Detroit Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka is having a remarkable rookie season after coming over from Sweden last spring. He's already showing the promise that made him the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. In 63 NHL games this season, he's recorded 19 points on six goals and 13 assists despite no time on the top power play unit.
Despite all that, it’s time for the Red Wings to have a serious conversation about sending him down to the AHL, possibly for the remainder of the season. With the Red Wings adding Justin Faulk’s consistent, minute-eating presence to the roster, he is the most logical person to be edged out. He was already the odd man out in Faulk’s March 8th debut at New Jersey (a 3-0 win).
Axel Sandin-Pellikka’s ice time is already plummeting
Over the team’s first 32 games this season, Axel Sandin-Pellikka played 20 or more minutes nine times and was rarely below 17 minutes on ice per game. He chipped in a couple power play points while logging 1:33 on the power play per game in October, and was averaging a shade under two power play minutes per game through December. ASP broke out in the final month of 2025, notching nine of his 19 points (four on the power play) in 15 games.
The NHL season is a long grind and ASP is going through it for the first time. Since that breakout December, Sandin-Pellikka has just four points in 22 games. By itself, that wouldn’t be alarming, even for an offensive-minded defenseman like him. After all, Moritz Seider has been an anchor on the top power play unit, limiting those opportunities on the man advantage. However, as the season stakes have gone up, ASP’s ice time has gone down substantially, as indicated below.
October (12 games) | 18:43 ATOI |
|---|---|
November (14 games) | 19:05 ATOI |
December (15 games) | 16:01 ATOI |
January (15 games) | 13:36 ATOI |
February (4 games) | 13:44 ATOI |
March (3 games) | 12:16 ATOI |
The Red Wings have essentially benched him down the stretch of close games. In the 22 games Sandin-Pellikka has played since the calendar flipped to 2026, he has logged less than 13 minutes 10 times, going above 15 minutes just six times. At this stage in his development, head coach Todd McLellan does not trust him when Detroit is holding a slim lead late in the game.
The reality is, however, that you can’t hide players come playoff time. Even the best coaches at managing matchups get caught with their fourth line and third pairing on the ice against the other team’s top guns. It’s going to happen at some point. Based on what we are seeing, McLellan wants to avoid that with ASP at all costs. The best way to do that is by not having him dressed in the first place.
The reason ASP needs AHL time
Sandin-Pellikka made the team due to his puck moving ability and dynamic offensive potential. He has shown that those skills translate to the NHL, albeit sporadically. However, the fact that he isn’t on the team’s top power play unit even as they have struggled to convert over the past month and change (and may need to change their personnel) shows he isn’t there yet in the eyes of the coaching staff.
With Faulk able to handle being the point man for Detroit’s second power play unit, the spots where ASP’s strengths can impact the game are fading away, leaving only the situations that McLellan is actively avoiding putting him in as all that’s left. After putting up a respectable six power play points for a second unit player in his first 39 games, Sandin-Pellikka has just one power play point in his past 24 games, despite getting 2-3 minutes per night with the man advantage in that span.
Sandin-Pellikka’s nine-point December showed that the capacity for offense is there, but the warts in his game are becoming too hard to ignore in a playoff chase.
A trip to Grand Rapids will help ASP’s development
With Justin Holl gone in the Faulk trade, there is an opening on the Griffins’ roster. Sandin-Pellikka is seeing less and less time on the ice and now in a battle with Johansson and Bernard-Docker for third-pairing minutes.
The most convincing argument is what his role in Grand Rapids will do for his development. If he suits up for the Griffins instead of the Red Wings, he will instantly become their top defenseman. He’ll quarterback the team’s top power play unit. In the AHL, he'll log well over 20 minutes per night. To top it all off, he'll still be getting physical and mental preparation for the grind of a long hockey season in North America. It will also get his conditioning back up to handle those minutes should an injury happen.
Even with Travis Hamonic, who has struggled immensely when called upon, I would still consider a demoted ASP to be the team’s seventh defenseman and an immediate plug-in to the Red Wings’ lineup in the event of an injury to one of the team’s top six defensemen.
Axel Sandin-Pellikka appears to have a solid career ahead of him as a dynamic offensive defenseman, especially if he can clean things up in his own end. While he isn’t there as a player yet, Detroit is unable to afford to be patient with his mistakes at this time of year. A trip to Grand Rapids is the perfect recipe for him to become the player the team envisioned when they took him 17th overall in 2023.