Help doesn’t appear to be close for the Red Wings on the injury front.
Max Bultman of The Athletic reports that center Marco Kasper and winger Mason Appleton are still a couple of weeks away from getting back into game action. Kasper went down in Detroit’s season opener with an upper-body injury and originally carried a week-to-week label, but that timeline is now stretching past a month.
Appleton has been out for more than three weeks after suffering an undisclosed injury in the second game of the season. Both players are in contract years, and neither has gotten off to the start they would have wanted.
Detroit will also be without defenseman Albert Johansson on Thursday. Bultman notes that Johansson is dealing with an undisclosed injury that he picked up Saturday against Calgary.
The 25-year-old is in his second full NHL season and had carved out a steady role on the third pairing. Through 11 games, he has one assist while logging just under 16 minutes a night.
In Tampa Bay, Zemgus Girgensons is set to sit out Thursday’s game because of an undisclosed injury he suffered Saturday against Utah, according to Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times.
The 32-year-old has appeared in 11 games this season, posting one goal and one assist while averaging 13:33 of ice time. Encina also reports that winger Brandon Hagel is a game-time decision as he works through an undisclosed injury.
In Toronto, Dakota Joshua’s return is now official. After a conditioning stint, the Maple Leafs activated him from LTIR, as David Alter of The Hockey News reports.
Joshua missed training camp with a core muscle injury, the same issue that was thought to have bothered him at times last season. He went scoreless in four games with the Marlies and had a quiet first season in Toronto in 2025-26, finishing with 18 points in 55 games.
To make the cap room for the move, Alter adds that winger Miles Wood was placed on LTIR.
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Red Wings Face Bigger Simon Edvinsson Decision Than Fans Expected
The Red Wings offseason business has stretched deeper into the calendar than they probably wanted, with Simon Edvinsson still unsigned as a restricted free agent and the market beginning to take shape around him. San Jose is among the teams showing interest in the young defenseman, which only adds to the pressure on Detroit to sort out its plans for a player the organization views as part of its future blue line.
For Detroit, the timing matters because this is no longer just a paperwork item tucked away for later. Edvinssons next contract is starting to draw attention beyond the Red Wings own building, and the longer it lingers, the more it becomes a question of leverage, fit and how aggressively the club wants to protect one of its most promising defensemen from a wider bidding picture. [Read more 🡒]