Traverse City — When Red Wings defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka is scrutinized, one of the question marks that is brought up by many hockey people is his size.
Sandin-Pellikka is listed at 5-foot-11, 176-pounds and people wonder whether that will in any way hold back the Wings’ 20-year-old, 2023 first-round pick.
Coach Todd McLellan doesn’t think so. To augment his belief, McLellan brought up the name of former San Jose Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle, whom McLellan coached, and had a similar build to Sandin-Pellikka (5-11, 194) and prolific offensive skills.
“Boyle wasn’t a big player and we could pull him out of retirement and put him on our team right now and he’d probably be just as competitive,” McLellan said. “He knew how to use what he had, and he used it really well and Axel can get to that point.
“But he’s not a tiny man.”
Sandin-Pellikka, similar to Wings defenseman Albert Johansson, has heard the talk of him being a smallish defenseman throughout his career. Sandin-Pellikka has been able to overcome not having NBA power forward size by using his smarts, positioning, and knowing the game.
“Use your brain well,” Sandin-Pellikka said of how to overcome being on the smaller side. “Hockey IQ is a big part of the defensive game sometimes. I don’t want to call it just pure strength. If you use your brain, position yourself right, it’s going to be OK in most situations.”
There are few doubts about Sandin-Pellikka’s skating ability, his poise with the puck, and creating offense. It’s on defense, and adapting to the smaller ice surface in North America, and how quickly Sandin-Pellikka adjusts to those two facets, will likely determine how fast he gets to the NHL.
“It’s a different game, the ice is smaller and it’s going to be quicker,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “(I have to) be aware in the defensive zone, be smart, on the inside a lot more and have your head on a swivel.
“That’s the thing I’ve been hearing, and what I want to get better at, too. Getting adjusted to that, learning a little bit more about the game here, all over the ice.”
Goaltender Sebastian Cossa, who saw Sandin-Pellikka firsthand with Grand Rapids late last season, was impressed by the fellow first-round draft pick.
“He’s extremely skilled,” Cossa said. “Skates really well, the way he’s able to move on the blue line and open up shooting lanes. He has a good first pass and that helps a lot with breakouts.”
Successful camp
McLellan opened his media briefing Saturday by thanking the Traverse City community and volunteers around Centre Ice Arena for their hospitality and work.
“I want to make sure that people here, the volunteers and community, know and that we appreciate all the work and effort they put into make this a pretty successful training camp,” McLellan said. “I’ve seen so many faces around here, the people are so warm and willing to help out. The players have had a great time in the community, at the golf courses and fishing and that’s exactly what we want to happen.
“But it takes a lot of people outside of the organization to make it happen. Thanks to the community here.”
McLellan experienced the Traverse City training camp when he was a Wings assistant coach from 2005-08. As a head coach in San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles, training camps were usually held in the practice rinks near the arenas.
“I remember (Traverse City training camps) being beneficial and I would say this time was exactly that as well.” McLellan said.
Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage was more physical and competitive than the day before, which pleased McLellan, heading into Sunday’s 3 p.m. Red & White scrimmage in Grand Rapids. The game can be streamed at detroitredwings.com.
“There was more physicality to the game (Saturday), ice was harder to come by, so it was tighter and there wasn’t a lot of free space,” McLellan said. “It was getting close to what real hockey should look like. I hope that continues (Sunday) in Grand Rapids and we pack up and get home, have a day off (Monday), and a lot of games will come at us in a short period of time.”
Roster reduced
The Red Wings returned forward Kevin Bicker to his German team Saturday, and forward Grayden Robertson-Palmer, defenseman Will Murphy, and goaltenders Landon Miller and Michal Pradel to their respective junior clubs.
The Wings released defenseman Nicklas Andrews from his professional tryout. Andrews will report to Toledo (ECHL). The Wings also released forwards Vincent Collard and Liam Kilfoil, and defensemen Maxim Dirracolo, Wyatt Kennedy and Carl-Otto Magnusson from their amateur tryouts.
Detroit currently has 51 players on its training camp roster (28 forwards, 17 defensemen, six goaltenders).
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan