With the Red Wings and Dallas Stars’ pair of “Prospect Games” scheduled to start tomorrow (8 PM EDT on DetroitRedWings.com and Victory+), MLive’s Ansar Khan examines the Wings’ roster for the tournament and picks 5 players to watch during the back-to-back games this weekend. Among them:
Carter Bear: A winger who blends scoring ability and competitiveness, Bear is described as having a non-stop motor and is coming off surgery for a torn Achilles. It shortened his season with Everett (WHL) to 56 games (40 goals, 42 assists). He is slated to return to Everett for his final junior season following training camp.
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard: A good-sized winger (6-1, 198) who likes playing physical and has offensive upside. He joined the Grand Rapids Griffins in April after his season ended with Skelleftea AIK of the Swedish Hockey League. His game might be better suited for the playoffs, where he tallied six goals and nine points in 14 games between Skelleftea and Grand Rapids compared to five goals and 11 points in 44 regular season games.
Shai Buium: Big, left-shooting defenseman (6-3, 209) is coming off his first pro season, when he finished second among Griffins defensemen with 25 points (including two goals) in 67 games. Selected 36th overall in 2021, he’s preparing for his second AHL season.
Continued (paywall) with praise for Nate Danielson and Axel Sandin Pellikka; I’m very interested to see whether Bear’s partially torn Achilles tendon has healed;
MBN is going to have to step up his physical game to truly establish himself as a power forward;
Buium has quite the opportunity to jump over other defensemen ahead of him on the Wings’ depth chart this upcoming season.
