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Report: Sandin-Pellikka Is the Red Wings’ Odd Man Out
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- Report: Sandin-Pellikka Is the Red Wings’ Odd Man Out
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka has zero points in three games this season, and on Thursday head coach Todd McLellan took him off the second power-play unit and dropped him to the fourth defensive pairing with Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Bernard-Docker was just activated off injured reserve, and forward J.T. Compher went on IR retroactive to Oct. 4 . That shuffle is what has the 21-year-old on demotion watch heading into Friday night's game against the Seattle Kraken.
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Why Axel Sandin-Pellikka Is the Odd Man Out
McLellan sounds content with the pairings he has, and Moritz Seider is still beside Albert Johansson at the top of them. The math underneath is the problem. As Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now wrote on Thursday, the Red Wings carry nine defensemen on a 23-player NHL roster, and in his words, "that's too many."
Albert Johansson isn't going anywhere. And that leaves Sandin-Pellikka as the odd man out. He doesn't have a point through three games. And when he's not scoring, his defensive deficiencies become more glaring. Barring another injury, someone is going to GR soon. And that someone looks to be ASP.
Compher's Return Starts the Clock
Here is the part that buys Sandin-Pellikka a little time. Compher's trip to injured reserve opened the roster spot that the ninth defenseman is currently sitting in, so nothing has to give tonight. Duff reports Compher is tracking to play again early next week, and that is the day the Red Wings have to clear a body to fit him back on the roster.
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So the demotion is a next-week decision rather than a Friday one. Detroit is 1-2-0 and hosts the Kraken at 7 p.m. ET, and Sandin-Pellikka is still on the NHL roster for it, fourth pairing or not.
A First-Round Pick Who Could Use the Minutes
Detroit took Sandin-Pellikka at No. 17 overall in the 2023 draft, and he is three games into his first full NHL season. Grand Rapids is not a punishment for a 21-year-old defenseman in that spot. Top-pair minutes with the Griffins would give him the puck far more often than a fourth pairing in Detroit will, and the power-play work he just lost would likely come straight back to him there.
