The Grand Rapids Griffins swept their back-to-back slate of exhibition games against the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday and Sunday at Toledo’s Huntington Center, the rink which the Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye, calls home.

After Sunday’s game, Griffins coach Dan Watson, who coached Toledo for 7 seasons, spoke with the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe about coming back to his old stomping grounds:

“I know how unbelievable the fans are, and they support winning hockey,” Watson said. “That’s what they’ve come to expect here. Those are standards that have been set. Pat [Mikesch] and his staff have done a good job continuing what I feel I left. I’m here at playoff games when I can be and hope that they always do well. That first championship, I’ll be in that celebration with all the other fans.”

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ players were also impressed with playing in Toledo this weekend:

Grand Rapids goalie Trey Augustine, a second-round draft choice of the Red Wings and former Michigan State standout, earned the win with 23 saves on 25 shots.

“It was fun getting the group together these last couple days here. We’re starting to become a team,” Augustine said. “It was a good step for us.”

Most fans in the crowd of 3,421 at the Bank Tank supported Grand Rapids and celebrated goals from Ronnie Attard, Dylan James, Noah Dower Nilsson, Sutter Muzzatti, and Ondrej Becher. Cleveland’s goals came from Luca Pinelli and Dante Sheriff.

Grand Rapids defenseman Jacob Truscott, who played in 51 games for the Walleye last season, had an assist on the first goal. Truscott was Toledo’s third-leading scorer among d-men last season with 23 points. Truscott, who had four goals and 19 assists, then played in 12 playoff games for the Walleye. He is fighting for a roster spot in Grand Rapids.

“It was great in Toledo,” Truscott said. “Toledo’s a great organization, and they treated me unbelievably. The staff, players, and fans were all great to me. It’s such a great city. Obviously I’m trying to make Grand Rapids here, and we’ll go from there. That’s my main focus right now, but I had a great experience last year.”

…

“It was awesome here,” [Griffins defenseman Ronnie] Attard said. “I had a couple of friends that played here before, and they said nothing but great things. So seeing their setup they have in here and their atmosphere, it was great.”

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins swept the Lake Erie Monsters in the teams’ back-to-back preseason games held at Toledo’s Huntington Center. On Saturday, the Griffins defeated Cleveland 3-1; today, the Griffins took a 5-2 decision:

That’s A Wrap On Preseason

GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 5 at Cleveland Monsters 2

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Grand Rapids Griffins received goals from five different players in a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Monsters at the Huntington Center. 

Ondrej Becher (1-2—3) led all Griffins with three points, while Noah Dower Nilsson (1-1—2) and Jesse Kiiskinen (0-2—2) chipped in with two points. Rookie netminder Trey Augustine showed 23 saves on 25 shots. 

Defenseman Ronnie Attard got things going in the first period with his wrister from the high slot that sailed over the glove of Pheonix Copley 9:28 into the outing. 

Dylan James made it a two-goal game on a breakaway at the 9:08 mark of the second frame. Cleveland’s Luca Pinelli responded with 5:13 remaining from the top of the crease. Dower Nilsson capped off the second period with a power-play goal at 16:45 from the right circle, giving the Griffins a 3-1 lead going into the third. 

Sutter Muzzatti collected his first goal as a Griffin at the 7:13 mark of the third period to give Grand Rapids a 4-1 advantage. The Monsters’ Dante Sheriff made it a two-goal deficit with 10:10 remaining, and Becher made it a 5-2 contest with his shot from the low slot at 12:15. 

Notes

• Cleveland has been the Griffins’ opponent for 10 of their last 11 preseason games, dating back to 2012.
• The Griffins will begin the regular season this Friday when they travel to Rocket Arena to face Cleveland. 

Here’s a clip of post-game comments from Trey Augustine, Ronnie Attard and coach Dan Watson:

After Dylan Larkin stepped down as the Red Wings’ captain, coach Todd McLellan stated that the Red Wings will begin the 2026-2027 season with three alternate captains wearing “A’s” on their jerseys.

It’s a given that Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond will remain part of the Wings’ leadership group, so the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker suggests that Alex DeBrincat should join Seider and Raymond:

According to head coach Todd McLellan, DeBrincat has helped fill the leadership void left by Patrick Kane’s departure, while also providing a steady presence amid the uncertainty surrounding Larkin’s situation. He is also a candidate to be named an alternate captain.

“He’s done a really good job of providing leadership in the void that’s there right now. It’s not out of character; he hasn’t changed from what he’s done last year,” McLellan said of DeBrincat. “Maybe away from the rink a little bit more with the guys to bring them together, but at the rink, he’s still Cat, and he would certainly be a candidate to be that.”

However, according to McLellan, wearing a letter on his jersey won’t change the way DeBrincat conducts himself in the locker room or on the ice.

“The thing with Cat, though, is we could probably put the whole alphabet across his chest, and he would still be Cat. And if we took every letter of the alphabet away from him, he would still be Cat. He’s not going to change who he is based on that little piece of felt.”

As Whitaker points out, DeBrincat has already been vocal about his desire to serve as a leader on the Red Wings team:

“I take a lot of pride playing with the Red Wings,” DeBrincat said earlier in the month. “Putting on that jersey every night, I think all of us in this room take a lot of pride in that and the history that comes with it.

“There’s so much respect that comes with that crest – it’s a privilege,” he continued. “It’s something I don’t take lightly, and I definitely want to be part of the solution, get back to the glory days, and be a big part of that.”

Sports Illustrated’s Miguel Mike Medina took note of Red Wings forward Marco Kasper’s self-reflective thoughts spoken to the Wings’ media corps after last night’s exhibition season finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which yielded a 3-2 defeat:

“Some things in our game, we definitely have to step up,” Kasper said. “We played very well; our forecheck and controlled forecheck were really good, but then we turned a lot of pucks over, and we couldn’t really connect on passes. So I think that’s got to get a lot better, and just trying to find the open guy and not maybe try to go lateral too much but be a little bit more direct going to forecheck when those pucks are there. We got some goals from shooting from the point even the last few games, and I think that’s what we got to do to create from the forecheck.”

Kasper’s mission is to contribute as much as he can to help the team win. He’s very skillful and crafty when he attacks the net. He played 81 games last season and scored 19 points (9 goals, 10 assists). For a young player, he has the right mindset of a winner and leader. The Red Wings have several young guys with leadership qualities, and he’s one of them.

“We practice hard, we play a little bit of a new system, and try to get adjusted to that and be ready for next week,” Kasper said.

Kasper realizes how talented this team is and how good they can be when everyone, including himself, gives it 100 percent effort night in and night out. 

“I think there’s a lot of great players here, so everybody can play with everybody and just try to get out there. Whatever I do, I think I’ve got to try to do it 100 percent,” Kasper said. 

You can watch Kasper’s comments here:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan examines the pieces of what coach Todd McLellan is calling the Red Wings’ “roster puzzle,” with Kulfan noting that Detroit’s opening-night roster might not be the one that the Red Wings submit to the NHL as 23 players due on Monday at 5 PM:

“What I can tell you is Monday the roster will go out and you’ll see names that could change real quick,” coach Tod McLellan said after the 4-2 loss to Columbus on Saturday, Sept. 26, that ended the preseason. “There could be paper moves or moves made for waiver reasons or something is in the hopper somewhere else that you have to buy time. We don’t play until Friday, so we have four days until we play, so there could be some movement.”

As Kulfan suggests, the Wings’ puzzle on defense is the most pressing issue, with only Dylan Larkin’s health affecting the forward lineup:

Per The Athletic/TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Red Wings are still negotiating with Simon Edvinsson to hammer out a contract before the start of the regular season on Friday:

Both sides expected to talk again today as they try to bridge the gap on an Edvinsson contract. It's been a grind for sure. Good piece here from @m_bultman ⤵️ https://t.co/MYj8Qetv22

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 27, 2026

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta provides an outside update on the Dylan Larkin situation:

With Shawn Horcoff steering the ship in Detroit, at least for the immediate future as the club’s Interim General Manager, the Red Wings hoped that move would reignite trade discussions involving former captain Dylan Larkin.

Larkin, 30, is in the fourth season of an eight-year contract that comes with an $8.7 million average annual value (AAV) and a full no-movement clause, something the veteran centre has used to dictate where he is willing to go to after requesting a trade in June.

At the time of the request, Larkin’s camp informed then-GM Steve Yzerman that he wanted out and would waive his NMC for Florida, Minnesota and Vegas. After multiple failed attempts to find a trade they deemed acceptable, Larkin added Dallas to the mix. Still, zip.

During the week, I reported on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio that Larkin’s list also included Tampa Bay, an addition made at some point over the off-season, bring the total to five clubs. On Friday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that Larkin’s list is now “somewhere around eight” teams, with Colorado and Washington also in the mix.

Larkin, whose mindset has not changed, understands this may take longer than he originally wanted. Even with Horcoff now at the helm, and capable to making all hockey-related decisions, a move may not occur until midway through the season.

Pagnotta opens up the possibility that Larkin may end up with a team not on his list, and the Montreal Canadiens are one of those teams–mostly because their press corps has been drumming up the, “Larkin would be the perfect fit” storyline for about two weeks now, mostly in the French-language media:

The Athletic’s Max Bultman remains baffled by the Red Wings front office/ownership’s decision to “punt” naming an interim GM until September, suggesting that the organization still suffers from the indecision made (or not made) over the course of the past summer. Bultman’s “exhibit A” is the lack of a contract for restricted free agent defenseman Simon Edvinsson:

For core players, long-term extensions right out of [Entry-Level Contracts] seem to work out nearly every time. And even for players who fall short of that bar, the rising cap turns even the questionable deals into manageable ones. One contract previously seen as a cautionary tale was the Ottawa Senators’ eight-year, $7.95 million AAV pact with Josh Norris, whose health has kept him from becoming a consistent difference-maker. But that contract was still tradeable enough two seasons ago that the Senators turned Norris into young top-six center Dylan Cozens. Soon, that $7.95 million will be the going rate for a second-line wing. It might already be.

And yet, even with that history (and the cap’s promising future), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that the Red Wings prefer a bridge deal with Edvinsson. It’s unfathomable how that could be the case for a team currently more than $20 million under the cap, and with most of its other core players (sans Alex DeBrincat) locked up for the intermediate future. There is no squeeze on the horizon in Detroit.

The Red Wings claimed 30-year-old defenseman Andreas Englund from the Calgary Flames off the waiver wire on Saturday, and the 6’3,” 201-pound defenseman comes highly recommended by coach Todd McLellan. McLellan coached Englund for 81 games in 2023-2024, and the Red Wings’ bench boss offered this endorsement to MLive’s Ansar Khan:

“I think he’s an outstanding human being,” McLellan said Saturday, after a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the preseason finale at Little Caesars Arena. “He will fit our room really well. He’s fit, he works hard at his game, he has played in the system that we’re trying to put in, and he’s physical and he’s tough and he shepherds the group. So, we like all those attributes that he’ll bring in. When he’s in the lineup, he’ll give you everything he has, and when he’s not in the lineup, he’ll give you everything he can from the outside.”

The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night at Little Caesars Arena, and coach Todd McLellan explained what comes next for the coaches and management, who must submit a 23-man roster to the NHL by 5 PM on Monday.

Ansar Khan took note of McLellan’s remarks…

“We have to put the puzzle together,” McLellan said. “What I can tell you is that on Monday, the roster will go out, and you’ll see names or whatever. That could change real quick. There can be paper moves. There could be moves made for waiver reasons, there could be something in the hopper somewhere else where you have to buy time.

“We’ve got to go for four days before we play, and there could be some movement and stuff in there. … It might not be what it turns out to be when it’s all said and done.”

McLellan noted Saturday’s game, when both teams dressed most of their regulars, provided a better indication of where some young players stand.