Serving up some late-breaking stories from Las Vegas for Red Wings fans:
NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale took note of the fact that Red Wings draft pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (picked 15th overall by Detroit in last night’s first round of the 2024 NHL Draft) and Stian Solberg (picked 23rd overall by Anaheim) made history for Norwegian hockey on Friday night…
“It means a lot,” Brandsegg-Nygard, a forward, said. “When I heard my name, I got an energy boost in my whole body so it was pretty cool experience. This has been a dream for me for so long and now I reached my dream and I’m just going to keep going and hopefully be an NHL player soon.”
If that wasn’t a big enough story, countryman Stian Solberg went eight picks later to the Anaheim Ducks to cap an unforgettable opening night for Norwegian hockey fans across the globe.
“It was a big moment for me and my family and all Norwegian hockey fans,” Solberg said. “Just a really special moment for me and I’m never going to forget it.”
The Ducks moved up eight spots in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs to select the defenseman.
Brandsegg-Nygard and Solberg each were born in Oslo and played together for seven seasons at various age levels with Valerenga. They also happen to be best friends.
“Stian came to me when I was going up to the stage, so it was pretty cool to hug him,” Brandsegg-Nygard said. “We are each other’s biggest supporters, and we push each other a lot in school and practices.”
EP Rinkside’s J.D. Burke offered this take on the Norwegians’ “day in the sun” in his subscriber-only wrap-up of the first round (before deeming the Red Wings first-round “losers”)…
When the Detroit Red Wings selected Michael Brandsegg-Nygård with the 15th overall pick, he became the first Norwegian-born player to hear their name called in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft and only the 24th player in the modestly-populated Scandinavian country’s history.
He wasn’t the only Norwegian first-round pick in the country’s history for long, though. Because only eight picks later, the Ducks traded up to select Solberg with the 23rd overall selection.
I’m not going to linger on this point for long. My colleague Sean Shapiro already wrote an excellent article on this very subject, one that I would suggest you read once you’re through with this. It bears mentioning in this space, though.
You’ll have to read the rest of the tale to hear about Detroit’s repetitious first-round picks (Burke laments the Wings’ inability or unwillingness to draft a game-breaker like Cole Eiserman or power forward like Liam Greentree), so here’s a bit of Sean Shapiro’s subscriber-only story…
Red Wings assistant general manager Kris Draper has had his eye on Brandsegg-Nygård for most of the season. They had coffee together early in the season, and Draper said the forward was always one of Detroit’s top targets throughout the season and really solidified that status in the postseason.
“When the games get tighter and the games get more important, you want to see, what’s he going to do?” Draper said. “And Michael responded by putting up some good numbers and scoring some big goals (in the playoffs).”
For Draper, despite Detroit’s recent history of picking players who played in Sweden, it’s never been about nationality. But the Red Wings assistant GM admitted it’s an added bonus when a team gets to help a prospect make history.
“Obviously a huge, huge honour for him and something that you know is well deserved,” Draper said. “He put himself in that opportunity, and now that’s a credit to him.”
And we conclude with a bit from The Athletic’s Max Bultman, who discussed the Red Wings’ selection of Brandsegg-Nygard a little more charitably than Burke, per the recommendations of Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper:
“He plays a pretty responsible game for a young guy,” Yzerman said. “Like we all played junior, we worried about scoring. We didn’t check. And he’s just got a really well-rounded game to him. … I think he’s got a ‘B’ game, I guess you would say. When he’s not scoring, he’ll still be an effective player. But I just think he’s a guy that can play in all situations. Probably play either wing. A lot of different spots on the power play as well.”
And as for the team’s emphasis on competitiveness and two-way play, Draper weighed in on that too.
“I think hockey sense is something that you throw in the mix as well, but I just watched an incredible playoff run for two months, and you see how hard these games get and how little room there is,” he said. “So you need those players that are smart, competitive, that can skate and play in the hard areas, and that’s what we want to target.
“I mean, we don’t have the luxury of picking first overall and getting that superstar that everyone wants to add. That’s not what we have. So we have a Red Wing DNA and a type of prospect that we watch, and that’s what we want to continue to bring into the organization.”