How 3 Red Wings Rookies Made the Cut in 2025-26

MBN didn’t have the post-draft season that anyone hoped for, scoring just five goals in 42 SHL games as someone who was supposed to be a great goal scorer. After a disappointing year in Sweden, he made the trip to join the Griffins at the end of last season, and even pitched in two goals and three points in as many AHL playoff games. He showed that his style of play worked well in North America and that he was a playoff-style grinder, but the sample size was small.

That’s why expectations were mixed for MBN coming into camp this year, with most expecting him to spend the majority of this season in the AHL. While that’s still technically possible, his performance in the preseason opened the door to him jumping right into the NHL. MBN ended the preseason with four goals and seven points in seven games, which tied him for the league lead in each of those categories. 

With Brandsegg-Nygård on the ice, Detroit outshot their opponents 67-30 and outscored them 9-2 (stats via. Natural Stat Trick). When it comes to the eye test, he might have been even more impressive. Winning puck battles, having the speed and awareness to keep up with Dylan Larkin on the rush, and most importantly, shooting the puck like it owes him money. MBN looks like Steph Curry out there, strategically relocating from one spot in the offensive zone to another to take advantage of a soft spot in defensive coverage and get his blistering shot off. 

I expect MBN to be a serious goal scoring threat on Detroit’s second power play unit, something they’ve lacked for many years, while also providing good depth offense in the bottom-six. In the past few practices, he has regularly skated on Detroit’s presumptive third line on Andrew Copp’s wing across from J.T. Compher, but it’s not hard to imagine him scoring in Detroit’s top-six group in a year or two.

Axel Sandin Pellikka

Alongside MBN, Detroit’s new “Acronym Association” also includes Axel Sandin Pellikka, or as he is affectionately and efficiently called, ASP. He was selected by Detroit with the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, with a first round pick received from the Vancouver Canucks in the Filip Hronek trade. After splitting his draft season between Sweden’s J20 league and the SHL, ASP was a no-doubt top prospect in the draft, with the heavy shot, excellent skating, and puck skill to go early in the first round despite being a 5-foot-11 defender. 

All he has done since being drafted is put up points and defend bigger, stronger opponents in the SHL. Across two full SHL seasons, ASP scored 22 goals and 47 points in just 85 games as a U20 defender. He signed his entry level contract (ELC) with Detroit in May of 2024, and his three-year deal slid last season, meaning he is still under contract for three full NHL seasons at a hair over $900k/year. 

Fan expectations for ASP were enormous coming into training camp this September, with many believers already crowning him as the next great offensive defender in the NHL. The more realistic fans were more than happy to give him time in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins to adapt to the North American ice and life outside of Sweden. 

Sandin Pellikka didn’t have the hottest start in some prospect play and training camp, but he showed huge improvements as camp went along and earned lots of minutes in his first few preseason games. Again he wasn’t playing his best, looking a bit tentative at times, through those first few games, but adapted well to the speed and timing of the preseason. After playing in seven games, Sandin-Pellikka looked clearly like an NHL player, and the Red Wings agreed, waiving Erik Gustafsson, opening a spot that ASP will likely fill on the second power play unit.

With Moritz Seider taking massive, difficult minutes on the top pairing, ASP should be freed up to take on some easier opponents, either with the towering Edvinsson on Detroit’s second pair, or in even cushier minutes on the third pair. There’s no doubt in my mind that ASP is one of Detroit’s best four defenders right now, but the question they’ll have to ask after the first weeks of the regular season is whether his development would be better served playing big minutes in the AHL compared to soft NHL minutes. 

Emmitt Finnie

After two first round picks taken in the teens, let’s take a look at Emmitt Finnie who was taken . . . a lot later than that. With the 201st in the 2023 Draft, the Red Wings selected a hard working, physical forward who scored just 9 goals and 35 points in the WHL. A seventh round pick isn’t typically someone a fanbase builds expectations around, but Finnie made it his mission to be a relevant player, and he did so very quickly.

He followed up his draft season with a 19-goal, 59-point year for the Kamloops Blazers in 2023-24, and then took another massive leap forward last season with 37 goals and 84 points, all while staying true to his identity as a force to be reckoned with off the puck. In March of 2024, Detroit rewarded Finnie with an ELC, bringing him up to play three games in the AHL before the season ended. Finnie didn’t put up any points in those games, but he managed five points in 10 games this past Spring when they brought him out to Grand Rapids again.

Very few seventh round picks make it to the NHL, and nearly none of them do it this quickly. There are currently only 19 players from the 2023 Draft who have played at least one NHL game, all of whom were drafted in the first four rounds. Finnie is an anomaly, but not an undeserving one.

After a head-turning training camp performance that saw Finnie running lines with Larkin and Lucas Raymond, who are in desperate need of a second winger capable of keeping up with their physical and mental speed, Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan gave Finnie a simple goal for his first preseason game. Stop Connor Bedard. The 1st overall pick in the 2023 Draft versus the 201st. In what had already been an excellent game for Finnie, he capped off the night with a takeaway against none other than Bedard, and during the ensuing offensive zone pressure he was rewarded with his first preseason goal.

Not bad for 201st overall.

Will the Kids Last?

I think each of these players could realistically see considerable time in the AHL this year, though even just one injury to the NHL team would likely bring them right back up. ASP feels like someone with a lineup spot to lose going into the first game of the season, with Gustafsson’s power play minutes and sheltered even strength minutes freed up. Brandsegg-Nygård is giving me Kasper vibes and I don’t think he’ll relinquish his NHL role lightly. Finnie has shown throughout the preseason that he can be effective in just about any spot on the depth chart, as a puck-hound on the wing in the top-six or as a driver in the bottom six.

Even if this trio doesn’t last in Detroit for the entirety of the 2025-26 season, their remarkable performances in training camp and the preseason have brought a level of excitement and optimism for the future to the Red Wings fanbase that hasn’t been felt since the arrivals of Seider and Raymond back in the 2021-22 season.