Are Detroit Red Wings fans ready for Simon Edvinsson?
Drafting and developing is fun, but what’s even better? Watching Detroit Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson play hockey in the National Hockey League. Here’s why.
Picture it, the year is 2007 somewhere in the state of Michigan, Western New York, or somewhere in between family and I sit to watch a new program.
Although flip phones and video quality age the program, it’s where time seemingly stops.
The jokes are just as funny as they were during the first watch through.
As we tried getting our California family watching this program, something strange happened (and seems to happen every time we put it on the TV).
Not sure if it’s a practical joke, as one of our guardian angels is a bit of a prankster (and it's one of his favorite shows), or if we are just tired, but it happens each time without fail.
Rewatching my favorite TV show for the countless time, I can’t help but find a connection with my viewings of Detroit Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson. Are Detroit Red Wings fans ready for him?
I hear the detractors now, maybe it’s just a boring show?
Odd. Ridiculous. Silly. All over the place.
From Tim Curry being incarcerated in a blueberry to the Blueberry hitting a German speed bump, Bruton Gaster with a fear of toupee to Shawn overcoming his batting yips, Psych is many things but boring isn’t (usually) one of those.
“He loves me not…Oops he’s dead” (Season 1, Episode 11) sees a young Shawn Spencer attempting to hide his face with a hat as he runs by his dad.
His astute dad, Henry Spencer, immediately knows that something is up and demands to know what Shawn is hiding. Moving his hat, we see Shawn has a black eye.
Henry, asks if Shawn was in a fight.
“Elizabeth” Shawn replies when Henry asks who hit him.
Although, it wasn’t actually a fight. Shawn illustrates the events where his classmate Elizabeth, invited him to join her at lunch. Then, she just punched him while he was eating his tater tots.
Brilliantly, Henry asks, “...What was she doing while you were eating your tater tots.”
“I don’t know, she was talking about something,” Shawn remarks.
Henry inquired, “What, what was she talking about?”
“I have no idea, she just went on and on and I was concentrating on my tater tots,” exclaimed Shawn.
As Shawn holds an icepack over his eye, Henry explains it was a first date. Elizabeth invited Shawn over to her table because she likes him, but he didn’t listen to her story.
Furthering his point, Henry says that women want you to listen to their stories and compliment them. It’s not just with women, though, as he continues.
Tuning into people and anticipating needs are important across all relationships in life.
Edvinsson’s game seems to parallel this scene in many ways.
When the season began, and even back to last season, Edvinsson played with questionable consistency. Part of this inconsistency could stem from injuries, new leagues, unfamiliar environments, opportunity for physical conditioning.
For Edvinsson, he seems to be at his best when he’s tuninginto the game and anticipating the game.
Defensemen have a challenging responsibility to buy time for their forwards. Any extra second their forward gets could mean the difference between a win or loss of a shift (and overall game).
It’s difficult to be constantly tuned in, and can get exhausting.
In Edvinsson’s case, maybe he feels the same way. However, he seems to be at his best when he’s communicating well with his teammates.
Albert Johansson seemed to be a great partner for Edvinsson during the 2023-24 season, especially when they were communicating.
There are times where it seems like Edvinsson is focusing on his own tater tots. Whether those tots are the crowd, something on a video board or scoreboard, or just kind of in space, at times Edvinsson can get off track.
Having someone like Johansson (or maybe even an Olli Määttä who seems pretty patient and focused) seems to be a great recipe for success. Edvinson is an amazing player when he feels comfortable, confident, and is on the same page as his teammates.
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth reiterating, Edvinsson might seem like extra effort (especially in terms of supposedly “low maintenance” Swedes). Players should be responsible for knowing how to best prepare themselves before games and in between shifts on the ice. As Edvinsson matures, he might improve in this way to, essentially, anticipate his own needs. Even if he doesn’t, he’s still worth investing in long-term.
While Jeff Petry played as well as he’s ever looked with Edvinsson at the end of the Detroit Red Wings season, he’s not a long-term solution for Edvinsson’s defensive partner.
To me, finding Edvinsson’s partner isn’t vital to his success in National Hockey League (NHL), but how successful he becomes.
He is destined to be one of the best defensemen in the NHL. It’s up to him and the Detroit Red Wings to nurture this side of Edvinsson and give him every opportunity to succeed, but he needs stability and reliability, especially in his defensive partner.
Maybe this consistent defensive partner is Moritz Seider. On paper, it seems like a decent match but who knows in real life if it can work. Also, that’s putting a lot of things (money, talent, and defensively-sound defensemen) on the top pair, which may leave the rest of the defensive pairs sparse. For these reasons, I think it’s likely that Edvinsson’s long-term partner is going to be someone other than Seider.
As the search for Edvinsson’s long-term defensive partner continues (if it’s not Johansson, but he gets my full support), Edvinsson has proven that he can play well with various partners. As we reviewed, Petry hasn’t looked better, and that’s a great sign.
Edvinsson has grown tremendously
Aside from being able to team up with various defensive partners (with varying skill levels, styles, and ages), Edvinsson has proven he’s improved exponentially this season.
Under the direction of Grand Rapids Griffins head coach Dan Watson, and defensive coach Brian Lashoff, Edvinsson has displayed a growth in confidence. Edvinsson’s dedication to improving his hands and skills was apparent, but at times he seemed to hold back.
There are times that I wish Edvinsson would push more, as to me he’s one of the most talented players in the American Hockey League (AHL) and could be one of the best defensemen in the NHL.
It’s great that he can make routine, smart, and simple plays for his team. Doing those things consistently will help his team win. Yet, I would love to see him take charge a bit more on the ice.
His passing can be sublime with full, ice-length passes and his puck carrying ability is incredible to watch at times.
I think most of the time, defensemen are asked to play a safer game as it’s predictable to their forwards and goaltenders and it works well in any given system. Also, I believe that many defensemen who possess a similar skillset to Edvinsson might not use the best decision-making for whatever reason or they might not have the level of skill that Edvinsson has.
Edvinsson’s toolkit is an easy one to project. Number one defenseman with power play and penalty kill upside, top units of both. He’ll munch minutes and do so with the most asthetically-pleasing skating you’ll ever see.
It might seem like a big ask and be a bit premature, but based on my viewings of Edvinsson, he can control the game. He’s not reacting, mitigating chances, or treading water.
Similar to Seider, Edvinsson skates well, can play physical
While these things make him sound similar to Seider, I think there are quite big differences between these players.
Edvinsson’s the better skater (not just visually, he’s just better built for skating), and I give overall skill level to Edvinsson over Seider. There are somethings that Edvinsson does that very few, if any, can do. His size, skating, and hands are very rare in the NHL.
Compete, consistency, and physicality go to Seider. Part of this might be that Seider can’t rest on his skill alone to succeed like Edvinsson can.
It should be noted, Edvinsson has vastly improved in compete, consistency, and physicality.
He reached a new level in his final game of the season. When he played in game 4 against the Milwaukee Admirals, Edvinsson finished more checks than I can count (not just because I can’t count that high, but that he finished a lot of checks).
I could tell every shift if Edvinsson was on the ice or not, he had that much of an impact on the game. This improved play could be a result of the playoff pressures, or maybe he hated seeing the way his teammates were treated throughout the series and had enough of it.
Edvinsson competed his bum off and it was every shift that I saw of Edvinsson. Earlier in the playoffs, Edvinsson made great plays and had some confidence as well. His beast switch seems to be activated when his team is getting picked on, though, and I can respect that fully.
As for next season, this offseason is a big question mark.
He couldn’t play in game 5 (the final game for the Grand Rapids Griffins) due to injury and missed all but the 1 above-mentioned game that series.
If the injury prevents him from training this summer or he’s not ready for training camp, I wouldn’t be surprised if he warms up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a bit in 2024-25.
If he’s healthy, then he will have to steal someone’s job.
Something the Detroit Red Wings could potentially try is having Edvinsson (and/or Johansson) play right side. Typically they play left side defense, but both have played on the right side without too many difficulties.
It might provide flexibility for the Detroit Red Wings lineup and not having too many rookies on the left side.
Another thing the Detroit Red Wings might do is rotate the defense. Similar to this season how guys tagged in and out all season, but after the halfway mark the team seemed to have a favorite 6 (or 7) they played.
As a fan of Johansson and Edvinsson, I wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of rotating them. Although they can learn a bit from watching games, I think they just need to play. Get them consistent minutes, roles, and defensive partners (injuries-permitting) and let them adjust to the NHL as quickly and well as possible.
Johansson and Edvinsson kind of go hand in hand for me. Both players are ready to take the next step, I just hope that head coach Derek Lalonde is patient and understanding with a couple of rookie defensemen. They’ll more than pay their dividends if Lalonde gives them a real chance (whether on the same pair or not).
I know Detroit Red Wings fans are ready for Edvinsson, but I know the rest of the NHL and its fans are not. Should be a fun 2024-25 season, and I can’t wait!
Next. May 31. No friendly ghost in Detroit Red Wings Marco Kasper. dark
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