Detroit Red Wings Prospect Pyramid 2025

Detroit Red Wings Prospect Pyramid 2025

The Detroit Red Wings have been a really fun team to watch draft and develop these players over the years. And I’m going to be perfectly honest, I am really, really hopeful that the Red Wings can finally turn a corner, become that sort of playoff team that they probably should be at this point. But at the end of the day, they still have a lot of really, really intriguing young players in their pipeline. So, let’s take a look at who some of those might be. So, we’re going to start in the depth category for them. And this might surprise some people considering how much they’ve drafted really, really high, but I think if the Detroit Red Wings do anything really well in the draft, it’s draft these solid allaround middle six probable players that should be able to play every day, night in night out, and play some kind of role in the NHL. And I think they have some good ones here. For starters, I did downgrade Michael Bronze New Guard here. I just didn’t see enough in his game that really led me to believe that he’s going to be a top six player. But that’s not to say he was bad. I just feel like he’s maybe more on the level as the rest of the players in this tier, which is no disrespect. An everyday checking line NHL player that has a good amount of skill to him. Now, that being said, I do think Bronze Nuggard might be one of these guys that you could play in your top six and augment some higher octane offensive players and he could do a really good job there. So, based on what I saw this year, I just was expecting a little bit more physical dominance and a little bit more production out of him. But it is still early in his development and we’ll see. It might surprise a lot of people to see Axel Sandine Pelica down here considering the absolutely remarkable season he just had. I really like him. I think as an offensive defenseman, there’s a lot of potential there. I weigh the ups with the downs with Sandine Pelica and I watched him a lot this year, a few times in person at the World Juniors. I just feel like the skating ability, while really good with the puck, there’s shiftiness, there’s skill, I just wonder about the skating ability when he doesn’t have the puck off the puck defensively, monitoring NHL level rushes. That’s the kind of thing where I’m a little bit skeptical. And outside of being a power play quarterback that has some good offensive tools at five on five, he might be one of these guys where he’s in the middle of your lineup and while productive, might have a little bit of a downside to his game, but again, an everyday NHL player and a pretty good one at what he does. Carter Bear, Eddie Yenborg, and Michael Spurche are all in here as well. And I’m a huge fan of Spur. Everybody knows this by now. I just feel like he has the energy level, the work rate, the intensity to do something in the NHL one day. Maybe not next year, maybe not the year after, but I think you develop this guy right and you could have a really, really special player here. Carter Bear, I just really love in a similar fashion to a guy like a Bronze Nugard. Maybe without as much of a physical edge, but definitely a little bit more skill. And I think at the end of the day, there’s going to be a solid middle six player here. He’s physical, but he’s got some skill. He isn’t small really. And Eddie Yenborg, while he doesn’t necessarily have the skill level of a guy like Bear, I think his two-way intensity level, his willingness to get really physical really quickly, definitely really lends itself to a potential NHL gig. And I think considering where they drafted him this year, they’re probably going to end up doing okay. There’s also a pair of goalenders in here. And again, with goalending, it’s always a question mark. I am never just certain on goalenders, but I do think they have two really good ones here in Trey Austinine and Sebastian Kosa. Are both of these guys Vzna level goalenders or goalenders who are going to win every single game they play for the rest of their career in the NHL. I don’t know about that based on their history, but Sebastian Kosa had a really, really good season. This is his last season of prospect eligibility according to my criteria, so we’ll see where that goes. And Trey Augustine has just had a remarkable career to this point. It’s just going to be a matter of translating that to North American pro hockey, which is a bit of a jump from college hockey, especially when the team in front of him is a big physical defense first fun factorheavy team in Michigan State. So, a good pair of goalenders here. And again, I want to really stress that the top two tiers for me are really, really hard to reach. And I just am not sure there’s anyone that quite reaches that level for them, but there are definitely a couple of players here that certainly could in the next season or two. In the may category for me, there are some interesting players here. I thought Max Plant looked really, really good with Minnesota DUTH this season. I’m really excited to see what he can do in his sophomore season. Jesse Kekanin has continuously produced in the Finnish Liga over the last couple of years. Translating that to North America will be the next step in his career at some point, but just a maybe, but a strong one. There’s also guys like Brady Cleveland in here who personally I just feel like will eat some minutes in the NHL one way or the other. I don’t know about likelihood of being an everyday NHL player, but based on the physicality of his game and his skating ability for his size, there might be a job for him in the NHL. And if I say maybe next to an NHL job, they belong in this category. There are a couple of players in here who I think are really, really strong contenders for a potential NHL gig, even if I don’t have the certainty of the guys that I’ve spoken about already. Noah Dar Nilson has had a bit of a rocky go in Sweden since being drafted, but I still remain a pretty decent fan of him. Guys like Dmitri Buchelnikov and Amadeus Lombardi have really impressed me relative to what I remember in their draft year, but honestly with especially Lombardi, I was really happy to see how he played in the AHL this year and he might be a sneaky good pick for an NHL gig. Maybe not this season, but at some point in the future. And we’ve also got Brent Solomon in here and Nikita Turin, who are two guys they picked this year. I just like these guys. Again, with Brent Solomon, I think there’s a good ceiling but a very, very low floor in his game. But that ceiling, that goalc scoring ability is good enough where I think there could be an NHL goal scorer sort of complimentary level player there. And Nikita Turin, I think is a long shot, but whenever I watched him this year, I always came away impressed with the dynamic skating ability, his ability to look off of pressure, skate around guys, and just play with the puck really effectively. He’s a little compact, maybe a little small looking on the ice, but I think he gets around well enough. He’s pretty tactically smart and shifty with the puck and I’ve liked him when I’ve seen him this year. They’ve also got the goalender they selected this year in Michael Pradell. I did normally see him internationally, but I went and looked at the Slovak second division games that he played here and there. And the Slovak under 18 team plays there and they get blown out a lot, but Pradell was doing just about everything he could, facing 45 shots a night to try to keep his team in games. And overall, his numbers looked pretty good doing so. So, and I think he does a really good job capping off what is probably a really, really strong 2025 draft class considering where Detroit was drafting this year. And the thing with the Detroit Red Wings is that the rest of the picture really, I think, drags down the rest of the guys. And there might be some NHL level player here. Guys like Anton Johansson, I think, has looked solid in Sweden, but he is getting on the older side and hasn’t really commanded a job in the SHL in a way that I think translates to the NHL. I’ve kind of grown a little bit tired of waiting for John Whipple to turn a corner. Sort of blossom that offensive side of his game that I felt was there a few years back when I would see him play. I do like Graden Robertson Palmer and I think there’s potential he works his way out of this tier with a good season next year. But as a prep school kid who I just thought was fine at that level, I don’t really think he belongs in the same category as some of the guys ahead of him. and the rest of the picture with Detroit. A lot of people were critical of me based on where I had their pipeline ranked, but it’s a total ranking of their total pipeline. And there just are a lot of guys who haven’t really worked out since they’ve drafted them. And that does drag things down a little bit. So again, this isn’t gospel, but the Detroit Red Wings, I just feel like have a lot of guys that they’ve drafted over the last few years that I’m not totally sure will be NHL players. EMTT Finny, we’ll see. He had a fantastic season, but I just didn’t really come away thinking that he looked like an NHL level player at his age in the WHL. But hey, we’ll see how the pro level goes. There’s a couple of goalenders in here, too. But in general, the real focus for me with Detroit is just how many solid players there are here. Bronze eggg Neward, Sandine Pelica, even Nate Danielson has looked pretty solid in the AHL tape I’ve seen here and there. Carter Bear is a good pickup. Eddie Yenborg is a pretty interesting projectable pickup. I love Michael Spurchek and think there could be something there with him. And their may category, I think it’s full of guys that if they hit in the NHL could be really valuable, especially Amadeus Lombardi. Every single time I’ve watched him since being drafted by Detroit, I go, “Boy, I wish I saw more of this guy when he was a draft eligible because he’s turned out to be a pretty intriguing prolevel player at this point.” So overall, the Detroit Red Wings are going to be getting a 1D. There’s a lot to really really like here with Detroit. I think they have a lot of players that can round out their roster in a really, really beneficial way. Maybe they haven’t drafted a whole bunch of players that are going to score 90 points and be gigantic steals that, holy crap, I can’t believe they were still available when they were there, but they’ve got a lot of really good players that play important roles. Guys like Axel, Sandy, and Pelica can be good puck possession offense first defenseman. Michael Brun, new guard, Carter Bear, Eddie Yenborg, even Michael Spurk. I think middle six players. They’ve got really good goalenders in Sebastian Kosa and Trey Austinine. So, this is a team that I think has a really wide variety of potential outcomes with a lot of these players and their overall pipeline has a lot at the top and a lot at the bottom. But, at the end of the day, they still have a lot of good talent through it all. I just have to hope that a very solid handful of these players will be part of this roster and helping them get themselves into the playoffs because they’ve drafted so many times and they really, really, really should be turning a corner soon. I hope to see it because the NHL was better when the Detroit Red Wings are good, a good group of players, and hopefully a solid outlook on their NHL future. And with that, we’re going to call it. If you like the video, definitely like and subscribe. If you really liked it, definitely consider a subscription over at scouting.ca. CA where you can get access to all kinds of fun data tools and our Discord server and plenty of other fun stuff that you’re just not going to find anywhere else on the internet. So check that out at scouting.ca. Thank you for watching and we’ll see you in the next

In this episode of the Prospect Pyramid series, Will Scouch breaks down the Detroit Red Wings’ entire prospect pool. From high-end talent pushing for NHL jobs to long-term developmental projects, every eligible player in the Red Wings’ system is placed into a tier on the pyramid.

Will walks through each placement and gives an updated look at how Detroit’s future is shaping up.

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