The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler posted a list of his top 100 drafted NHL skater prospects this morning, and, while the Red Wings’ deep pool of prospects receive 6 mentions…
Axel Sandin Pellikka cracks the top 50 at #47, Carter Bear is ranked #59th, J.P. Hurlbert is ranked #64th, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard is raned #66th, Nate Danielson is ranked #85th, and Max Plante is ranked #89th.
In other words, the Red Wings’ prospect corps has to prove doubters wrong in terms of their potential NHL impacts. As usual.
Here’s what Wheeler has to say about ASP:
Axel Sandin-Pellikka
Height: 6′ Weight: 186 Ibs DOB: Mar. 11, 2005
Sandin-Pellikka is an individually talented, competitive defenseman with natural scoring instincts and the tools to execute who had a brilliant run in the SHL and at a couple of World Juniors but will have to develop some areas to make the same impact in the NHL.
He has 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 has 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 has 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 a defensively capable one at five-on-five. When he’s on, he can control the game in all three zones and really drive shot creation. Defensemen of his size have struggled in recent years to make the same impact in the NHL, but I think he gets there in time.
Continued (paywall)
