad BK in Sweden’s men’s league. He’s not big (6-0, 168) but skates well and is a good stickhandler.
Continued; Pronman’s one-prospect-per-team article discusses the other Swedish defenseman the Red Wings will be breaking in:
Detroit Red Wings — Simon Edvinsson, LHD: After his great 18-year-old season in the SHL, I thought Edvinsson looked like a strong candidate to be an NHLer in 2022-23. After a shaky summer world juniors though, I’m more 50-50 on that idea. It will make his camp fascinating and it will be interesting to see how the highly-toolsy defenseman does with the NHL pace and if he’s ready to be an everyday guy at that level.
Continued; Edvinsson was not at his best at the World Juniors, but between sustaining a pre-tournament injury, getting food poisoning and never finding his stride, there were some mitigating factors going on. I’m not saying that Edvinsson’s middling World Juniors performance is excused, but there are explanations as to why he wasn’t at his best.
