Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that the Red Wings currently plan on icing a second line consisting of Viktor Arvidsson, Marco Kasper and Emmitt Finnie, with the 33-year-old Arvidsson setting the pace for his new linemates:

Arvidsson is no stranger to McLellan’s systems, having played under him with the LA Kings, and he knows what his ‘new’ coach expects of him and how to set the right example for the rest of the roster. The Red Wings, without an official on-ice leader, are needing to pull from a lot of different sources when it comes to establishing the identity McLellan wants.

“Just his leadership is pretty direct. He’s really structured and can push you,” said Arvidsson, “He’s easy to work with and he’ll give it to you in a really honest way.”

The Red Wings will need plenty of structure to support an offense that lost 34 goals and 91 points over the summer. Arvidsson should help to alleviate some of those losses, with six 20+ goal seasons under his belt, but the real barometer will be whether the rest of his linemates are able to follow his lead.

“Me and Emmitt are just trying to listen to him as well, and do the things we do well. He’s been great off the ice too- Just awesome guy all around,” said Kasper.

Continued; if the 2nd line works, the Wings are better off with a rebounding Kasper between the gritty Arvidsson and plucky Finnie.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan has broken up the Ben Chiarot-Justin Faulk and Albert Johansson-Axel Sandin Pellikka/Jacob Bernard-Docker defensive pairings, flippping Chiarot and Johansson as the coach attempts to determine who plays best with whom:

“The two starting points of Albert’s season, he’s got better as it went along,” McLellan said. “He started a little bit slow. We want him to start fast, and we want to find out, make sure that he can handle those [top-four] minutes. We think that they’ll complement each other. And then Benny gets to go and play with whoever’s going to be on the [right side of the third pairing].”

Who that might be is anyone’s guess at this juncture. There are certainly plenty of candidates.

“It is going to be competitive,” McLellan said. “You know, we talk about Ax [Axel Sandin-Pellikka], we have a pretty good idea what he can do. [Jacob] Bernard Docker gave us a good run of games last year, earned himself a contract. Then you bring in [William] Wallinder and [Anton] Johansson, who are on the cusp of being NHL players, in my opinion, and [Jacob] Bryson, who’s already played a bunch of NHL games. So there is some depth there.

“Right now, they’re all competing. Who ends up on the initial roster, I couldn’t tell you at this point. And then maybe we have to thin the herd a little bit later on. But we’ll see where we are, what kind of start we get to, who’s playing well, who isn’t, and make some decisions after that.”

Continued with discussion about the Wings’ top pairing of Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider…

Of note from Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s press conference after the final day of training camp:

Red Wings' McLellan on last day of training camp: "I wasn't happy with our day today at all. I was happy with the kids, but I wasn't happy with our day. So we've got to take it back up here after their off days and get going and not waste a day."

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) September 20, 2026

#RedWings McLellan: "Today the kids were really good. 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." https://t.co/6SocQhiyux

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 20, 2026

#RedWings McLellan on Larkin and Edvinsson: "It gets going obviously a lot faster and more intense (in regular season). so if we can get them in one (preseason game) 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."

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 20, 2026

Red Wings' McLellan "hopeful" Edvinsson (un-signed) and Larkin (injured) will be available in coming week, because "If you don't play in a preseason game, that means you've got to play in a regular season game, and it gets going a lot faster and more intense then."

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) September 20, 2026

Todd McLellan did not shut the door on Dylan Larkin potentially playing in one of Detroit’s upcoming preseason games. #LGRW #RedWings

— Michael Whitaker (@mwhitaker_89) September 20, 2026

Here’s the video again:

New Red Wings forward Viktor Arvidsson and goaltender Daniil Tarasov spoke with the assembled media today, as did Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, marking the end of the Wings’ 2026 training camp:

Update:

🔑 pic.twitter.com/nfb1S0I31C

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 20, 2026

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a 6:39 clip of McLellan’s presser.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith discusses Andrew Copp’s status as the team’s interim #1 center thanks to his chemistry with Alex DeBrincat, and Smith weighs whether Copp may end up playing as a 2nd or 3rd-line pivot when Detroit’s fully healthy:

The former [Winnipeg Jets] forward is filling in on the top line between Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat while the Red Wings usual top line center and former captain Dylan Larkin sits out with injury. Meanwhile, Copp finds himself in the last year of his contract after he was part of the Red Wings most productive line down the stretch last season.

However, most of Copp’s work doesn’t end up showing up on the stat sheet under his name.

‘He probably didn’t have a great year as far as goals go, offense, five on five, but he produced with the other two [Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane] in different ways.’ Said head coach Todd McLellan.

Now, with the team’s future at center anything but certain, figuring out where Copp lands in the lineup gets hard to predict when, or if Dylan Larkin does return to play for the Red Wings this season.

Continued at length; Copp’s good enough to play as an interim #1 center, but he’s better-suited to 2nd or 3rd-line duty.

The Red Wings posted a 1:29 clip of new forward Viktor Arvidsson being “mic’d up” during Detroit’s training camp at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training center:

Arvy cam🎥 pic.twitter.com/5EfMtjsB5v

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 20, 2026

Update: Here’s the YouTube “short” version:

Continue reading Tweet of note: new Red Wings forward Viktor Arvidsson ‘mic’d up’ →

Updated 3x at 12:05 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center this morning to participate in their fourth and final day of training camp.

Back-to-back exhibition games loom, in Columbus against the Blue Jackets tomorrow (7 PM EDT start) and Pittsburgh on Tuesday (7 PM EDT start), and both games will be streamed on DetroitRedWings.com.

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

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

MLive’s Ansar Khan kicked off the party by noting the line combinations for the “first group” that hit the ice at 10 AM:

Lines for #RedWings main group during the fourth and final day of camp:
DeBrincat-Copp-Raymond
Finnie-Kasper-Arvidsson
Rochette-Compher-Mazur
Kolesar-Rasmussen-Appleton
Edvinsson-Seider
Chiarot-JBD
Johansson-Faulk
Bryson
Gibson/Tarasov pic.twitter.com/oyCUBnVRaf

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 20, 2026

McLellan said yesterday that players playing the first two preseason games Monday-Tuesday in Columbus and Pittsburgh have the day off today. So that’s Danielson, MBN, ASP and Wallinder, looks like. https://t.co/BMJ33hNPJr

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 20, 2026

Continue reading Tweets of note from the fourth and final day of the Red Wings’ 2026 training camp: Detroit shifts it focus to preparing for preseason games →

Sportsnet’s Mike Amato offers “Sunday overreactions” this morning, discussing several topics which Amato feels are either overreactions to current news items, or accurate interpretations thereof. Amato suggests that the Red Wings and their fans could prepare for Dylan Larkin beginning the season with the team given his…complicated…trade request:

Dylan Larkin has played his last game for the Red Wings

The relationship between Larkin and the Detroit Red Wings is hanging by a thread. Larkin requested a trade out of Detroit in June and with nothing materializing on that front, the Red Wings stripped him of the captaincy heading into training camp. The veteran centre also hasn’t taken the ice yet with his teammates due to an upper-body injury suffered while training. Larkin has reportedly only given the Wings a few teams to which he’s willing to be dealt, so player and organization appear to be at a stalemate until things get sorted. It’s hard to see a scenario where Larkin ever puts on a Red Wings sweater ever again.

Overreaction? Yes

While it seems unlikely, it’s at least possible. If there’s any chance, it depends on the new general manager and if there’s any way they can mend the relationship with Larkin. It’s no secret that Larkin and Steve Yzerman weren’t on the best of terms, so maybe a new voice can settle things down and get Larkin to a place where he’s willing to play while he waits for a deal to be made.

If Larkin doesn’t want to expand his list of teams, it may take quite a while for a deal to take shape, and that means he’d have to sit at home waiting. That’s not going to help his trade value, and an interested team may be more willing to make a play for Larkin if they see him excelling on the ice. I’m not saying the Wings can smooth things over entirely with their former captain, but I do think there’s a world where he plays games in Detroit until a deal gets consummated.

Continued; I believe that Larkin will play some regular season games for Detroit at the very least as the mechanics of a trade are worked out.

According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, the Red Wings have discussed the mechanics involved in improving their defensive game this upcoming season. Andrew Copp and coach Todd McLellan suggest that the team can bear down and check their way to better outcomes:

“Goaltending is going to have to be good,” Copp said. “We obviously got to find a way to produce offense too. But I think if the defense takes care of their defensive side, the offense will take care of itself.

“So check, check hard, and hopefully that gives us a little bit more time in the offensive zone. We can turn pucks over, get a little bit more odd-man rushes, more entries, which is kind of where we excel.

“So I think that’s gonna have to be the focus for sure to start. How little time can we spend in our own zone, and how structured can we be?”

Coach McLellan duly notes that belief and execution are two very different things:

Continue reading Aiming for better team defense involves better execution →

According to the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker, Red Wings forward Andrew Copp still feels that he Wings should make the playoffs this season at a very minimum, regardless of distractions in terms of tumult surrounding the front office and disgruntled forward Dylan Larkin:

“We can’t accept anything less,” Copp said of making the playoffs.  “I don’t think there’s any other way to look at it – what more growth can we do without making the playoffs? We’ve done all that the last three or four years since I’ve been here,” he continued. “So there’s only really one way to go.”

As far as his own contract status goes, he said that there are more pressing matters that have his attention at the moment. 

“I have enough to concentrate on my game this year, that’s kind of where my mind’s at right now,” he said.

Head coach Todd McLellan, who said that the top center spot belongs to Copp for now in Larkin’s absence, praised the former Wolverine’s mindset.

“Copper is a very cerebral player, a very deep thinker about the game,” McLellan said. “(He’ll) be a coach one day, if he wants to be,” McLellan continued. “He’s got that type of mindset. He probably didn’t have a great year as far as goals go, offense, and five-on-five, but he produced with the other two (power-play and shorthanded) in other ways. A lot of helpers, a lot of net-front stuff.”

Continued