Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis discusses the Detroit Red Wings’ prospect pool today, addressing the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and offering a top 10 list of drafted players over the course of a lengthy article:
While the Yzerplan hasn’t panned out into any tangible NHL success, you can’t argue with the talent waiting in the wings.
The Red Wings might look like a mess on paper, with many not expecting the team to make the playoffs again in 2025-26. Last year saw the promotion of Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper and Elmer Soderblom to the big club, with the first two playing significant roles throughout the season. That alone is good, and while there’s a real chance not a single new prospect will earn a full-time gig this coming year, there’s plenty of talent on the way up.
The most exciting element is the arrival of Axel Sandin-Pellikka, the team’s top prospect, in North America. He looked good in his two-game AHL stint after putting up excellent numbers in the SHL and with Sweden at the World Juniors. The Red Wings have always shown a willingness to play the patient game with their star blueliners, and it has worked out quite well for Edvinsson and Moritz Seider so far. I’m excited to see what’s next with ASP.
But that’s just scratching the surface. The team has legit skill at every position, giving them one of the strongest pipelines in hockey.
Biggest Strength
There might not be a harder position to snag depth for than in net. Yet, the Wings have a handful of legit goaltending prospects (which isn’t shocking given they had like 400 contracted crease protectors last year). Both Trey Augustine and Sebastian Cossa look like future NHL starters – don’t be surprised if one is moved out to get immediate help. Rudy Guimond had one of the best seasons of any junior goalie this past year, going 16-0-0 in the regular season and 8-1 with Moncton in the playoffs en route to a QMJHL title. I also thought Michal Pradel was one of the top goaltenders in the 2025 draft, so that’s another high-end pickup.
Biggest Weakness
Left-handed defenders are typically a dime a dozen – but not a single one appears in Detroit’s top 10. I like Shai Buium, and I wouldn’t write off Anton Johansson, either. But I’m not convinced a single LHD is a surefire NHLer. With all the other depth they have, it feels a bit nitpicky. But it seems like the Red Wings focused on finding value in some of the tougher areas to develop and forgot about the left side of the point.
Continued; I would argue that the Red Wings are a “work in progress” on paper, and I’m just not particularly concerned about the Wings’ lack of prospects who are left defensemen at this point, mostly because they have stay-at-home guys like Brady Cleveland and Will Murphy marinating to serve as complementary partners to the Wings’ offensively-gifted right defensemen, ut that’s just me.
