Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, or MBN for short, has been a name in the midst of the Detroit Red Wings roster conversation all summer. Where will he fit in the roster? Can he make the roster? In just two preseason games, it looks like that conversation is basically over. He scored twice against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In two games, he's been the most physically involved forward on the ice, right up there with Kasper, on both nights. Both the coaching staff and the guys covering the team are landing on the same conclusion: it's MBN's spot to lose.
What MBN showed us last season
His first real look in Detroit was uneven, and that's putting it kindly. Bouncing around the lines didn't do him any favors, playing stretches next to JT Compher and Michael Rasmussen, where the offense really wasn't going to show up no matter what he did. He still led the team in hits during those stretches and kept making plays; he just didn't have a finisher next to him to turn those looks into points.
The lack of real production sent him down to Grand Rapids, and the numbers finally caught up to the talent we saw on the ice. He capped off last season with 20 goals and 44 points on the season followed by eight points in eight playoff games when it mattered most. MBN was a 20-year-old figuring something it out in real time and proving it held up once the games got harder and the competition matched the intensity.
Making his case in preseason
So far, MBN has two goals in two games, including a power-play goal where he took a pass to the body and just slammed the rebound home. That's on top of a full night of exactly the stuff that doesn't show up on a score sheet: digging pucks out of the boards, hitting anything that moves, blocking shots and getting himself into passing lanes. Todd McLellan has been saying all camp that this roster needs toughness from more than just Marco Kasper, who led the team in hits by himself last season. MBN is the clearest answer to that ask on the entire roster right now.
Todd even let it slip that MBN has what it takes to make the roster, basically counting him in already before the puck even hit the ice.
The comparison we have been making over on The Grind Line Podcast for a while now is to Anthony Mantha, or at least what the organization hoped Mantha would eventually become. Big body, can hit, can make plays, has a genuinely heavy shot, and can finish. Mantha only really half-made it there in his time with Detroit, and was known for a decent stretch as a guy who floated around the ice.
MBN is 19 games into pro hockey and already showing us more drive, determination and physicality than Mantha. On the production front, if MBN can get to the level Mantha did last season - 64 points in 81 games - then he becomes the threat this team has been desperately hoping for.
How the season needs to play out
Bouncing around a lineup that never gave him a real chance to settle, then closing it out by proving exactly what he could do once given real usage in Grand Rapids gave us hope. He's carried that hope directly into camp, and it's showing up on the score sheet, in physical play, and in the way the coaching staff talks about him. I thought Carter Bear might push him for a roster spot; he will get his shot eventually, just likely not this September. Right now, MBN looks like the injection of energy the Wings need at this critical moment.
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