Red Wings Picks Among Top SHL Teens

The official website of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL.se) was recently touting a pair of Detroit Red Wings draftees among the top teenagers to watch in action this season.

Still only 19, defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka will be entering his second season as an SHL regular with reigning league champions Skelleftea. He is described as “one of last year’s big SHL sensations.” Detroit made him the 17th overall selection of the 2023 NHL entry draft. 4

Axel Sandin Pellikka gets the OT winner on the Power Play with a clap bomb ending it in the 3rd OT🚨🐙#LGRW #RedWings pic.twitter.com/OskA7mfpXX

— Hockeytown Rundown 🐙 (@HockeytownRD) March 26, 2024

“Sandin Pellikka impressed greatly with his back game, not least offensively where he sometimes excelled in the power play,” writer Jonas Gustavsson notes. “The 19-year-old thundered in 10 goals and was thus only a basket away from touching the goal record for a junior defender in the SHL.

He’ll get another shot at the mark 11 goals in one season in 2024-25. That standard was set by Tomas Jonsson, 1978-79, and matched by Nils Lundkvist in 2019-20. “(Sandin Pellikka) already holds a high SHL class and will play a prominent role in Skelleftea.

Red Wings Top Picks Figure To Be Teammates

The other teen of note belonging to the Red Wings is right-winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygard. The plan is for him to attend Detroit’s training camp in the fall. However, all expectations at this juncture are that he’ll be returning to Sweden, where he’d be teaming up with Sandin Pellikka on Skelleftea. If so, it will mark the debut for Brandsegg-Nygard, 18, in Sweden’s top flight.

“The Norwegian great talent . . . took a huge step in Allsvenskan (with) Mora last year,” Gustavsson writes. “The right-handed shooter had a tentative start, but grew gradually, finishing the regular season with 12 points in 18 games (18 points in 41 games total) and 10 points in 12 playoff games.

“The forward joined the Norwegian World Cup squad. A really sharp goalscorer.”

The Red Wings were selecting Brandsegg-Nygard 15th overall in the 2024 NHL entry draft. That’s the earliest selection of a Norwegian in the history of the draft.