Sandin Pellika Hurt, Brandsegg-Nygard Shines in Champions Hockey League Opener
Red Wings first round picks Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard started their season in Skelleftea with a 4-3 win in the Champions Hockey League.
The Red Wings' two most recent first round draft picks started their season with a win Friday.
Playing for Swedish club Skelleftea in the Champions Hockey League, defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka and winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygard helped their team to a 4-3 win over Red Bull Salzburg. The win starts a season of both revenge and title defense for Skelleftea, looking to win the CHL after placing runner-up last season while also defending its championship in the Swedish Hockey League.
Sandin Pellikka's first game action of the season saw him deployed for only 2:37 before he left the game. An injury kept Detroit's 2023 17th overall pick out of all of Skelleftea's preseason games, and it appears to be the reason he played so little in Friday's game. Skelleftea reporter Robin Lindgren reported that Sandin Pellikka reaggravated an old injury and is likely to miss the team's Sunday game against the Straubing Tigers.
Sandin Pellikka still showed some dynamism in his limited ice time, using his skating to fake out a defender at the blue line and lay a puck in for a scoring chance, shown in this video clip shared by X (formerly Twitter) account IcehockeyGifs.
Brandsegg-Nygard, Detroit's 15th pick at the 2024 NHL Draft, got into much more action across his 15:29 of ice time. He assisted on Skelleftea teammate Andreas Johnson's game-winning fourth goal, using a nice give-and-go pass to get Johnson open.
Known for his shot — one that has scored him five goals across six games in international and preseason play — Brandsegg-Nygard's ability to feed teammates adds complexity to his game that makes him hard to stop.
Brandsegg-Nygard will get a chance to show his playmaking later this month when he attends the Red Wings' prospect tournament and training camp in Traverse City. The former begins Sept. 14, a week from Saturday. Training camp runs Aug. 18 through Aug. 22.
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