- The Red Wings will be inviting defenseman Carl-Otto Magnusson to rookie camp next month, relays Hockey Sverige’s Rasmus Kagstrom. The 19-year-old spent last season in Frolunda’s system, playing primarily at their junior level where he had eight points in 44 games and also got into three contests in the SHL. However, the six-foot-seven defender will suit up in North America this season after being a second-round pick by QMJHL Moncton in the CHL Import Draft.
Red Wings Rumors
Unlikely Sandin-Pellikka Starts With Red Wings
- While Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman hasn’t ruled out prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka from breaking camp with Detroit in a couple of months, MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that outcome is unlikely. The 20-year-old was a first-round pick back in 2023 (17th overall) and had a strong season in Sweden last year, picking up 12 goals and 17 assists in 46 games with SHL Skelleftea. He also was one of the top scorers at the World Juniors and got his feet wet with five games with AHL Grand Rapids (including playoffs) in the spring. But Detroit tends to favor slow-playing the development of their top prospects, allowing them to work on some things with the Griffins before giving them a real NHL look. Between that and not opening up any spots on the back end this summer, Sandin-Pellikka seems likely to continue that trend.
ECHL's Toledo Walleye Hire Chaz Reddekopp As Assistant Coach
On the second day of free agency, along with signing defenseman Kaedan Korczak to a four-year contract, we had reported that the Vegas Golden Knights had also signed defenseman Jeremy Davies to a two-year deal. As it turns out, the staff at PuckPedia has informed us that Davies’ two-year contract is with the Golden Knights AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, which is an AHL contract.
It makes sense, given that Davies has not played in an NHL contest since the 2022-23 season. Even though Davies only appeared in one game for the Buffalo Sabres, he spent most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Since his last NHL game, Davies has excelled as a defenseman in the AHL. In his last year with the AHL Americans during the 2023-24 season, he scored 12 goals and 35 points in 66 games. Last season, while playing for the Belleville Senators, the AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators, he scored 11 goals and recorded a total of 48 points in 72 games. He finished the season with a +9 rating, which placed him first on the team in scoring among defensemen, with a margin of 25 points ahead of the next player. For context, the Silver Knights were led in defensemen scoring by Calen Addison and Robert Hagg, each of which have moved on this summer.
Other snapshots:
- A few days ago, it was reported that New York Islanders’ prospect Calum Ritchie had every intention of making the Islanders’ opening night roster. In a new report from Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, we now know that he’ll be given every opportunity to do so. Citing Jeff Marek on his podcast, The Sheet, Rosner shared a quote from New York’s General Manager, Mathieu Darche, saying, If Calum comes to training camp and he outplays everyone, I’ll make room for him on the roster.”
- In a new report out of Toledo, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have announced that Chaz Reddekopp will stay with the team as an assistant coach for the 2025-26 season, while also informally confirming his retirement. Reddekopp was selected 187th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Los Angeles Kings, largely appearing in the ECHL throughout his professional playing career. He finished with 10 goals and 52 points in 201 ECHL contests, and one goal and 13 points in 92 AHL appearances.
Latest On Mason McTavish
The Ducks haven’t been actively shopping the signing rights to restricted free agent Mason McTavish, but that hasn’t stopped teams from expressing trade interest, as the center remains without a contract. Fervent interest will presumably be helped along by his essentially dominating the market for young centers. Wild RFA Marco Rossi’s talks have all but dried up with little to no interest league-wide in the long-term contract he desires. The Canadiens, Hurricanes, and Red Wings have all shown serious interest – the last club chief among them, James Murphy of RG writes.
Without much talk of an offer sheet, a notion sources told Murphy to dispel with Anaheim having ample space to match, McTavish has little control over his destiny. Speculation has indicated he’s concerned about his long-term role with the Ducks after their offseason shopping spree added needed depth to their forward group, but there’s little to no appetite from the Ducks’ end to facilitate a trade unless he outright refuses to sign a contract.
All the teams interested have a clear need for a second-line center. Unlike in SoCal, where there’s still a small chance for him to compete with Leo Carlsson for long-term 1C duties, there wouldn’t be that upward mobility there for him with Nick Suzuki in Montreal and Sebastian Aho in Carolina not vacating their posts anytime soon. The Wings have the weakest top pivot out of the group in Dylan Larkin, but he still wouldn’t be walking into Day 1 first-line duties there if that’s his goal.
While McTavish may have the standard profile of a high-motor but not hugely offensively untapped 2C, his performance last season shows there could be more to behold. The 22-year-old posted a team-leading 22 goals in 76 games, and his 52 points finished three back of Troy Terry for the team lead. That’s highly impressive production in an offensively stifled system under outgoing head coach Greg Cronin, and with his 12.2% shooting rate remaining projectable, there’s significant 65-to-75-point breakout potential for him this season as the team presumably adopts a more aggressive style under Joel Quenneville.
If Anaheim begins entertaining offers for the 6’1″ pivot’s signing rights, though, they’ll be looking for a blue-chip right-shot defense prospect as the principal point of the return, Murphy reports. That means names like 2023 first-rounders Axel Sandin-Pellikka would need to be in play in Detroit’s case, or that year’s No. 5 pick David Reinbacher in Montreal’s. Draft-capital-wise, it’s logical from the Ducks’ perspective after using the No. 3 overall pick on McTavish in 2021.
Red Wings' Rudy Guimond Commits To Harvard University
- Despite being drafted 169th overall by the Detroit Red Wings back in the 2023 NHL Draft, netminder Rudy Guimond has finally committed to a collegiate program for the upcoming season. Guimond announced on his Instagram that he will be attending Harvard University this fall, after playing the last two years with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats. He had an outstanding season in Moncton last year, finishing with a perfect 16-0-0 record in 16 games, a .940 SV%, a 1.73 GAA, and three shutouts.
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Red Wings’ Jonatan Berggren Set For Watershed Season
There aren’t many holdovers from the Ken Holland era for the Detroit Red Wings. Even though the long-time General Manager is only six years removed from leading Detroit’s front office, Dylan Larkin, Michael Rasmussen, and Jonatan Berggren are the only three who have survived the transition to Steve Yzerman. Given that the former two already have concrete spots on the Red Wings’ roster moving forward, Berggren is gearing up for what could be a make-or-break season in HockeyTown.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Berggren was considered one of Detroit’s better prospects. The Red Wings selected the Uppsala, Sweden native with the 33rd overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft out of the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK program. It took a few years for Berggren to make the jump to professional hockey in his home country, but he capped it off with an impressive 12-goal, 45-point effort in 48 games for them in the 2020-21 SHL season.
Having a dire need for offense, the Red Wings brought Berggren overseas for the 2021-22 campaign, starting with their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. He rewarded Detroit for their confidence in his abilities, scoring 21 goals and 64 points in 70 games during his rookie season, finishing second in rookie scoring behind JJ Peterka, then of the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
Finishing as one of the worst offensive teams for the 2021-22 campaign, the Red Wings recalled Berggren for his NHL debut during the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately, despite a higher-than-normal shooting percentage and quality CorsiFor% at even strength, Berggren finished his rookie season with 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games with a -14 rating, averaging 13:28 of ice time per game.
Adding several forwards during the following offseason, Berggren quickly lost his spot on Detroit’s roster. He failed to make the team out of training camp and became the subject of trade rumors with the Red Wings looking to take a step toward contention. For some reason or another, no trade materialized, and Berggren finished the campaign with 24 goals and 56 points in 55 games at the AHL level, with another two goals and six points in 12 NHL contests.
The trade speculation regarding Berggren continued into the offseason before finally signing a one-year, $825K contract with the Red Wings a week before training camp. Unlike the previous campaign, he made the team out of camp and finished the 2024-25 season with 12 goals and 24 points in 75 games, averaging 12:59 of ice time per night. Although he had been known for his offense throughout his days as a prospect, Berggren was a defensive bright spot for Detroit last season, finishing with a 91.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength, one of the highest marks on the team considering his ATOI.
Still, with the Red Wings again looking to take a step toward contention, and Berggren becoming arbitration-eligible next offseason, his future in Detroit may rely on the quality of his 2025-26 campaign. Berggren acknowledged as much in a recent interview with team correspondent, Jonathan Mills, saying, “Last year was a good year for me. I feel like I got more opportunity after Todd [McLellan] became head coach, and I think I played better. This one-year deal is a prove-it-deal for me. I want to show what I can do.”
Putting more pressure on Berggren this season, Detroit has numerous forward prospects looking to make the full-time jump to the NHL level. Nate Danielson, Amadeus Lombardi, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, and Carter Mazur, to name a few, are pushing hard to get to the next level, and Berggren could be one of the first casualties.
There’s always a need for defensive-minded forwards at the NHL level. Still, there is a not-so-subtle expectation that Berggren will become more of an efficient point producer with the Red Wings. If he’s unable to do that this upcoming season, there’s a decent chance he’ll be removed from any of Detroit’s future planning.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.
John Miszuk Passes Away
Former NHL defenseman John Miszuk passed away on Sunday at age 84, the NHL Alumni Association announced.
Miszuk played parts of six NHL seasons with the Red Wings, Black Hawks, Flyers, and North Stars from 1963-70 before reemerging in the WHA in the mid-70s, playing a full-time role for the Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades and Calgary Cowboys from 1974-77. While he sparingly played a full-time role in the NHL, he was a physically dominant two-way force in the minors, where he was a routine All-Star in the AHL, an early iteration of the Central Hockey League, and a senior/professional version of the Western Hockey League.
Miszuk’s best NHL season was the only time he played in every game in a season, as a member of Philadelphia’s inaugural roster in the 1967-68 campaign. He was 27 at the time and was selected from Chicago in the expansion draft after playing mostly a minor-league role in the preceding seasons, but he broke out for 22 points in 74 games with a plus-one rating and finished fourth on the team with 79 PIMs. He was an everyday member of a Flyers defense group that was stout out of the gate, finishing third in the league with 2.42 GA/GP in their first NHL season.
In 237 career NHL appearances, Miszuk scored seven goals with 39 assists for 46 points and a minus-two rating. He also had 72 points and a plus-seven rating in 214 WHA games, where he found more stability later in his career.
He and his family had lived in Hamilton, Ontario after his retirement, where they launched several Tim Hortons franchises. While he was raised there for a good portion of his childhood, he was born in Poland early in World War II and emigrated to Canada with his family after being forced out. He recently returned to his hometown of Naliboki, now part of Belarus, for the first time since then, the NHL Alumni Association said.
Pro Hockey Rumors sends our condolences to Miszuk’s family, friends, and loved ones.
Red Wings Activate Carter Mazur From Injured Reserve
In the rare summertime injury transaction, the Detroit Red Wings have activated center Carter Mazur off of injured reserve, per PuckPedia. Mazur sustained an upper-body injury in his NHL debut on March 6th. The injury forced a four-month stay on IR, but Mazur told NHL.com’s Jonathan Mills that he’s back to full health, and has even added 15 pounds, this summer.
Mazur grew up just over an hour outside of Detroit, and played locally for Little Caesers AAA and the U.S. National Team Development Program in youth and junior hockey. He left Michigan for two seasons in both the USHL (Tri-City) and NCAA (Denver), but returned to Grand Rapids to begin his AHL career in 2023. He quickly became a feature of the Griffins’ offense, with a combined 58 points in 86 career AHL games.
Mazur had plenty of steam headed into 2024-25- but was knocked out of the lineup by injury just three games into the AHL season. He returned in late-January and quickly got back to routine scoring, even ramping up to a point-per-game pace through 11 games between February and March. That hot hand was enough to earn Mazur his NHL debut on a Spring road trip to Utah. But bad luck struck once again, when Mazur suffer an awkward, upper-body injury just a few minutes into the game. The injury would prove season-ending, limiting Mazur to 15 points in 20 AHL games and just a couple of shifts with the Red Wings.
The 23-year-old prospect told Mills that strengthening up has become a core focus of his development plan in the months since, including a detailed nutrition and conditioning plan. Mazur said:
I was called up for a reason. My game is still there… Gaining strength was always a big part of probably why I’ve gotten hurt a lot. I’m on the smaller side, but [Griffins Strength and Conditioning Coordinator] Marcus [Kinney] and [Griffins Physical Therapist] Zack Harvey put me in a good spot heading into the summer.
Some added bulk, and emphasized persistence, could take Mazur to new heights in the 2025-26 season. He’s found his way into a top-six role and strong scoring numbers at every level he’s played at – often on the back of gritty and fearless forechecking. He’ll be a candidate to shape the Griffins’ top-line to start the season, but could win out a depth roster spot, or top call-up consideration, with a strong training camp.
Red Wings Might Not Be Done With Their Back End This Summer
- Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now speculates that the Red Wings might not be done with moves on the back end this summer. They added Jacob Bernard-Docker and re-signed William Lagesson but with the tendency to carry eight defensemen under GM Steve Yzerman, a bit more depth would be useful so that they don’t necessarily have to bring up a youngster from AHL Grand Rapids at the first sign of injury. Alternatively, they could stand to benefit from trying to upgrade their current top six, a group that largely struggled last season and has pretty much been untouched over the offseason.
Michal Svrcek Expected To Remain In The SHL
At least one prospect from the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 draft class has decided where he will play next season. According to a report from Mattias Persson of Hockey News (Sweden), forward Michal Svrcek will remain with the SHL’s Brynäs IF for another year.
For clarification, although there was a non-zero chance he’d make Detroit’s roster next season, there was no expectation he was going to. The OHL’s Windsor Spitfires had drafted Svrcek in the 2025 OHL Import Draft, which would have only required Red Wings’ staff to cross the Ambassador Bridge to watch him play.
The Red Wings selected Svrcek with the 119th overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft after spending a large chunk of the season with Brynäs IF J20 of the J20 Nationell. He performed well for his age group, scoring 14 goals and 30 points in 30 games, with a +9 rating. Despite the team not advancing very far in the postseason, the Zilina, Slovakia native performed well, scoring two goals and adding four points in three postseason contests.
Svrcek spent a brief period with Brynäs IF’s professional team, scoring one goal and three points in 17 games, with a -1 rating. His lack of size was noticeable, but he sustained his high motor and remained a nuisance against the opposing team’s defense.
Detroit is making a gamble that Svrcek will be better served in the SHL, which is widely regarded as the second-best league outside of North America. There will likely be some growing pains, but it’ll be a shorter step to the NHL if he continues his development. In an interview on the Slovak television channel TVNoviny, Svrcek was quoted, saying, “This week I agreed with my agent and Detroit’s management that I will stay in Brynäs for another season, where I will try to start the season in the A-team.”