Author: George Malik

Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider spoke with NHL.com/de’s Oliver Jensen recently, addressing the Red Wings’ attempts to become a tougher, sharper team, Dylan Larkin’s trade request, and his status as a “veteran” over the course of a medium-sized interview:

Seider on Detroit: “Something special can happen here”

The German defenseman talks about Dylan Larkin’s trade request and about the goal of making the playoffs

The Detroit Red Wings look back on an eventful summer. The franchise has a new interim general manager in Shawn Horcoff, and and there was the trade request from Dylan Larkin. But now the preseason has begun, so their focus should be back on hockey.

“I think Todd McLellan put it just right. At the start of training camp, he said we just have to win every single day. That’s how we approach the situation,” said Moritz Seider. “Both yesterday and today, there was a lot of pace, a good physical intensity and a certain urgency early on. These are the very things he mentioned.”

The situation around Larkin, who participates in the preseason despite his request, assesses Seider calmly: “I believe that of course that everyone is happy that he is here. There is not much more to say about it. He is still under contract and is here in training camp. That’s a good sign for me. Everything else isn’t up to me and is not up for discussion. I just see it as an opportunity to be a better hockey team with him.”

The NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement tightened up rules regarding training camp–no more skating tests, fitness testing and 3-hour limit in terms of on-activities for players each day–and the exhibition season has been cut in half, from 2 weeks (and 8 games in case of the Red Wings) to just 1 week and 4 games played.

The Red Wings are aware of the fact that a condensed training camp and a shorter preseason mean that the team has to build cohesion and fundamentals in short order, as coach Todd McLellan told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills:

“Our first two days of Camp have been a refresher course for the players who were in the organization last year,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said on Friday afternoon. “Not only here, but in Grand Rapids. 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. 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 own rhythm as a player, is really important.”

Detroit’s Training Camp roster this fall features 49 players, including 28 forwards, 16 defensemen and five goaltenders. Through the first few practices and scrimmages, McLellan has been impressed by how the group looks on the ice.

“I’m watching them play and the pace has been really good,” McLellan said. “There’s been some physicality. Their ability to get through drills doesn’t drop off. So, what used to be a four-week Training Camp, even more than that [back] in the day, and it was all about skating and conditioning… We have to be aware of that, but it’s more about timing and comfort with linemates, systematic changes so they can capture that before they have to go play.”

Mills focuses on Red Wings trade acquisition Keegan Kolesar as a mini player profile, noting that the physical bottom-six forward hopes to make a change in the Wings’ physicality…

The Red Wings just posted a clip of prospect defenseman Anton Johansson “mic’ed up” during the Red Wings-Blue Jackets prospect tournament game. Johansson’s quite vocal:

"That's why you train your arms the whole summer"😂

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 19, 2026

Update: The Red Wings posted a 5:12 video of Johansson “mic’ed up”:

Updated 2x at 12:34 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center this morning to participate in their third day of training camp.

Here are the Tweets/X posts of note from Saturday’s on-ice sessions.

This post will be updated repeatedly, so “stay tuned!”

Anyway, MLive’s Ansar Khan led us off…

Day 3 of #RedWings camp. The first practice group features the regular roster for the most part, minus Larkin who’s still recovering from his injury, and a couple of guys probably on the bubble (ASP, Wallinder, Bryson). pic.twitter.com/FPVkXvrKhl

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 19, 2026

And The Athletic’s Max Bultman joined the fray:

Red Wings are skating as basically an NHL group today

Forwards (13): DeBrincat, Raymond, Copp, Arvidsson, Kasper, Finnie, Mazur, Danielson, MBN, Rasmussen, Compher, Kolesar, Appleton

Defense (9): Seider, Edvinsson, Faulk, Albert, Chiarot, ASP, JBD, Wallinder, Bryson

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) September 19, 2026

Factor in Larkin and 2 goalies and you’re likely looking at 2 cuts from this group, barring any surprises in preseason

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) September 19, 2026

Update #1:

Today’s first Tweet of note comes from The Athletic and TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, who posited a “spitball” theory as to where unrestricted free agent forward Patrik Laine might end up:

I wonder about Patrik Laine as a possible fit in Detroit ? https://t.co/4NsapYA6zx

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 19, 2026

Laine, a 28-year-old forward, has averaged about 20 goals while playing 50-some NHL games over the course of 2023-2025. He missed most of last season with injuries and because the Habs decided to scratch him, so the 6’5,” 216-pound winger is rumored to be waiting for a contender to take a chance on him…But he’s still unemployed this fall.

I really don’t know whether I’d suggest that he’s any sort of “fit” in Detroit. I don’t see him choosing to sign with a middling team like the Red Wings, because the scuttlebutt suggests that the mercurial forward is hoping to land with a contending team, and that’s my gut feeling. Stranger things have happened, however…

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers a set of observations regarding the Red Wings’ training camp this morning.

Bultman discusses the Red Wings’ early lines, Viktor Arvidsson’s “fit” with his new employer, the play of William Wallinder and Anton Johansson, the opportunity for Nate Danielson to make the team, and Detroit’s desire to increase their even-strength scoring:

The Red Wings are surely hoping [Viktor] Arvidsson will help with five-on-five scoring, which has been a glaring weakness in recent seasons. Last season, Detroit ranked 30th in the league with just 2.13 goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five. Meanwhile, 42 of Arvidsson’s 54 points last season came at five-on-five, which would have been second on the Red Wings, behind only Alex DeBrincat.

To that end, it was good to see plenty of scoring in the first scrimmage Thursday. In that first 50-minute session, DeBrincat scored two goals (and, to my eyes, has been the most noticeable forward thus far), Finnie scored on a redirect at the net, forwards Wilmer Skoog and Théo Rochette got on the scoreboard, defensemen Justin Faulk, Ronnie Attard and Shai Buium all had tallies (though Buium’s may have been tipped), and Moritz Seider scored a game-winner on a blast from the point before shushing the opposing bench.

Of note from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff this morning:

1. Duff spoke with J.T. Compher and Moritz Seider regarding former Red Wings forward Patrick Kane’s return to the Chicago Blackhawks. Seider’s comments are particularly noteworthy:

“I think it’s really cool for me personally to see him back in his original colors,” Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider said. “Of course we’re going to miss him, but obviously we’ve got great additions. We have a really good team. But yeah, with one eye, I’m excited, obviously watching the Blackhawks and Patrick Kane.”

Seider also thinks that the amount of time it took Kane to make a decision on the direction for his hockey future is an indication of how much the Red Wings came to carry a place close to his heart.

“I think he took a lot of time thinking about coming back here, and it just shows how much this organization means to him, how much the locker room means to him,” Seider said.

Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson is all of 23 and-a-half years old, and when he spoke with the media today, his answer as to how Dylan Larkin’s situation happens to be affecting the team was that of a young, optimistic man. I hope that what Edvinsson told the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker is true:

Meanwhile, Edvinsson said he doesn’t believe Dylan Larkin’s trade request will be a distraction for the team. Larkin remains with the Red Wings but is currently inactive after suffering an off-ice injury.

In fact, Edvinsson believes the situation could ultimately bring the group closer together.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a distraction,” Edvinsson said. “Everybody’s here to play hockey and do their own business; everyone has themselves to worry about. I know one thing is that when we play our first game, and hopefully Dylan’s ready to go by then, I know he’ll work as hard as everyone else on the ice.

And I think it’s going to make the team closer, somehow, because we’re going to see how hard Dylan will work, and he’ll see how hard we work for him, and it’ll bring the team together. I’m not worried.”

Continued; I get that this team runs on an “us against the world” mentality, and I certainly hope that there’s a Big Red Machine that manages to hum along without a discordant note, but I’ve seen this kind of situation “go wrong” many ways as well.

The Wings will have to balance the knife’s edge of building a newer leadership group with supporting their disgruntled former captain, both on and off the ice, until he’s not here any more.

I stumbled upon this by accident. The Red Wings posted a job for an entry-level data engineer on Teamworkonline.com, and it sure sounds like Detroit’s analytics department is looking for an innovative person or two to lend a helping hand…

JOB SUMMARY: The Detroit Red Wings are currently seeking a full-time Data Engineer. This role will be responsible for supporting all internal data and infrastructure initiatives within Hockey Operations. This position will report to the Director of Statistical Analysis within Hockey Operations.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Manage the consumption, storage, and maintenance of all hockey data. Design automated processes to oversee data integrity and query performance on a regular basis. Migrate/modernize existing legacy pipelines and build new ones to improve integration of disparate data sources and improve ease of use for integration of data into software tools and analysis pipelines. Oversee the integration of data into all hockey analytics and software systems. Maintain expertise in modern data management techniques within the fast-paced hockey technology landscape.

Apply if you are qualified (and only if you are qualified)…and good luck!

It’s always interesting to see goaltenders up close, and the Red Wings posted a Tweet/YouTube “short” which showcases a very comfortable John Gibson and a slightly less comfortable Daniil Tarasov doing their jobs during training camp.

It should be noted that Tarasov’s adjusting from Vaughn goalie gear to True Hockey gear, which explains the wee bit of hesitancy in his glove stops:

Gibby 🤝 Tarasov pic.twitter.com/eh5D1rE5M4

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 18, 2026