One of the most anticipated prospects within the Detroit Red Wings system is Swedish defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellika, who was Detroit’s opening round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Sandin-Pellikka is an offensive-minded defenseman with a widely-projected high ceiling, and has already demonstrated his abilities playing with Skelleftea AIK as well as for Sweden in the 2025 World Junior Championship.
His skills were on full display during the tournament, scoring four goals (including a hat trick in the tournament opener against Slovakia) and earning recognition by not only being named to the World Junior Championship All-Star team, but also taking home the title of Best Defenseman at the tournament for the second year in a row.
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He also got his first taste of professional hockey in North America, joining the Grand Rapids Griffins for a pair of regular season games followed by three Calder Cup playoff games.
Dan Cleary, the Red Wings’s Director of Player Development, said in early July that he anticipates Sandin-Pellikka playing full time in the upcoming 2025-26 season with the Griffins and to have a regular role on the power-play.
Could Axel Sandin-Pellikka Make Red Wings Main Roster? Red Wings fans anxiously await the arrival of high-end prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka on the main roster
While discussing Detroit’s top prospects with fellow writer Max Bultman on The Athletic Hockey Show Podcast, Corey Pronman, senior NHL prospects analyst for The Athletic, stated that Sandin-Pellikka has the potential to develop into a top-four defenseman.
“Sandin Pellikka is going to be fascinating, because his offense is special, but without scaring Red Wings fans too much, the story reminds me a little bit of David Rundblad,” Pronman said. “A little bit it reminds me of Nils Lundkvist…..You have offense, but you need to defend really well at that size to be able to be a legit top 4D and I think he can.”
However, Red Wings fans will hope that Sandin-Pellikka’s offensive potential is far higher than either Lundqvist or Rundblad, neither of whom ever scored more than six goals in an NHL season.
Like Sandin-Pellikka, both are fellow Swedes. Nils Lundkvist, a 2018 first-round pick of the New York Rangers, is currently with the Dallas Stars, while David Rundblad, selected in the first round by the St. Louis Blues in 2009, now plays for MoDo Hockey in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan after a 113-game NHL career with multiple teams.
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