50/50 Season for the Second Pair
Simon Edvinsson: A
78GP 7G 24A 31Pts
Edvinsson had his small stints in the NHL during the last two seasons, but this was his first full season with the team, and he was immediately thrown into the same minutes as Seider on the top pair. The team didn't have much of a choice; Seider needed a steadier and more stable partner to handle those minutes with him, and Edvinsson was a step up from Chiarot.
Ed quickly took to it, though, and seemingly thrived on the challenge. He didn't lose any of his offensive prowess, finishing as one of the Red Wings' top 10 scorers in the 2024-25 season with 31 points in 78 games. All while being hit with the toughest minutes on the top pair with Seider for half of the season.
After the coaching change and an unfortunate injury to Jeff Petry, Edvinsson was put on the second pair with former Grand Rapids defense partner Albert Johansson, and for a time became the Red Wings' best defensive pair. Edvinsson had some growing pains, as is expected of a player who is playing his first full NHL season, but overall, I believe he had a great season, and expectations will be high going into next season.
Jeff Petry: C-
44GP 1G 7A 8Pts
As many of you know, I've been a big believer in Jeff Petry. I was confident that going into this season that he would be able to fix the issues he had last season, as he would've had a better partner than Ben Chiarot. Unfortunately, instead of pairing him with Edvinsson, where Petry looked his best during the previous season, Lalonde decided it was best to front-load the defense and keep Chiarot with Petry for the first half of the season. That went about as well as anybody could've predicted.
Even more unfortunately, Petry only got 2 games in under McLellan before being injured and was on the shelf for over 30 games. When he came back, however, McLellan decided to pair him with Edvinsson on the 2nd pair for the remainder of the season, and he looked pretty good with a competent partner next to him. showing off flashes of the Petry from Montreal, and he stepped up his defensive game a bit more too.
While he's likely never going to be the same player he was in Montreal, he's still a competent right-handed defender who can make for a fantastic 7th defenseman and backup Powerplay QB in case of an injury. And no, I will never forgive the NHL for taking away his 2-goal game against Toronto.