The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler posted a list of his top 100 drafted prospects this morning, and the Red Wings are represented by Simon Edvinsson at #29, Axel Sandin Pellikka at #37, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard at #39, Nate Danielson at #49 and Marco Kasper at #62. Here’s what he has to say about Sandin Pellikka (one paragraph out of two, anyway):
Sandin Pellikka is an individually talented, competitive 5-foot-11 defenseman with natural scoring instincts and the tools to execute. He’s got really good edges and mobility and has shown improved speed in straight lines to pull away from chasers (with more room for growth there still). He walks the line to get shots through at a high level, wants the puck in the offensive zone and has the skill and shot to make things happen when teammates find him off the point or as the trailer off the rush (which he often activates into). He keeps his head up in the neutral and defensive zones and is a confident puck carrier on exits and entries. Though he’s not big, he’s athletic and he plays hard and physical and engages in battles in the defensive zone with some sneaky strength. He’s got a good stick. He does a good job maintaining gaps and matching opposing forwards step for step skating backward, and times his close-outs and pinches effectively. He can really shoot it with a pinpoint accurate shot, a wrister that comes off hard and an eagerness to put pucks on net from the point. There are times when he can wait too long to make his decisions and I wouldn’t call him super creative, but he makes good choices more often than he’s careless and he has progressed really rapidly. He’s got a chance to be an impactful, maybe even high-end offensive defenseman and defensively capable second-pairing one. When he’s on, he can control the game in all three zones.
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