{"id":582929,"date":"2026-05-24T23:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/582929\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T23:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:18:15","slug":"red-wings-prospects-get-inside-look-at-how-game-operates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/582929\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings Prospects Get Inside Look at How Game Operates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every prospect in the Detroit<\/a> Red Wings\u2019 system is becoming familiar with the objectives and sacrifices required to build a professional career.<\/p>\n

For two recently signed players, they\u2019ve been allowed a unique look into the inner workings of the hockey world. That\u2019s because their fathers work within the game.<\/p>\n

In essence, they\u2019ve been given a peek behind the curtain. They\u2019ve gained a better understanding of how decisions are made in the front office.<\/p>\n

When defenseman Anton Johansson<\/a> was playing in the Swedish Hockey League for Leksands, his father Tjomme was the club\u2019s sporting director. That\u2019s what they call the GM in Europe.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s signed an AHL deal with the Grand Rapids Griffins<\/a>, Red Wings draftee Kienan Draper<\/a> can officially call his father his boss. Former Red Wings player Kris Draper<\/a> is Detroit\u2019s director of amateur scouting and one of the club\u2019s assistant GMs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about hockey a lot,\u201d Kienan Draper said. \u201cWe love watching hockey together. I would say it\u2019s probably the main topic of our conversations. Just kind of chopping it up and seeing what we think. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s one of the smartest hockey minds I know, so I love talking hockey with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Life Experience For Red Wings Hopeful<\/p>\n

The Johansson family went three-deep in Leksands. Anton\u2019s younger brother Victor was also skating among the club\u2019s defensive pairings. <\/p>\n

Next season, all three will be gone. Anton will be with the Griffins, unless he finds a way to crack the Detroit roster. Victor is joining the SHL club Brynas. And Tjomme was fired as sporting director during the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a little bit weird, but we move on,\u201d Anton Johansson said. \u201cLeksands has been great to me and great to my family. So we\u2019re so happy that we had the six years there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johansson admitted that staying with the club after his dad was let go was a difficult time in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, you never want to see a dad or family member get kicked, so, yeah, it was tough, but you\u2019ve just gotta handle it,\u201d Johansson said. \u201cAnd I think I did it pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they talk hockey these days, the tone has certainly changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s my dad now,\u201d Johansson said. \u201cHe\u2019s not my boss anymore, so that\u2019s pretty nice, I would say. But we handled it pretty good, when he was my boss too. Now he\u2019s my dad only.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same approach in the Draper household.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, he\u2019s just my dad,\u201d Draper said. \u201cHe\u2019s always been that way. He\u2019s never put any pressure on me to do anything. So, seeing him around [the rink] is fine, but he\u2019s just my dad, so I don\u2019t feel any pressure at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every prospect in the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 system is becoming familiar with the objectives and sacrifices required to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[6520,599,1511,93,5137,1546,5,18612,13854,4,3358,5138],"class_list":["post-582929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-red-wings","tag-anton-johansson","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-hockey-now","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroitredwings","tag-grand-rapids-griffins","tag-hockey","tag-kienan-draper","tag-kris-draper","tag-nhl","tag-red-wings","tag-redwings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116632112579238930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}