Detroit Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka on his road trip to the NHL draft
Detroit Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka, selected at No. 17 in 2023 NHL draft. June 28, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn.
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press
At least the future will be on display soon to brigthen the present.
On the same day the Detroit Red Wings were eliminated from the 2025 NHL playoff race, Wings prospects Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård were freed up when their club, Skellefteå, was eliminated from the Swedish Hockey League playoffs. That cleared the way for both to join the Wings organization and play some more hockey in North America.
They traveled Tuesday, and are scheduled to join the Wings’ AHL farm team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, in Rockford, Illinois, where they play against the IceHogs on Friday.
Sandin Pellikka, 20, was drafted at No. 17 in the 2023 draft, with a pick the Wings received when they traded Filip Hronek to the Vancouver Canucks at that year’s trade deadline. Like Hronek, Sandin Pellikka is a smaller (5 foot 10, 185 pounds) defenseman who shoots right.
Sandin Pellikka has more than lived up to the hype that comes with being a first-round pick over the past two years: When he scored his 12th goal of the season in March, he set the SHL single-season and career records for most goals by a defenseman under 20 (he was 19 at the time). He finished the season with 29 points in 46 games, and earning Swedish Junior Hockey Player of the Year honors. He had eight points in 11 playoff games.
The Wings project Sandin Pellikka will be running one of their power play units in the future. The plan as of now is that he’ll start next season with the Grand Rapids Griffins – but that was also the thinking with Lucas Raymond in the fall of 2021, until he came to training camp and played so well he ended up making the Wings squad.
Brandsegg-Nygård was selected at No. 15 in 2024. He already was 6 feet 1 and 205 pounds at the time he was drafted, and with that kind of size to back up his skill set, the Wings took the highly unusual step of bringing Brandsegg-Nygård to camp last fall, even as he already was embedded with Skellefteå. The native of Oslo looked good in exhibitions, holding his own against men and making plays with the puck.
Brandsegg-Nygård recorded 11 points in 42 regular-season games this season with Skellefteå, along with six points in 11 playoff games.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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