Detroit — Three rookies who played so well during the preseason look like they’re going to make the Red Wings’ opening night roster.
The Wings placed defensemen Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson on waivers Sunday, giving the Wings the option of sending the two veterans to Grand Rapids if they aren’t picked up by a team by Monday.
That move enables the Wings to keep forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Emmitt Finnie, and defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka, for the start of the regular season.
The three dynamic young Red Wings players had done everything possible to make Thursday’s regular-season opening-night roster. Brandsegg-Nygard had two goals in Saturday’s 6-5 overtime victory over Toronto, Sandin-Pellikka had two assists, and Finnie didn’t get on the scoresheet but had another noticeable performance.
Final rosters have to be turned in by Monday at 5 p.m.
“I couldn’t sleep,” said Brandsegg-Nygard, who had seven points (four goals) in seven preseason games, of what it’s been like recently. “We’re (he and Sandin-Pellikka) both trying to make the team. Both of us, it’s our dream to be here, so it would mean a lot to make the team and play here this year.”
Said Sandin-Pellikka: “You just want to make the team. We’re ready for whatever happens.”
Coach Todd McLellan, impressed with all three since the start of camp in Traverse City in mid-September, admitted the young players have done all they could do. Now it’s a matter of how to configure the roster.
“I’m really happy with all three of them,” McLellan said. “We might as well bundle all of them and put them in a package. They’ve all competed from day one until (now). They’ve all improved, and the confidence level has gone up. The group has been very accepting of them. They believe the three of them can help the group, which is always a good sign. They’ve opened up some eyes.
“All good problems to have, aren’t they?”
Brandsegg-Nygard, 20, the Wings 2024 first-round draft pick, has looked NHL-ready from the start.
“He’s a man,” McLellan said. “You look at him and he’s a man. Thick and heavy. He and Emmitt Finnie are different body types. That’s not anything against Emmitt, but he’s (Brandsegg-Nygard) heavier and stronger and he’s probably better equipped to play that grinding game. He uses what God gave him and uses it well, so credit to him.”
McLellan has remarked several times how the Wings’ veterans have accepted the youngsters.
“They’re energizing the group right now,” McLellan said. “Guys are rooting for them. There’s a little life there. They’re excited for them. It takes you back to your first year, your first game you played so many years ago. Maybe you’re Ben Chiarot or Dylan Larkin and you played so many years, but it can take you back and you remember what it was like, and it’s invigorating.”
It hasn’t been easy for the three youngsters, either, said McLellan.
“They’ve done a real good job,” McLellan said. “They’re going back to the hotel, they’re exhausted having played seven of the eight games, and with that exhaustion there is nervousness. They lay down in bed, they don’t know, ‘Am I going to make it? Am I not going to make it? Where do I fit in? They are phoning home. Their buddies are calling. There’s a lot of anxiety.
“Maybe when they come to the rink they let it all go and play.”
McLellan knew about the three young players when he took over the Wings on Dec. 26, but it wasn’t until training camp that McLellan and his staff understood exactly what they had.
“You get to know a player a little bit (at development camp) and then at training camp this is what it’s been all about,” McLellan said. “Their job is to impress, and they’ve done their job. Our job is to pay attention, and I hope we’ve done that, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Holl, 33, was waived last year, as well, before the season opener. Holl is in the final year of a three-year contract with a $3.4 million annual average value.
Gustafsson, 33, is in the last year of a two-year contract, with a $2 million AAV.
“That’s the tough part of the game,” said McLellan after Saturday’s game, talking about difficult roster decisions. “These are good people, human beings with families. Nobody wants to lose their job, nobody came to camp to give it away. But sometimes evolution just happens.
“But that’s why you have training camp. You can’t take anything for granted and eventually you get pushed out. The baby line takes over for the big line.
“That’s how it is.”
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
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