NHL.com’s Dave Hogg penned a profile of Red Wings prospect and Skelleftea AIK defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka, who will be taking part in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI this and next week:
As always, development camp was as much about a player’s off-ice life as his game on it. Sandin Pellikka said he learned about everything from finances to better ways to work out to the best ways to get enough rest.
“It is a real eye-opener from a sense that this is my profession now,” he said. “It isn’t just something I love to do. I’m learning about how to invest my money and better nutrition and small things about sleeping that I had never heard before. It’s a lot of things I’m taking note of for my future.”
Especially in Sandin Pellikka’s case; right-shot defensemen are not an organizational strength now, and that could work in his favor.
“We knew we needed the right kind of right-shot defenseman, obviously, and we really like his hockey sense and his poise with the puck,” assistant general manager Kris Draper said. “When he was 17, he was running the power play for Sweden at the U-18s (21 points; five goals, 16 assists in 19 games in the 2023 tournament), and he has kept doing that at every level. He knows how to manage the puck and the game.”
Sandin Pellikka (5-foot-11, 176 pounds) will return home for his second season with Skelleftea of the Swedish Hockey League, after he had five points (two goals, three assists) in 22 games last season, as well as 36 points (16 goals, 20 assists) in 31 games for Skelleftea’s junior team. And with him, a detailed plan for improvement.
“I need to focus on my defensive game, he said. “My defensive coach in the SHL already works with me after every practice on 1-on-1 drills to be a better defender, but I still need to get stronger.”
