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Red Wings’ roster is in flux as training camp approaches

MLive’s Ansar Khan asks some of the many “roster questions” facing the Detroit Red Wings heading into training camp tomorrow morning at Little Caesars Arena:

Who will fill the top two lines?

It could be as simple as keeping intact the top line for most of last season – Larkin centering Lucas Raymond and Emmitt Finnie – and having Viktor Arvidsson replace Patrick Kane, who signed with the Blackhawks, on the second line with Andrew Copp and DeBrincat. Or maybe Marco Kasper can earn the second-line center spot or a top-six wing position.

Which player has the most to prove?

Kasper needs to be the player he was the second half of his rookie season in 2024-25 (17 goals, 30 points in 42 games) instead of the one who struggled his second year (nine goals, 19 points in 81 games). Effort isn’t the issue – he skates hard and goes to the high-contact areas around the net and in the corners. It’s about executing and finishing.

Who will emerge on the third defense pairing?

The top two pairs are set with Moritz Seider-Edvinsson and Ben Chiarot-Justin Faulk. Albert Johansson has a secure hold as the left D on the third pairing. Jacob Bernard-Docker, signed to a two-year extension on March 25, has the inside track on the right side. Veteran Jacob Bryson, signed in the offseason, and prospect William Wallinder, who’s no longer waiver-exempt, will be competing for the spot. Former first-round pick Axel Sandin-Pellikka, after playing 68 games as a rookie, likely needs development time with the Grand Rapids Griffins to improve defensively.

Khan continues at length (paywall)

Red Wings’ prospect tournament afforded players the opportunity to absorb information, get a leg up on training camp

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson and Red Wings prospect Carter Bear as the Red Wings’ 2026 prospect tournament concluded on Tuesday afternoon:

Watson pointed out that the players took part in a learning experience, while Bear emphasized getting a head start on training camp:

“It’s hard because you feed them so much information,” Watson said. “You want to play with some structure. You can’t just let them go out there and run around. At times it’ll look like that, which it will for all teams, but it’s more about the details, the habits they play with, see how much information guys can handle. And I thought our guys, for the most part, looking back at the last two games of video, did a good job. Were there things to clean up? Absolutely. There’s going to be mistakes. That’s what this game is all about. So, for them it’s about moving forward.”

Forward Carter Bear was one of many who pointed to the intensity over the past few days as a driving force behind prospects working hard to show what they’re capable of.

“It’s good to finally go play hockey,” Bear said. “It’s been a little while. Obviously, it’s highly competitive out there. We all want to prove something. Everyone is here for a reason, so we’re trying to set a point for it. Everyone wants to battle hard and earn respect around here.”

There’s been a lot for the youngsters to unpack, but there’s even more to prove in the days ahead.

“Everyone that gets invited here has a chance,” Bear said. “I want to prove something on my side too. So, for me, I just want to keep my head down and work my ass off. That’s all we really can do as well as playing within the systems and all that.”

Watson told Mills that the abbreviated training camp and exhibition season means that prospects have a shorter period of time with which to make an impact:

“Everyone has got to show up,” Watson said. “You don’t have a day to kind of be casual and not show up. You have got to make sure you’re on top of your game right from day one of Training Camp … And then you have a short period of time to show yourself against NHL hockey players. So, for anybody that’s looking to make the team, they better be ready to go and have that intensity from the first meeting on.”

Continued

Tweets of note: Horcoff to speak today at 3 PM; Edvinsson deal soon?

Of note from the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker…

And the Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak:

Allen assesses the state of play in the Dylan Larkin situation

The Detroit Red Wings have released their 2026 training camp roster and schedule, and disgruntled forward Dylan Larkin will attend camp. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen wonders what might happen over the course of said camp:

Is Larkin Staying or Going?

That’s still to be determined. All we know for sure is that he will be at training camp, he is no longer the team’s captain and he plans to discuss his future with Horcoff.

He has five more seasons remaining on his contract paying him $8.7 million per season. Larkin would be suspended without pay if wasn’t at training camp.

What we don’t know is whether Larkin is open-minded about staying with the Red Wings under a non-Steve Yzerman regime. The deterioration of their relationship undoubtedly played a role in Larkin’s trade request.

What Are Detroit’s Trade Options for Larkin?

Larkin, owning a no-trade clause, informed Detroit he would only accept a trade to Florida, Vegas or Minnesota. Only the Wild, needing a scoring center, are actively pursuing Larkin.

The snag in negotiations when Yzerman was in charge was his insistence on a proven offensive player in return. He wasn’t looking to move Larkin for draft picks or prospects.

Does Horcoff feel the same way? We don’t know yet, but it is logical to believe that he feels urgency to put an end to the team’s decade-long playoff drought. You don’t take steps to do that by adding more draft picks and prospects.

Continued

Press release: Red Wings release their 2026 training camp roster and schedule

From the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS RELEASE 2026 TRAINING CAMP ROSTER AND SCHEDULE

  … Forty-Nine Players Hit the Ice Beginning on Sept. 17 at BELFOR Training Center …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today released their training camp roster and schedule, comprised of 49 players who will hit the ice beginning on Thursday, Sept. 17 at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings will bring 28 forwards, 16 defensemen and five goaltenders to Detroit to participate in daily on-ice practices and scrimmages. The Red Wings open their four-game preseason slate with road games against the Columbus Blue Jackets (Monday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 p.m.) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 7:00 p.m.), followed by home games against the Buffalo Sabres (Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7:00 p.m.) and Blue Jackets (Saturday, Sept. 26 at 7:00 p.m.)

Detroit Red Wings 2026-27 Training Camp Roster

Continued


The Athletic’s Bultman talks Wings on ‘X’s and BrO’s’

Matt Shepard of “X’s and BrO’s” spoke with Red Wings beat writer Max Bultman of The Athletic this morning, discussing the Dylan Larkin situation and the Red Wings’ decision to name Shawn Horcoff its interim GM:

Despite tumult, The Athletic suggests that the Red Wings’ windos of contention is still just opening

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn and Scott Wheeler discuss the “contention cycles” of all 32 NHL teams this morning, suggesting that while the Red Wings‘ present is very middling, Detroit could have a very bright future thanks to its deep pool of prospects. The article heavily draws upon their prospect tier and player tier articles in assessing where the teams are at and where they could be in terms of their respective levels of talent:

Detroit Red Wings

Present Outlook (Rating: 5.4 [out of 10])

The Red Wings are an interesting place given the current malaise around the franchise, right next to the Sabres where the vibes couldn’t be better. What their placement says is that the team’s core is good enough to be playoff-worthy, especially with the leap Moritz Seider took last season. The potential growth of Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson can cement that further. It’s everything else that’s become an issue, a testament to Detroit’s poor draft record during the Yzerman era. Is this the year they start seeing results?

Future Outlook (Rating: 8.2)

The Red Wings have studs in Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson and significant quantity in Prospect Tiers with nine players (!). They’re missing a true superstar up front, though and that’s the difference between a good score here and one that looks like San Jose’s or Anaheim’s.

Path to contention

The challenge with the Red Wings’ mix is that if one of those Tier 4/5 players doesn’t get to Tier 3, you end up with a playoff baseline and not a true contention window. And both I and the league aren’t sure which of those players we’d bet on to exceed their projection. If all of them hit but none of them are home runs, you have to count on a St. Louis Blues miracle where you’re a capital-T Team and everything comes together in some kind of perfect storm.

Continued (paywall)

Breathe out frustration, breathe in healthy skepticism

The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor attempts to separate the intense criticism the Red Wings are facing from the background noise surrounding the team’s front office uncertainty and its captain wanting out.

Windsor suggests that Shawn Horcoff is a fairly good hire, and that the Wings need to step up to catch up with the Detroit Tigers in terms of prospect development…

And Windsor understands that fans are frustrated with the state of the team, too:

None of this looks good. At all. The Wings’ ownership has bobbed in the wind like a balloon character bouncing cluelessly down Woodward Ave in the Thanksgiving parade. That may be fun in November, but not so much in April, when the season already has flamed out.  

So call it a clown show if you must. Or an embarrassment, a laughingstock, the long, slow demise of an iconic franchise. Go ahead, let the air out after all those years of watching the team go nowhere, and then watching the search to replace the Hall of Fame player – who was supposed to bring back a June parade down Woodward – flail until the eve of training camp. 

Dysfunctional? How else should anyone see it? 

But then that doesn’t matter, at least it shouldn’t

It’s all just white noise. All that matters is that Ilitch – accidentally or not – finds the right person to get this franchise back to its storied place. Maybe it’s Horcoff, going from interim to full-time. Maybe it’s someone else.  

Whoever it is, the noise fades a little when the team makes the playoffs. Do that and this search and this offseason and this entire unfortunate slide disappears in a hurry. 

Winning is like that. It’s time for it to start once more.  

Continued (paywall)

Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider sits down for a lengthy interview with The Athletic’s Bultman

The Athletic’s Max Bultman spoke with Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider as Seider sat down with Bultman for an interview recently. Seider discussed the tumult surrounding the Red Wings as delicately as possible, emphasizing that it wasn’t easy to determine what went on while Seider spent his summer in Germany…

“It was hard,” Seider said last week, sitting outside a coffee shop in Detroit’s northern suburbs. “Especially like not being here and hearing all this noise.”

He leaned on phone calls to try and stay in the loop — first with Yzerman, when he was still in charge, and eventually with assistant general manager Shawn Horcoff, who was named Detroit’s interim GM on Tuesday. Seider picked their brains as he tried to separate fact from rumor on the internet.

“I think that was the hardest part for me,” he said. “That’s why maybe I stayed even home a little longer than usual, to try to escape that whole thing — because you will get confronted with it now that you’re here.”

And Seider discussed his hopes for this upcoming season…

Continue reading Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider sits down for a lengthy interview with The Athletic’s Bultman

Nate Danielson’s still regaining his ‘sea legs’

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings prospect Nate Danielson after yesterday’s prospect tournament victory. Danielson told St. James that he’s recovering from a stress fracture injury which ended his season last February:

“I think [the prospect tournament will] definitely give me a little bit more leg up and and just kind of get back in that game shape a little quicker,” Danielson said after picking up an assist in the Wings’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Belfor training center inside Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Sept. 15. “I’m confident in myself and just want to go out there and play my game and not really worry about all that other stuff.”

Danielson assisted on Noah Dower Nilsson’s game-tying goal with a minute to go in regulation.

Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson understood that Danielson wasn’t at 100% during the tournament:

Continue reading Nate Danielson’s still regaining his ‘sea legs’