This afternoon, with the pre-season finally over with, the Detroit Red Wings announced a round of roster cuts that winnows the roster down to 28 players in a step toward getting down to the 23-man opening night roster.
The cuts include Nate Danielson, Cross Hanas, Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur, Elmer Söderblom, Tory Dello, Antti Tuomisto, Eemil Viro and William Wallinder, Sebastian Cossa, and Carter Gylander—all of whom will report to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Of that group, the only real surprise is Kasper, who made a persuasive case that he is worthy of an opening night roster spot over the course of the pre-season. However, as coach Derek Lalonde pointed out yesterday, the idea of the “opening night roster” can be a false signifier of importance.
“Grand Rapids is two hours away. We’ll have played 33 players by Christmas,” Lalonde contended. “Maybe it’s a little old school. Maybe that’s where it was 20, 25 years ago: you made the team on Day One. In reality, we’re probably going to have 15 forwards and 10 D that are gonna play for us and make our team, so it’ll be very interesting how it plays out in the next couple weeks.”
In addition to sending the above group to Grand Rapids, Detroit opted to loan 2024 first round pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard back to Skellefteå AIK in the SHL. It had always been the plan for Brandsegg-Nygard to return, and he does so with the experience of an NHL camp and pre-season under his belt. He was never a serious candidate for an NHL roster spot this year, but there was some chance he wound up joining the Griffins for the season instead of returning to Sweden. However, clearly Brandsegg-Nygard and Detroit brass agreed that Skellefteå was best for the season to come.
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