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Red Wings: Comparing Sandin-Pellikka vs. Rookie Seider and Edvinsson

Originally posted on Inside The Rink
By Alexander DeBerardinis | Last updated Oct 11, 2025 2:53 AM ET

Sandin-Pellikka might be the most hyped Red Wings prospect in years. The dynamic defenceman is likely to be playing top-four minutes right away with Simon Edvinsson. So what do we actually expect from ASP in his first full season? What are his comparables, and how does he match up against the other two young defenders? Everything from awards, stats, and minutes, let’s get into this ASP breakdown.

Comparing Sandin-Pellikka to Seider and Edvinsson

Stats (D+2):

Sandin-Pellikka: 46GP 12G 17A 29P, Skellefteå SHL

Seider: 41GP 7G 21A 28P, Rögle SHL

Edvinsson: 52GP 5G 22A 27P, Grand Rapids AHL

Stats Breakdown: Let’s compare apples to apples to start, ASP and Seider in the SHL. Now, in fewer games, Seider had one fewer point. But Seider was on the second-best team in the league in Rögle and was fifth on their team in scoring. ASP was on the fifth best time and was fourth on their team in scoring. It’s close offensively, but I’ll give the edge to Sandin-Pellikka. Defensively, Seider by a fair bit. They both won impressive awards in their D+2 seasons. Sandin-Pellikka won the best Swedish defenceman of the year award, and Seider won the best SHL defenceman. Factoring in Edvinsson, this is where it gets tricky. It ultimately comes down to what you consider to be the more difficult league offensively, the SHL or the AHL. The SHL has bigger ice, which means more space, but it’s also harder to get the puck to the net. The AHL is tighter, which means it’s harder for defencemen to set up.

Stats Summary: The pre-NHL stats suggest that ASP’s production should fall around the same range as both Seider and Edvinsson had. Call a 30 point floor the conservative estimate that we can draw from this.

Rookie Role:

Seider: Top pair defenceman, 55% D-zone starts & +0.203 QoC, 2:53PP TOI

Edvinsson: Top four defenceman, 54% D-zone starts & +0.253 QoC, 0:23PP TOI

Sandin-Pellikka: TBD

Stats Breakdown: Who on God’s green earth was giving this deployment to rookies? Seider and Edvinsson were thrust into functionally the same defensive role; the difference is that Seider got to play on the power play. I think ASP will almost definitely play PP2 to start, assuming that sticks, Erik Gustafsson played 1:37PP TOI. Now, will Sandin-Pellikka play with Edvinsson on pair two, or Johansson on pair three? If he plays with Edvinsson, his numbers deployments will virtually be the same as Seider’s or Edvinsson’s. If he plays with Johansson, his role eases to around 47% D-zone starts against -1.375 QoC. However, he would also play around 3:30 fewer minutes per game (Edvinsson played 21, subtract Johansson’s minutes, and add the power play time). Regardless of where he plays, there won’t be much sheltering on this blue line anymore; everyone is going to be expected to play a role. All I can do is go by what McClellan has shown, and so far, it’s ASP on the second line with Simon Edvinsson. The three are all likely to face hard, defensive minutes in their rookie seasons, so none of them gets a leg up in terms of an easier role. Jury’s out on ASP however.

Stats Summary: Assuming we go with what we said for ASP as “Top four defenceman, 54% D-zone starts & +0.250 QoC, 1:37PP TOI”, I don’t think anyone gets a clear leg up. I will say Edvinsson clearly has the most unfortunate of all three, as his power play time was negligible, but in terms of even-strength deployment, they all fall into the same umbrella.

Rookie Stats:

Seider: 82GP 7G 43A 50P, 46.9 CF% 23:02 TOI

Edvinsson: 78GP 7G 24A 31P, 48.7 CF% 21:07 TOI

Sandin-Pellikka: TBD

Stats Breakdown: Just to start, Seider had 27 even-strength points to Edvinsson’s 30. Both of them were primarily playing defensive minutes. So again, the floor for ASP’s even strength point production would seem to be 25, the ceiling would likely be about 35, assuming 82 games for ASP of course. His Corsi For will be slightly higher than rookie Edvinsson or Seider, mostly because he won’t play against the extra attacker at the end of games. I think the floor for ASP’s Corsi For would be 45% and the ceiling would be 51%. He is playing with Simon Edvinsson at even strength, who might will that CF% above 50 on his own. Don’t get it confused, though. His CF% will look good as a result of good defensive teammates; ASP won’t be better than them defensively. As for TOI, it will likely be 20 minutes; the special teams time for him and Edvinsson should balance out, as ASP won’t play PK. I doubt they would play a smaller rookie too much more than that though. Floor would be the third pairing, 16 minutes, and the ceiling would be a big 21 with added power play time.

Stats Summary: The big reveal of predicted stats is going to be down below. I’ve got to have some kind of hook going. Quick plug, make sure you check out Kicking Tires, where I am the host of the Inside the Rink’s Red Wings podcast.

Sandin-Pellikka Final Predictions:

Stats: 82GP 13G 40A 53P 28PPP

TOI: 18:30 EVS, 1:50 PP, 0:00 PK

Deployment: 45 D-zone, +0.250 QoC

Role (by end of season): Second Pair RHD, PP1

Reasoning: I wanted to have some fun and give him the slight edge on Seider’s rookie season. I do believe he will seize the top PP spot by the end of the season as well. I have him topping Seider’s rookie power play points by one, but falling below Edvinsson’s even-strength points by five. All in all, it’s damn optimistic, but until something crushes my spirits, I’m too excited not to be this high on ASP.

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