Red Wings prospects Marco Kasper of Austria and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard of Norway are going to participate in the IIHF’s 2026 Olympic qualifying tournament between August 29th and 31st in Milan, Italy.
Both players will be playing 3 games over the course of 3 days, and the IIHF’s YouTube Channel will stream Austria and Norway’s games online (outside of the rights-holding countries).
Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis posted a tournament primer, and he discussed both Kasper and Brandsegg-Nygard’s roles on their respective teams:
From Aug. 29 to Sept. 1, 12 nations will battle for three spots in Milan. The teams will be split up into three cities: Bratislava, Slovakia (Austria, Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Slovakia); Riga, Latvia (France, Latvia, Slovenia, and Ukraine); and Aalborg, Denmark (Denmark, Great Britain, Japan, and Norway).
The winner of each of the three tournaments will join the pack of 12 in Italy in 2026, with the host teams of all three events expected to be the favorites to move on. The teams with automatic invitations are Canada, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Italy (as hosts), Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Here are his takes on Kasper and MBN:
Marco Kasper, C, Austria (Detroit Red Wings): The Austrians should lean on Kasper to bring speed and skill to the lineup. Kasper’s first season in North America started off slowly, as he registered just five points in his first 16 games over the season’s first two months. He still had some difficult stretches, including a six-game pointless streak to close the regular season and kick off the playoffs. But he was so good when he was on his game, eventually finishing with 14 goals and 35 points. Hopefully, he can start the year off with a big showing on the international stage, surrounded by as much help as he’s ever had while representing the Austrians.
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, RW, Norway (Detroit Red Wings): Brandsegg-Nygard might not be the flashiest player, but he’s a battler. And as the 2024 World Championship wore on, it was good to see him getting more opportunities alongside Zuccarello and Thoresen. MBN also received lots of love from those who watched him in some exhibition action over the past few weeks, too, which is an excellent sign for one of Detroit’s top prospects. He had one of the best shot releases in the 2024 draft, and with the right linemates, he will be one heck of a scoring threat in the NHL – and, hopefully, for Norway at this tournament, too.
Continued; the Austrian Ice Hockey Association and the Norwegian Hockey Federation have very good websites (with associated respective Eishockey_aut and Norskishockey Twitter accounts).
