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Detroit Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka was widely expected to be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins nearly three weeks ago, yet he remains on the NHL roster. However, he has not been seeing game action.
Sandin-Pellikka has dressed for seven games this season, registering no goals, one assist, and a minus-1 rating. His last appearance came on October 20 against the Seattle Kraken, and he was a healthy scratch for all three contests of Detroit's Western Canada road trip: October 22 at Vancouver, October 24 at Calgary, and October 26 at Edmonton. The 21-year-old is not injured; he has simply been scratched.
The young blueliner could find himself out of the lineup once more on Thursday, October 29, when the Red Wings host the Chicago Blackhawks. If he sits for a fourth straight game, should Detroit consider sending him to the minors? Sandin-Pellikka needs playing time, not press box nights. If the Red Wings scratch him again, the organization must have a serious discussion about assigning him to Grand Rapids.
Detroit cannot afford to let the 17th overall pick of the 2023 draft languish in the press box. Either he earns ice time in Detroit the way other young defensemen have, or he goes to the AHL to get his reps. With the Griffins, he would log top-pair minutes and power-play time instead of sparse fourth-pairing shifts. Octopus Thrower, in one columnist's take, made the same argument: there is no benefit to keeping him on the bench.
For now, Sandin-Pellikka has lost his spot to William Wallinder. Wallinder skated on the second pairing alongside Justin Faulk in both games at the end of the trip while Sandin-Pellikka and Andreas Englund watched. In September, head coach Todd McLellan described the third pairing as an open audition. "It is going to be competitive," McLellan said, in comments reported by Detroit Hockey Now's Bob Duff. "You know, we talk about Ax [Axel Sandin-Pellikka], we have a pretty good idea what he can do. Right now, they're all competing." A month into the season, that audition has produced an answer, and it is not Sandin-Pellikka.
Key Analysis
Justin Faulk's expiring contract is the obvious opening. Faulk is in the final season of the seven-year, $45.5 million deal he signed with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer, according to CapWages. Moving his $6.5 million cap hit would open a spot and hand Sandin-Pellikka a real runway. It would not be simple, though. Faulk's contract carries a modified no-trade clause over its last two seasons, which lets him submit a 15-team list, so he has a say in where he lands, if he lands anywhere at all.
Simon Edvinsson is not the answer, at least not yet. The name that would squeeze this blue line hardest is not close to the lineup. Edvinsson has not played a game this season. The 23-year-old is an unsigned restricted free agent, he sits on Detroit's injured, non-roster list because of the contract standoff, and Elliotte Friedman reported in early October that Edvinsson prefers a trade to the short-term bridge deal the Red Wings have offered. He has until December 1 to sign, either in Detroit or with a team that acquires him, or he cannot play at all this season. Whenever Edvinsson is resolved, he takes a spot on the blueline, and it will not be Moritz Seider's.
That is a November problem, though, and Sandin-Pellikka's problem is Thursday and the game after that. The odds are stacked against him seeing meaningful minutes in Detroit any time soon. The Red Wings should send him to Grand Rapids now instead of waiting for the roster to sort itself out.
Originally reported by yahoo.