The Free Press’s Helene St. James breaks down the “battle” between Axel Sandin Pellikka, William Wallinder, Anton Johansson, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Jacob Bryson for the 6th, 7th and 8th spots on the Wings’ blueline.

St. James spotlights the three Swedes battling the established Bernard-Docker and small but plucky Bryson for places in the opening-night lineup; as you’re probably familiar with ASP’s body of work, we’ll look at Detroit’s younger Johansson and Wallinder here:

Anton Johansson

Johansson, 22, was drafted at No. 105 in the 2022 NHL Draft. A rangy 6-foot-4, 203-pound right-shot defender, he’s steadily made strides to improve his overall game. He showed off his offensive skills to great effect in the Wings’ 7-4 exhibition victory over a Pittsburgh Penguins lineup that included Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, recording four assists. Combine that with what McLellan has heard from his colleagues in Grand Rapids, where Johansson played eight games in the regular season (after coming over from his Swedish club) and eight in the playoffs, and McLellan has been impressed.

“To me, he has joy for the game,” McLellan said. “When he’s out there, he loves being out there smiling. He brings an energy. That energy kind of rubs off on other people. And then he’s real direct with his play. He’s aggressive on killing plays, but he’s also aggressive with the puck in the offensive zone. You saw how he created his and other teammates scoring chances last night, just creating a lane and getting it there. There’s players on our team and on other teams that create lanes, and then they want to look and do something else. It’s pretty simple, and it worked. And that’s how he approaches it.”

Anton was on the ice for 4 “goals for” and 3 “goals against” against the Penguins, so he’s far from perfect as he comes over from the SHL, but his size, skating and all-round abilities (and mean streak) are intriguing…

Of brief Red Wings-related note overnight:

1. The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker spoke with Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka and Detroit coach Todd McLellan regarding the young defender’s progression over the course of last season’s stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins, this summer’s training, and training camp and the exhibition season:

“I’m excited; having that experience and being here that first year is going to help a lot,” he said. “Just experience-wise, knowing what’s going on all the time and how we play over here, it’s a lot easier to adapt. I feel like I’ve gotten stronger, and I’m excited.”

Not only did Sandin-Pellikka tally in Detroit’s win over the Penguins, but forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, who also made the Opening Night roster last season, scored twice. 

According to head coach Todd McLellan, both Sandin-Pellikka and Brandsegg-Nygård are in a far better position than they were at this point last year, and they have every right to feel confident. 

“He should be confident and feel good,” McLellan said. “We went through Axe’s progression and how he finished in Grand Rapids, and we said he and (Brandsegg-Nygård ) should come back confident – coming back and feeling good, way better than last year at this time.

“He handled the puck, made some really good plays, defended fairly well,” he continued. “So, he’s where he should be. Just have to keep pushing away and believing in himself, and it’ll take over.” 

2. NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman examines how teams that missed the Eastern Conference’s playoff cut might find their way into the playoff mix this upcoming season. Kimelman includes the Red Wings in his set of assessments:

As mentioned yesterday evening, Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco reported that Red Wings assistant director of player development Dan Cleary would be taking over the GM’s duties for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Late last night, WZZM “13 On Your Side” confirmed through the Griffins that Cleary has been named the interim GM of the AHL team:

I don’t enjoy being sick, contrary to some folks’ opinions…It isn’t fun being sniffly and sweaty and hot and cold and tired all the G-D time, all the symptoms of a flu bug I probably picked up from the visiting nurse or the visiting OT or PT specialists we’ve entertained while Aunt Annie recovers from a double hospitalization and one hell of a UTI.

“Outside bugs” got in, and after busting my ass during training camp, I’m sorry, but I got dinged.

I’m still sniffly and sweaty tonight, but I am also not going to be absent of the blog for more than three days, so let’s dig into a Red Wings catch-up post which at least summarizes some of the stuff we’ve both missed over the last day.

The preseason moves fast, so there are tons of articles out today, and I don’t want to get us bogged down, so:

We’ll look back briefly ahead of the second half of the exhibition season (I did watch both streamed games, so there’s that), in which the Red Wings will host the banged-up Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (7 PM EDT on Detroit SportsNet/WWJ 950) and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday (7 PM EDT on Detroit SportsNet/WWJ 950).

Detroit will be looking to improve upon its 1-0-and-1 exhibition record, with the Wings having lost a 1-0 decision to Columbus on Monday, and they took a 7-4 win the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.

Hey everybody. I caught my aunt’s flu bug and am resting because I feel quite sick. I hope to get back to work by tomorrow morning. My apologies for the pause in service.

Updated 2x at 11:43 AM: The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets hit the ice in their respective cities ahead of tonight’s exhibition season opener (7 PM EDT start streamed on DetroitRedWings.com, radio on WWJ 950 AM).

Columbus, which has already released its roster for tonight’s game, hit the ice at Nationwide Arena at 10:20 AM…

#CBJ getting ready for tonight’s preseason opener against Detroit.

Conor Garland, Mathieu Olivier, Dante Fabbro, Denton Mateychuk, Ivan Provorov, and Jet Greaves are the NHL regulars expected to play. pic.twitter.com/colbgEL2dh

— Dylan Tyrer (@DylanTyrer) September 21, 2026

#CBJ lines/pairs for the preseason opener against Detroit.

Pyyhtia-Williams-Garland
Pinelli-Keskinen-Olivier
Malatesta-O. Sillinger-Eernisse
McCue-Tuch-Griffin

Provorov-Mateychuk
Buckberger-Fabbro
White-Richard

Greaves
Copley

— Dylan Tyrer (@DylanTyrer) September 21, 2026

The Red Wings’ official Twitter account said, “Hello!” at 10:26 AM…

The Red Wings posted a 1:08 video of new forward Keegan Kolesar “mic’ed up” during training camp:

Koley cam🎥 pic.twitter.com/pg7kZTD8cn

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

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers a set of training camp observations this morning, and Bultman suggests that the Red Wings may be in for “sticker shock” when it comes to locking up defenseman Simon Edvinsson:

The deadline to sign an eight-year deal has passed, as the new CBA kicked in Sept. 16. But there’s still plenty of incentive for the Red Wings to sign Edvinsson, a top-pair defenseman, to a long-term deal. Like all young defensemen, he could be a bit more consistent. But he’s already proven capable of taking on a monster workload against tough matchups, and he’s only getting better at age 23.

“I feel like I’ve grown into my body a lot more, I’m a little bit heavier, and I feel like I’ve got more control now over the movements,” Edvinsson said during camp. “I feel like that can make me a better threat on the offensive blue line, and I feel like that can make me a better threat to come out of (my) own zone as well.”

The Red Wings would likely be looking at $10 million per year or more on a long-term deal. It would be hard to argue against that number after Zeev Buium — who has even more to prove than Edvinsson — signed an eight-year deal worth $9.38 million annually.

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn, Harman Dayal and Shayna Goldman offer an in-depth Red Wings season preview this morning, suggesting per Luszczyszyn’s predictive “model” that the Wings will finish 27th or 28th in the league, with 85-87 points:

The best case: 103 points

Everything gets settled with Larkin. Raymond, Emmitt Finnie, Edvinsson and Sandin-Pellikka all take the next steps, and this team makes it through the month of March without crashing out. Detroit finally returns to the playoffs.

The worst case: 73 points

The Larkin situation lingers and drags this team down. Raymond struggles to hit the next level. Seider gets crushed by his workload and has no support on the back end. It’s another wasted, glum season in Detroit.

The bottom line

With a core of Seider, Raymond, DeBrincat, Edvinsson and solid goaltending, the Red Wings will be icing a competitive team regardless of how the Larkin situation unfolds. However, the club’s depth looks like a potentially insurmountable bottleneck again, and it’s stuck in the ridiculously stacked Atlantic Division, which means there’s a good chance that the NHL’s longest playoff drought continues for another year.

Continued (paywall)

The Red Wings and the rest of the NHL have to adjust to playing in 4 exhibition games over the course of 1 week instead of 6-8 exhibition games played over the course of 2 weeks this season, thanks to tweaks in the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement.

Forward Andrew Copp told Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff that a 4-game exhibition season is ideal…

“Yeah, I mean, eight [preseason games] was egregious, to be honest,” Red Wings center Andrew Copp said. “I think four is kind of a sweet spot. You come in, you get to work right away. There’s no dilly-dallying around. There’s no extra stuff going on. We got to get right to the point.”

Detroit will play Tuesday at Pittsburgh. Then the Red Wings come home to face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday and Columbus again on Saturday. Six days later, the regular season opens at Little Caesars Arena against the New York Rangers.

“Obviously, these preseason games will be huge to kind of get your feet under you and get your timing down and then get right into it,” Copp said. “You just got to take advantage of the chances you get to bump and grind a little bit, find your timing. Preseason games, like I said, will be huge to kind of get the timing off the bench, the changes, your shift cadence a little bit, and then it’s go time.”

Coach Todd McLellan isn’t so certain: