The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranks the Detroit Red Wings as the 5th-best group of prospects in the NHL, despite his suggestion that the Red Wings have no “true star forward prospect.” Wheeler lists his top 15 Red Wings prospects and he goes in-depth in discussing each player this morning:
The Red Wings have a pretty unique pool in that the pools that typically rank in this range have a true star forward prospect; they have several very good ones but none that project to play on a first line. Instead, their star prospects are on defense and in net, with one of the top D prospects in the sport and two of the top goalie prospects in the sport supporting strong depth up front.
Axel Sandin Pellikka’s emergence as a potential top offensive defenseman moved the Red Wings from more of a top-10 pool to No. 5 for me.
2024 prospect pool rank: No. 2 (change: -3)
1. Axel Sandin Pellikka, RHD, 19 (Skellefteå AIK)
Sandin Pellikka has had a brilliant run in the SHL the last two seasons, producing at near-historic rates as a teenager in both, winning an SHL title, winning back-to-back directorate awards as the top defenseman at the World Juniors (he was Sweden’s youngest defenseman the first time he did, too) and emerging this season to play 20 minutes per game and become one of the league’s most productive defensemen regardless of age.
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. He’s got comfortable handles. He walks the line looking for his shot and chances to take space off it to attack into better spots, but he’ll find open teammates cross-ice through seams as well and is seeing the ice better and better. There are times when he can wait too long to make his decisions and I wouldn’t call him super creative or a highlight reel type, but he’s very talented, he makes good choices more often than he’s careless and he has progressed really rapidly.
He projects as a high-end offensive defenseman and defensively capable second-pairing one at five-on-five. When he’s on, he can control the game in all three zones and really drive shot creation.
Continued (paywall)
