Author: George Malik

Oh, the games that children (and sometimes adults) play…Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie play something that’s called “The Number Challenge,” and it’s as wacky as it sounds:

That's a lot of hot dogs🌭 pic.twitter.com/wn0fkAWFgb

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 21, 2026

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted an article this evening which focuses on the Red Wings players’ takes regarding this year’s truncated exhibition season as part of an accelerated learning curve for everyone on the team.

Andrew Copp, Alex DeBrincat and Viktor Arvidsson weigh in as to how the team can incorporate 4 days’ worth of training camp and 1 week’s worth of 4 exhibition games into complete preparation for the 2026-2027 season:

“We have so much to worry about in terms of preparation for the season,” Andrew Copp said. “Each guy has so much to worry about in their own individual game. As a team, we have to worry about our collective team game, getting together, all sorts of things. So honestly, since the team’s come back and we’ve kind of gotten on the ice together and once you get into the rhythm, it’s been normal. We got to keep it that way… Now it’s just time to go play hockey.”

On the compressed exhibition slate, Copp believes going from eight games in past seasons to four “is kind of the sweet spot.”

“You come in, you get to work right away,” the 32-year-old forward said. “There’s no dilly-dallying around. There’s no extra stuff going on. We got to get right to the point and obviously, these preseason games will be huge to kind of get your feet under you and get your timing down then get right into it.”

DetroitRedWings.com’s Kara Wolfbauer, the host of the Forecheck with Ken Kal before regular season home games, discusses the highlights from Detroit’s 2026 training camp this evening. Wolfbauer frames this past weekend’s storylines ahead of tomorrow night’s exhibition opener in Columbus vs. the Blue Jackets:

That’s a wrap on training camp in Detroit! Here’s a look at what stood out before the Wings shift into preseason play starting tomorrow🏒 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/EJKyAL14D4

— Kara Wolfbauer (@karawolfbauer) September 20, 2026

I remember when the Red Wings brought the highly-touted Michael Rasmussen up to Traverse City for the team’s prospect tournament 9 years ago. At the time, the hype surrounding the now-27-year-old was that the 6’6,” 223-pound center was that he’d become an offensively-gifted 2nd liner to build around.

Things haven’t quite worked out the way Rasmussen or the Red Wings predicted, but the Wings still believe that their serviceable 3rd/4th line center can provide more to the team that drafted him.

The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker spoke with coach Todd McLellan regarding the much-maligned “Moose”:

After recording just six goals and eight assists in 64 games during the 2025-26 season, the Red Wings will be looking for Rasmussen to use his size in a meaningful way for a team that is already struggling to score goals.

“He’s a big man and can hold on to pucks well, and he can play heavy along the boards,” said coach Todd McLellan. “That’s what we’re asking everyone to do. The abrasiveness and heaviness; he’ll have to be a good penalty killer for us to have success,” he continued.

As McLellan told Whitaker, it’s not just increased scoring that the Wings want to see from Rasmussen, who posted a 33-point season way back in 2023-2024. McLellan wants to see Rasmussen step up in the leadership department, too:

The Detroit Red Wings open a 4-game exhibition season tomorrow night, when the team travels to Columbus to play the Blue Jackets (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com; Columbus has already posted its game roster for tomorrow night’s affair).

The Wings will also play in Pittsburgh on Tuesday (7 PM EDT start, also streamed) before hosting Buffalo on Thursday (7 PM EDT on Detroit SportsNet) and wrapping up the exhibition slate by hosting the Blue Jackets next Saturday (7 PM EDT on DSN).

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan may not have been thrilled with today’s showing at training camp, but he duly noted to the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that now’s the time to work the bugs out of the team’s game ahead of the home opener against the Rangers on Friday, October 2nd.

McLellan also pointed out that the truncated training camp and exhibition season (down from 2 weeks’ worth of practices and 8 games played for Detroit to 1 week of practice and 4 games played) means that the coaching staff has to “squish” their teaching process into a tighter timeline:

“There are some other things that we’re going to change but we talked about this in the summer — there’s not enough time to revamp your whole game or do everything completely different,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We have to pick, and will pick, certain areas that we’re going to focus on and spend a little more time on, but time is of the essence. That early urgency, the ability to pick things up to find your rhythm as a player, is really important. A lot of tactics got jammed in quicker than if the camp would have been drawn out.”

Veterans who’ve played 100 games are limited to two preseason games, so the mix of getting those players game action while balancing watching prospects fighting for roster spots is a delicate dance with only four exhibition games.

Forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson and defensemen Axel Sandin-Pellikka and William Wallinder were among those not practicing Sunday, Sept. 20, meaning they’ll play the back-to-back games in Columbus and Pittsburgh this coming week.

“We’ve only skated for four days, we need some games,” McLellan said. “Get up and running and make a decision on that.”

Marco Kasper told Kulfan that the Red Wings need to get crashing and banging to get up to game speed…

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan expressed some concern to MLive’s Ansar Khan regarding the possibility that Simon Edvinsson and/or Dylan Larkin may not be able to get into any exhibition games due to contractual issues and an upper-body injury, respectively:

“If you don’t play in a preseason game, that means you got to play in a regular season game and it gets going obviously a lot faster and more intense then,” coach Todd McLellan said. “So, if we can get them in one based on health and get them up and running, then we’re sure going to try. If not, then it’s regular season and see what we get.”

The Red Wings previously played eight exhibition games. That changed because the NHL expanded the regular season to 84 games.

Edvinsson at least has been skating.

“He’s been able to practice; fit, healthy training in the weight room and stuff like that,” McLellan said. “It’s not the same as getting the reps in exhibition season, but it is what it is. Let’s hope that everybody can get their business done and we can get them back quickly.”

Continued (paywall); getting one’s legs underneath yourself during training camp is pretty damn important for every player, as is participating in an exhibition game or two…

But you go with the runway you’re given, and both Edvinsson and Larkin may simply have to ramp themselves up to game shape over the course of a couple of regular season games.

If a truncated exhibition season wasn’t difficult enough for NHL teams to navigate, the Free Press’s Helene St. James reports that the new CBA requires certain players to be given 1 of 4 training camp days off to be able to play in more than one exhibition game. As such, Sunday’s Red Wings roster was missing some important pieces…

Forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Bear and Nate Danielson and defensemen William Wallinder and Sandin Pellikka had Sunday off to satisfy Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding days off during camp.

“That allows them to now play back-to-back, so they will play tomorrow in Columbus, and they are scheduled to play on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, and that gets them two games,” McLellan said. “That leaves two more games – we’ll make decisions on those later on. The players that we think are close will get more games, and as we get to game four, we’d like to have somewhat of a lineup together, with maybe one or two pieces that we’re deciding on playing that night.”

Larkin’s unavailability affects line combinations, but so far it’s been Andrew Copp with Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond; Marco Kasper with Emmitt Finnie and Viktor Arvidsson; Danielson with Brandsegg-Nygard and Carter Mazur, and J.T. Compher with Keegan Kolesar and either of Michael Rasmussen and Mason Appleton.

Continued (paywall) with this regarding the Red Wings’ goaltending plans for tomorrow night and Tuesday evening:

The plan is for designated backup, newcomer Daniil Tarasov, to play the first two periods Monday, and No. 1 John Gibson the first two periods in Pittsburgh. Trey Augustine and Michal Postava will each play one period of those nights, and then Gibson (likely for the finale) and Tarasov will each play a full game at Little Caesars Arena.

Tarasov was signed in free agency for one year at $2 million in free agency. “It’s a huge opportunity, joining this team who is battling in the past years,” Tarasov said. ” I’m just happy to join this team and make it this huge step.”

Updated at 2:28 PM: As previously noted, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan was unhappy with his charges’ showings during Sunday’s final training camp practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center.

As Khan Tweeted, the Red Wings ran a power play vs. penalty-kill scrimmage on Sunday, and the Grand Rapids Griffins’ players defeated Detroit 6-0.

With road exhibition games against Columbus and Pittsburgh looming on Monday and Tuesday night, respectively, Coach McLellan expanded upon his remarks while speaking with MLive’s Ansar Khan:

“Today, the kids were really good,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “They worked their butts off. They made plays, they executed better than the veteran players. It wasn’t even close. That’s a really good sign for our organization. Or maybe it isn’t. It depends how you look at it.”

The Red Wings open their four-game preseason Monday at Columbus (7 p.m., livestreamed on detroitredwings.com).

The Red Wings squad consisted of mostly the regular roster except for Dylan Larkin (upper-body injury), Simon Edvinsson (still unsigned, practicing but not scrimmaging) and some young players pushing for jobs (Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, William Wallinder).

The Griffins squad featured only three players who’ve appeared in games for the Red Wings (Dominik Shine, John Leonard and Sheldon Dries).

Coach McLellan was happier with the ways in which the coaching staff got its points across over the course of the Wings’ 4-day training camp as a whole, though the bitter taste of today’s “big club” struggles persisted:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that the Red Wings currently plan on icing a second line consisting of Viktor Arvidsson, Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie, with the 33-year-old Arvidsson setting the pace for his new linemates:

Arvidsson is no stranger to McLellan’s systems, having played under him with the LA Kings, and he knows what his ‘new’ coach expects of him and how to set the right example for the rest of the roster. The Red Wings, without an official on-ice leader, are needing to pull from a lot of different sources when it comes to establishing the identity McLellan wants.

“Just his leadership is pretty direct. He’s really structured and can push you,” said Arvidsson, “He’s easy to work with and he’ll give it to you in a really honest way.”

The Red Wings will need plenty of structure to support an offense that lost 34 goals and 91 points over the summer. Arvidsson should help to alleviate some of those losses, with six 20+ goal seasons under his belt, but the real barometer will be whether the rest of his linemates are able to follow his lead.

“Me and Emmitt are just trying to listen to him as well, and do the things we do well. He’s been great off the ice too- Just awesome guy all around,” said Kasper.

Continued; if the 2nd line works, the Wings are better off with a rebounding Kasper between the gritty Arvidsson and plucky Finnie.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan has broken up the Ben Chiarot-Justin Faulk and Albert Johansson-Axel Sandin Pellikka/Jacob Bernard-Docker defensive pairings, flippping Chiarot and Johansson as the coach attempts to determine who plays best with whom:

“The two starting points of Albert’s season, he’s got better as it went along,” McLellan said. “He started a little bit slow. We want him to start fast, and we want to find out, make sure that he can handle those [top-four] minutes. We think that they’ll complement each other. And then Benny gets to go and play with whoever’s going to be on the [right side of the third pairing].”

Who that might be is anyone’s guess at this juncture. There are certainly plenty of candidates.

“It is going to be competitive,” McLellan said. “You know, we talk about Ax [Axel Sandin-Pellikka], we have a pretty good idea what he can do. [Jacob] Bernard Docker gave us a good run of games last year, earned himself a contract. Then you bring in [William] Wallinder and [Anton] Johansson, who are on the cusp of being NHL players, in my opinion, and [Jacob] Bryson, who’s already played a bunch of NHL games. So there is some depth there.

“Right now, they’re all competing. Who ends up on the initial roster, I couldn’t tell you at this point. And then maybe we have to thin the herd a little bit later on. But we’ll see where we are, what kind of start we get to, who’s playing well, who isn’t, and make some decisions after that.”

Continued with discussion about the Wings’ top pairing of Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider…