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Brandsegg-Nygard’s Summer Goal Was Just Making the Red Wings
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- Brandsegg-Nygard’s Summer Goal Was Just Making the Red Wings
"I had one goal this summer, and that was to make the team. I want to stay up here," Michael Brandsegg-Nygard told Jonathan Mills of NHL.com .
Sixteen games into his first full season with the Detroit Red Wings , the rookie forward has done considerably more than stick. He has three goals and seven assists with a plus-10 rating , and he has thrown 71 hits. NHL.com reports that the assists, the plus-minus and the hit total all lead NHL rookies, and that the hits rank fourth among every skater in the league.
Nov 2, 2026; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Detroit Red Wings right wing Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (28) moves the puck against the Florida Panthers during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect (Reuters)
What Michael Brandsegg-Nygard Worked On This Summer
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound winger spent the offseason on the part of his game the NHL exposes fastest. "So, I worked a lot on keeping my body as ready as possible and being quicker, because I know how fast the game is up here," he said. "It goes so fast back and forth, so I have to always keep my feet moving. I know I have the power and weight on my side, so I was more focused on my speed this summer."
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Head coach Todd McLellan has noticed the physical side most. "I think I called him a bully a couple weeks ago, and that hasn't changed one bit," McLellan said. "We wanted our team to be heavier and harder to play against, a little more physicality in many different ways. And (Brandsegg-Nygard) has brought that day in and day out, over and over again."
Brandsegg-Nygard Spent Most of 2025-26 With the Griffins
In 60 regular-season games with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2025-26, he posted 20 goals and 24 assists for 44 points, with 42 penalty minutes and a plus-17 rating. Those numbers put him on the AHL Top Prospects Team and made him the 11th Griffins rookie to score 20 goals. He added a team-high eight points in eight Calder Cup Playoff games, on four goals and four assists.
The 15th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft did make Detroit out of camp a year ago, one of three rookies Steve Yzerman kept on the 2025-26 opening-night roster . The stay did not hold. He played 14 NHL games last season and finished with one assist.
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The Lessons That Carried Over
What he took from that first year was less about hockey than about everything around it. "Last year, I learned how everything works around here," Brandsegg-Nygard said . "For example, things like knowing the drills to even knowing where our meetings are and how those work, all those things make it easier for me to just only think about hockey and not anything else. I'm getting more comfortable ever since I came (to North America)."
This season the goal has changed shape. He is not trying to make the roster anymore. He is trying to stay on it.
