Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff wonders aloud whether the Red Wings might reunite the Moritz Seider-Simon Edvinsson pairing at some point during the exhibition season:
“I still think our top four, even some of our D pairs, will be fluid,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “Probably like to see Simon and Mo together a little bit.”
Seider, the sixth player chosen in the 2019 NHL entry draft and Edvinsson, chosen sixth overall in 2021, are going to be the cornerstones of the Detroit defense going forward. And Lalonde appears ready to cement that status sooner rather than later.
As Edvinsson prepares for his first full season in Detroit, the coach is opening up the opportunity for him to be one of the players driving the bus for the Red Wings.
“I see him in a top four (role) and we’ll kind of let it play out from there,” Lalonde said of Edvinsson. “Hopefully, he can even eat minutes. If he’s got it going one night we might be a little fluid with our top four. If he earns more minutes, he’ll get more minutes. We’re going to play to win and if he is the guy that earns those minutes to help us out down the stretch, he’ll get those minutes.”
To start out with, it’s likely that Detroit’s top two defensive pairings will look the same as what finished out last season. Seider will be with Ben Chiarot and Edvinsson with Jeff Petry. However, that, much like the TV listings, will be subject to change,
“Benny and Petry have had some experience together,” Lalonde said. Chiarot and Patry were a tandem during Montreal’s drive to the 2021 Stanley Cup final.
Continued; exhibition games are the time when coaching staffs can tweak defensive pairings with no adverse consequences in terms of points lost, so expect a significant amount of experimentation starting Wednesday night.
