MLive’s Ansar Khan breaks down the Red Wings’ preseason lineup this morning, discussing prospective forward lines and defensive pairings with coach Todd McLellan:

For now, [the Red Wings] have a top-six of Andrew Copp centering Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond while Marco Kasper centers Viktor Arvidsson and Emmitt Finnie.

“Copp and Cat played together; Razor is obviously one of our higher-end players that can produce,” McLellan said. “We have a line right now with (Nate Danielson, Carter Mazur and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard) that is a bit of a kid line that hopefully can provide a lot of energy. And then we have what we hope will be a heavier, harder line to play against with (Mason) Appleton, (Keegan) Kolesar, (J.T.) Compher, (Michael) Rasmussen).

“Our lines, without Larks, we’re trying to get some cohesion with pairs of players at least. And if not pairs, then at least there are three. That’s why you haven’t seen a lot of shuffling around with lines throughout camp. But we only skated for four days. We need to play some games. We need to get up and running and then we can make more decisions on that.”

On defense, coach McLellan has swapped out Albert Johansson and Ben Chiarot, who are now playing with Justin Faulk and Jacob Bernard-Docker, respectively, and there’s a method to the coach’s strategy there:

Red Wings free agent signing Theo Rochette, a 24-year-old center who played for Lausanne HC of the Swiss NLA last season, has impressed Red Wings coach Todd McLellan over the course of training camp, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff noted:

“A very good skater,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “Great pace, gets up to full speed fast. Transfers the puck, transports the puck at that high pace. He doesn’t slow down when he gets it. A lot of players slow down, so he does that well.”

Rochette signed as a European free agent with the Red Wings this summer. The Swiss international has spent the past four seasons playing in that country. But he is a transplanted Canadian who won a Memorial Cup with the QMJHL Quebec Remparts.

After helping Switzerland to a silver medal at last spring’s IIHF World Championship, when the Red Wings came calling, Rochette felt the timing was ideal to again pursue his NHL dream.

“I think it was a good opportunity for me,” Rochette said. “That’s what I’ve always wanted, and I had some good talks with them. At the end of the day, my dream is to play in the NHL, so I don’t want to have any regret not trying.”

Coach McLellan offered this take on Rochette’s “upside“:

“I think he’s got a chance,” McLellan said. “And if it’s not initially, hopefully he gets off to a good start in GR and forces us to use him. But I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him.”

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: