Simon Edvinsson excited about potential season-opening pairing with Axel Sandin-Pellikka
A look at the Red Wings young Swedish pairing that was skating together Monday.
Because of an off-season injury, Simon Edvinsson watched most of the Detroit Red Wings preseason games as a spectator.
And like most Red Wings fans, and apparently Detroit management, he was pretty happy watching the progress of 20-year-old right-handed defender Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
“It was pretty fun, he got better every game,” Edvinsson said. “You could see he learned something, and wanted to learn something, every game … he’s an exceptional hockey player, and I’m here if he needs everything, but I think he’s gonna be pretty good to figure it out.”
And when the Red Wings open the season on Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens, it looks like Edvinsson and Sandin-Pellikka are going to be paired together after playing together for parts of the final preseason game and in practice Monday.
For Edvinsson, a left-handed shot, it’s all about how Sandin-Pellikka moves on the ice that excites him.
“You find some chemistry in those two games, and I think we played good together,” Edvinsson said. “I can see how he moves, how finds patterns on the ice. That’s the biggest things when you come from Europe, you have to find the patterns that are different.”
Edvinsson said the biggest thing he experience with changing patterns was when it came to positioning within the defensive zone when it comes to width.
“There were times where I was lost on the dots (when I cam over from Europe), where to be, and he’s picked that up quickly and when he’s had to adjust, I can just tell him I dealt with the same thing,” Edvinsson said. “And I think with that, he knows what to do up the ice.”
Sandin-Pellikka, and the other Red Wings rookies likely to make the team — Emmitt Finnie and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård — had a busy September, each playing in nine games between the prospect showdown in Texas and NHL preseason.
All three said that heavy workload, starting with the prospect games, was vital to their adjustment and chance to make the NHL roster.
It’s kind of funny, most of us — myself included! — talk about how happy we are to see the NHL preseason shortened, but without the Red Wings eight-game schedule, those three rookies might not have made the NHL opening night roster.
Sandin-Pellikka and I spoke in Texas during the prospect tournament, at the time he was bullish on his ability to make life difficult for management. How he could play his way into the NHL conversation, and he’d do so by using his brain, thinking at an elite level.
On Monday, after talking to Edvinsson, he and I chatted again while there was a scrum on the other side of the room surrounding Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin.
“It kind of goes back to what we talked about before, I understand I’m not the biggest guy, I understand I have to use space and win (battles) differently,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “‘So (in preseason) it was all about turning my brain on, using it to be smart, and then it was just hockey from there.”
Sandin-Pellikka played with almost every other Red Wings defender in preseason, he played more games than any other defensemen, but said on Monday he really enjoyed the way Edvinsson pairs with him. How they both skate at a similar level, and how they both are willing to push up ice with pace.
Red Wings coach Todd McLellan wasn’t committed to pairs on Monday, but he acknowledged the potential benefits of the pairing, how the two Swedes have to win battles and take ice in different ways, but both can complement each other.
For Edvinsson, it’s an exciting opportunity and ideology to potentially pair with Sandin-Pellikka in the long-run. Edvinsson’s brother, Hannes, is the same age and has the same agent as Sandin-Pellikka back in Sweden, and Edvinsson said he kept tabs on what Sandin-Pellikka did back in Sweden before watching closely in preseason.
“It should be pretty, fun, right?” Edvinsson said. “He feels like a good fit.”