Every year around training camp, there are guys nobody's really talking about who end up forcing the issue anyway. Last season it was Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Emmitt Finnie. This season I've got two: Carter Bear up front and Anton Johansson on the back end. Each of them will have to fight their way up if they want to see LCA ice this fall.
Why Carter Bear is my dark horse up front
Bear went 13th overall in 2025, and last season with Everett in the WHL, he put up 36 goals and 41 assists for 77 points in 53 games, adding 22 points in 18 playoff games soon after on the way to the Silvertips winning their first Ed Chynoweth Cup. On top of that, he picked up a bronze medal with Canada at the World Juniors. That's real production across a full season and a championship playoff run.
Patrick Kane leaving in free agency actually opens a real door here. That's a top-six wing spot that could sit empty if you move Emmitt Finnie down, and Bear isn't the only one looking to step into it. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård is right there too, coming off a 20-goal, 44-point season in Grand Rapids and 8 points in 8 playoff games. He's a 6-foot-1, 204-pound winger with a heavy shot who's already gotten a taste of the NHL. That's the actual competition Bear has to beat.
Bear has already told you exactly what he thinks camp comes down to. In an interview with Brennan McClain from Pro Hockey Rumors, Bear was nothing but honest.
“I try doing me and just work my ass off," the first round pick said. "Everyone’s goal is to make the NHL. That’s my goal, I feel like I have a chance. Everyone gets a shot, and it’s about being competitive and outworking guys.”
That's the right mentality, but it doesn't solve the actual roster math. I don't think Bear makes this team playing nine minutes a night on a fourth line, and I don't think he beats out MBN for a bottom-six job either. If he's going to break in, it's in a top-six role with real power-play time, learning next to a guy like Viktor Arvidsson or Alex DeBrincat. Anything less, and Detroit is better off letting him eat huge minutes in Grand Rapids instead of burning a year playing meager time in the bottom six.
Anton Johansson's route is an even tougher trek
Anton Johansson, not to be confused with Albert Johansson, was a 2022 fifth-round pick, 105th overall. When he ended his season playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins, he looked like a legitimate answer on the third pair. He's tough as hell and smart with the puck, exactly the kind of physical edge and smarts a young Red Wings blue line needs.
Jacob Bernard-Docker is the first problem. JBD signed a contract extension this offseason and enters camp as the incumbent, a right-shot veteran who's played 207 NHL games in 6 years and has made no secret that penalty killing and physicality are the two things he wants to show off this camp. While not a star by any stretch of the word, it's still a real NHL track record and a known commodity standing between Johansson and a roster spot.
Then there's Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who has a battle of his own. ASP already had the job. He put up 21 points in 68 games as a rookie last season and was third among Red Wings defensemen in goals behind Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson. But as much as I hate +/- as an individual stat, the minus-20 should give upper management a bit of pause.
ASP has some major defensive flaws that need to be ironed out. Once Detroit acquired Justin Faulk at the deadline, Sandin-Pellikka got bumped out of the lineup, sat as a healthy scratch for seven straight games and ended up back in Grand Rapids. He's trying to prove last season's defensive lapses were an exception to the rule, and that makes him a real threat to reclaim the same spot Johansson's chasing. That is a job made easier if he can come to camp and show that he's made meaningful progress in the defensive zone.
I still like Johansson's chances. But this is the one dark horse fight on the roster that isn't close to decided, and now he's got two names in front of him instead of one.
Where I land on both of them
Neither of these camp battles is a lock, and that's what makes predicting dark horses fun. Bear's path runs through outplaying an NHL-tested winger and a fellow hungry prospect for a role that just opened up. Johansson's runs through a veteran with a fresh contract and a rookie with something to prove all over again. Real competition, real stakes. No guarantees. If I had to bet today, I'd say Johansson gets there before Bear does, just because he's competing for a bottom-pair spot, not a top-six role. But keep your eye on both over the next few weeks.
This is where the roster starts to get interesting.
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