One door closes, two more open, they say.
As fans grapple with another deflating end to the Detroit Red Wings’ season, the Grand Rapids Griffins’ season continues.
Once a formidable opponent, the Griffins have taken a tumble in the standings. Whether the roster construction, a trio of goalies who all demanded the net, or Detroit’s bleeding trickled down the organization as a whole is to blame, we won’t ever know for sure.
Something certain is that the Griffins are getting a couple of shots of juice in their system. No, we’re not talking about the A-Roid kind of juice. Instead, I’m talking about a duo who is recovering from their own difficult end to their Swedish Hockey League (SHL) season—and possible careers for both players.
Detroit Red Wings prospects Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård likely to play with Grand Rapids Griffins
The duo of Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård played for Skellefteå AIK in the SHL this season. Per Elite Prospects, Sandin Pellikka finished the playoffs with 11 games played, one goal, and seven assists for a total of eight points. He recorded two penalty minutes and a -2 rating. Brandsegg-Nygård finished his 11-game playoff run with four goals and two assists for a total of six points. His whimsical 12 penalty minutes were entertaining at times (he doesn’t shy away from scrums—almost seems to relish them). He finished with a -3 rating, per Elite Prospects, as well.
Griffins and Red Wings fans alike are going to have a front-row seat to the future in Hockeytown.
I get it for some fans. Prospects are old news, we are deserving of National Hockey League (NHL) players and improvement, and anything outside of the here and now in Detroit is tiring. While I can empathize with the frustration, as I have felt deflated about the Red Wings rebuild at times, there is some magic happening right now.
It may not be where you want it to be or how you want it in your life, but what I can tell you is that these young men are worth watching. The Grand Rapids Griffins are worth as much time as you’ll lend them.
Looking back on last season, I can’t tell you how far Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper, Albert Johansson, and Elmer Söderblom have come. Söderblom seemed like a prospect most fans had given up on—I know. I was one of the silly few to phone it in too soon on the tiny Swede. Seeing Edvinsson and Johansson go from taking the toughest minutes each night in Grand Rapids to taking on some of the best players in the world is indescribable.
Then, there’s Kasper.
Through the first half of the Griffins season, I had to continuously remind myself to seek Kasper out on the ice. Otherwise, I forgot he was even there. Halfway through the season, Kasper took off like a bat out of Hell. He hasn’t looked back.
Patience is a virtue that seems lost. Today’s society has trouble even waiting five seconds for anything, let alone seven seasons, before making the Stanley Cup playoffs again. While that’s important, and I can respect your views, it sells these young players short. In the future, you’re likely not paying to watch Mitch Marner or either Elias Pettersson in the Winged Wheel. As much as I’d love to see David Pastranak in one, as well, it’s just not realistic.
Instead of yearning for what we don’t have, focusing on the players within the Detroit Red Wings system seems like a much more productive use of time.
The Grand Rapids Griffins allow us to glimpse the future in Detroit. They’re already putting their blood, sweat, and tears into this organization while providing some of the best hockey I’ve seen.
From Anton Johansson being thrown in the deep end because the Griffins had no other warm bodies to playing on the top pair in under 10 games played. Maybe that speaks to the roster as a whole, but my viewings of Johansson have been great. He’s a fun player who seems made for the North American game. He plays a mean, mean game and loves every second of it. Coming in at the right time, he’s helped stabilize the defensive core that was a shell.
Shai Buium is another bright spot for the Griffins. A proven champion who has been a favorite of mine since his early days at the University of Denver. Almost like a mix of Niklas Kronwall and Olli Määttä in terms of style of play, Buium is a defender that the Wings system was in desperate need of. He provides reliable, consistent minutes. Buium is a bit invisible at times, but as a defenseman, that’s about as good of a compliment as one can get. I reckon that much like Kasper, Buium has more offense to give (not to Kasper’s extent, though). He’s just not fully comfortable yet.
Mix in other young defensemen in Eemil Viro, Antti Tuomisto, and William Wallinder to the Grand Rapids blueline, along with veteran players like Nikolai Knyzhov, Brogan Rafferty, and Josiah Didier, and the Griffins have a lot of defensemen. Yet, it seems like nobody has really stepped into the voids that Albert or Edvinsson left. Tuomisto and Wallinder have played the most (based on my viewings—the American Hockey League [AHL] doesn’t publish time on ice), while the others have seemingly rotated with Knyzhov seeming to be possibly the third most consistently used defenseman.
I’m always a huge fan of Viro. He’s feisty and spunky, so I gravitate towards him.
Adding Sandin Pellikka to the mix should help solidify the right side of the Grand Rapids blue line. The biggest question I have for Sandin Pellikka is whether he will be able to translate his competitive spirit to this side of the Atlantic. Or, might he suffer from emotional fatigue, as he’s faced a lot over the last few months? Playing such high-stakes games and such a big move will take a lot out of the most seasoned people. For a young man who can’t even legally drink in the US until next year, it will be the toughest challenge of his life.
Will he be up for the task?
Part of me is concerned about the physicality of the AHL. While he’s not shy or afraid of physical play, the AHL is a brutal, unforgiving league. In the playoffs, it’s even worse. After seeing the way teams targeted a guy like Jonatan Berggren in the Griffins’ playoff run last season, I’m growing concerned that Sandin Pellikka will draw the same attention. I know Sandin Pellikka will stand his ground, but I can’t tell you the number of times Berggren was parallel to the ice as he was crunched into the boards at high speed. Plenty of times, I thought he might not get back up. Fortunately, Berggren was okay, but it’s nasty.
Ideally, Sandin Pellikka slots into the top four on defense. Head coach of the Griffins, Dan Watson, has shuffled the defensive pairings recently.
In the latest rendition Saturday night, the defensive pairings were:
Wallinder - Johansson
Buium - Knyzhov
Viro - Tuomisto
As a right-handed shooting defenseman, Sandin Pellikka will play on the right side.
If I had to guess, he starts on the third pairing with a veteran, but if it were up to me I’d play him on the second pairing with Buium.
Although he’s not a veteran, he’s a reliable defender more often than not. The two got acquainted with each other during development camp, and I think their games can serve as a nice foil to each other.
Hockey IQ is the foundation of both Buium and Sandin Pellikka’s games. Sometimes, that gives us the best defensive pairing; other times, they’re incompatible.
We’ll see if they even get a chance together, but they would be my vote.
On the flipside, Brandsegg-Nygård was made for the North American game. Not quite a brute or extraordinarily huge (6’1” and 207 lbs, per his Elite Prospects page linked above), Brandsegg-Nygård looked NHL-sized when he played in the prospect games and skated in training camp. He had to mature mentally and off the ice this season. After watching him in the playoffs for Skellefteå AIK, I can’t help but think he’s exactly the type of player Wings fans have demanded.
He’s tough, even taking on two opponents in a scrum at once, and has a wicked shot.
It’s almost a necessity that the Red Wings sign Patrick Kane to an extension at this point, so Brandsegg-Nygård can watch Kane’s shot and learn from it. Although Kane’s known as a playmaker, he has one of the hardest shots I’ve seen. He makes Lucas Raymond’s hardest shot look like a softball.
Either way, Brandsegg-Nygård is a top-six forward in the making and should add more than just pop from his shot to the mix. He loves to hit.
Brandsegg-Nygård just needs to improve his positioning—especially in the defensive zone. Although his puck-watching can be an issue, a bigger opportunity lies in having him in the right areas of the ice, whether to take away shooting or passing lanes, he’s a work in progress. The good news is that he seems to want to move. He wants to do the right thing, but it seems like he’s not confident in where to be when. As long as he has the will to learn, he will be fine in this aspect of his game.
I want Brandsegg-Nygård to be stapled to Amadeus Lombardi. The head coach of the Detroit Red Wings has a great philosophy of finding forward pairs. He says Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane are a pair, for example. This idea should be applied to Brandsegg-Nygård and Lombardi for the foreseeable future.
Brandsegg-Nygård is a smart, gifted player, as is Lombardi. The big-bodied Norwegian would give Lombardi plenty of time to orchestrate his plan in the offensive zone. Add to the line someone like Dominik Shine or even Emmitt Finnie (who has developed into a very, very interesting prospect), and the Griffins would have a top-six that would be hard to keep off of the scoresheet.
Even more so than Sandin Pellikka, I think we could see Brandsegg-Nygård in a bottom-six role to begin his AHL campaign. Grand Rapids is a bit more robust on forward, so Brandsegg-Nygård may have a more challenging time cracking a spot in the top six.
If he’s relegated to the bottom six, I think he will bring the same intensity and offensive punch. Regardless of where he plays, Brandsegg-Nygård will definitely help the Griffins in the postseason.
It should be noted that if Söderblom is healthy, he and Austin Watson are expected to return to Grand Rapids for the playoffs (once the Detroit Red Wings season is finished).
If Söderblom is healthy enough to return, having him with Lombardi and Brandsegg-Nygård is what dreams are made of. Let’s hope a line like this becomes a reality sooner than later.
As the Grand Rapids Griffins ready themselves for their second playoff appearance in two seasons, the team is getting much-needed reinforcements.
Even though they’re not the Detroit Red Wings, they provide great entertainment while we wait for some of these same prospects to step into The Show.
Who knows, some of them might just surprise you while you wait.