The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses a main topic for the Red Wings heading into training camp–regardless of whether Jonatan Berggren, Lucas Raymond or Moritz Seider attend this upcoming weekend’s four-day slate of practices and a Red vs. White Game in Traverse City:
Teams generally carry seven defensemen, leaving one in reserve. Last year the Wings barely needed that one: [Moritz] Seider and Shayne Gostisbehere (who left in the summer for the Carolina Hurricanes) each topped 80 games while [Ben] Chiarot, [Jeff] Petry and [Olli] Määttä topped 70. Only Jake Walman (since traded to the San Jose Sharks) had injuries that left him at 63 games. [Justin] Holl, not favored by the coaching staff, appeared in 38 games, and [Simon] Edvinsson spent most of the season in the minors, appearing in 16 NHL games.
Chiarot has paired with Seider on and off the past two seasons, and projects to do so again. [Erik] Gustafsson, a veteran of seven teams with 455 games on his résumé, is likely to get a look on the second pairing. If the Wings wanted a right-handed shot with the left-shooting Swede, the options are Holl or Petry.
Holl will be interesting to watch. Yzerman can’t have anticipated that Holl, signed last summer to a three-year deal worth $3.4 million annually, would spend the majority of the season as a healthy scratch. Higher-ups in the organization weren’t happy about it. While Holl has deficiencies, the 32-year-old plays to his 6-foot-3 frame and posted a respectable plus-8 rating last season. Petry has played in 937 games, but he’ll be 37 in December and isn’t the player he was in his prime.
Määttä, 30, is as serviceable as they come — just goes and plays a consistently simple game, night after night.
Edvinsson is a rangy 6-6 left-handed shot who down the road may develop into partnering with Seider. For now, expectations need to be held in check for a 21-year-old with 25 NHL games under his belt, and starting Edvinsson in the third pairing makes sense, depending how he fares during the preseason.
So where does that leave Johansson? With a great deal to accomplish during exhibition season, when he’ll get plenty of looks in many situations.
Continued (paywall); as far as anyone can tell, the Red Wings will carry eight defensemen, Johansson included, and it’s hard to imagine that Johansson will battle his way past the Red Wings’ current logjam of veteran defensemen out of training camp…
But injuries always strike, and if the Red Wings afford Johansson the chance to “steal a job” on the blueline, he may very well do just that.
