{"id":651880,"date":"2026-08-29T17:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/651880\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:03:10","slug":"former-red-wings-defenseman-quickly-makes-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/651880\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Red Wings Defenseman Quickly Makes Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Detroit<\/a> Red Wings defenseman Luke Witkowski<\/a> has found himself a new European home for the 2026-27 season. He\u2019s suiting up this season for Kometa Brno in the Czech Extraliga. That\u2019s the same club that Detroit acquired goalie prospect Michal Postava from.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old rearguard has already played two preseason games for Kometa Brno. And he\u2019s quickly left his mark.<\/p>\n

Witkowski scored in both games as Kometa Brno won the Dolomiten Cup in Neumarkt, Italy. Not his usual calling card.<\/p>\n

Witkowski was also an intimidating physical presence. Now that\u2019s more like it.<\/p>\n

Frk Out of Action<\/p>\n

When the KHL Shanghai Dragons signed former Red Wings forward Martin Frk as a free agent, they were counting on the hard-shooting winger to create offense.<\/p>\n

That will be difficult to do from the injured list. Frk was hurt shortly after joining the Dragons for the KHL preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019ll be out for one or two months,\u201d Shanghai coach Mitch Love told Russian website Sport-Express<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s quite possible that his absence will be a plus for other players on the team. \u201c<\/p>\n

Frk was a 2017 AHL Calder Cup champion with the Grand Rapids Griffins. He played 98 games for the Red Wings from 2017-19. <\/p>\n

Scary Moment For Liv<\/p>\n

Teenage goalie Herman Liv, 19, is in his first SHL season with HV71. That\u2019s the team his father, former Red Wings prospect Stefan Liv, tended goal for over many seasons. He\u2019s an icon in the city, and Herman is excited to stand in the same goal crease where his father once stopped pucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have, of course, dreamed of this for many years when I grew up and played in HV as a child,\u201d Liv told Swedish website J\u00f6nk\u00f6pings-Posten<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Herman Liv endured a scary moment on Friday. Liv was struck in the neck with a puck and forced to leave the club\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got a puck on him, which found its way through some protection,\u201d HV71 trainer Patrick H\u00e4ggstr\u00f6m said. \u201cHe is fine, and it should be okay. But it could have been bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stefan Liv was a Red Wings draft pick who played for the AHL Griffins. He died in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash.<\/p>\n

Former Red Wings Pick Coming Out of Retirement?<\/p>\n

Winger Dick Axelsson was playing for Sweden\u2019s Huddinge IK when he was selected 62nd overall by the Red Wings in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Two decades later, the Swedish club is trying to lure him back to the ice.<\/p>\n

Back in 2006, Linus Klasen and Axelsson finished 1-3 in scoring for Huddinge IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, the Swedish second division. Klasen, 40, recently rejoined Huddinge IK. Now he\u2019s talking to Axelsson about getting the band back together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll talk to him a bit, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d Klasen told Swedish website Aftonbladet<\/a>. \u201cHe has to want to play ice hockey too. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Dick comes, Huddinge has every chance in the world to put together a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Axelsson, 39, previously came out of retirement for the 2024-25 season, helping Djurg\u00e5rden earn promotion to the SHL. <\/p>\n

The 2018 Swedish Olympian is not ruling out another comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven\u2019t thought about it that far,\u201d Axelsson said. \u201cBut fun idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Wings had high hopes for Axelsson. Coming to North America in 2009, Axelsson put up 2-3-5 totals in 17 AHL games with the Griffins before returning to Sweden, citing homesickness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Luke Witkowski has found himself a new European home for the 2026-27 season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,1511,93,5137,1546,5,4,3358,5138],"class_list":["post-651880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-hockey-now","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroitredwings","tag-grand-rapids-griffins","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-red-wings","tag-redwings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117179882089177002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651880","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=651880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}