Every training camp seems to produce at least one surprise, and sometimes the player nobody’s talking about is the one who starts making noise. Last season, that was Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Emmitt Finnie. This year, the two names to watch are Carter Bear up front and Anton Johansson on the back end, both of whom will have to earn their way onto the Red Wings roster if they want to see LCA ice this fall.
Bear’s case starts with the resume. The 13th overall pick in 2025 put together a big year with Everett in the WHL, scoring 36 goals and adding 41 assists for 77 points in 53 games.
He followed that with 22 points in 18 playoff games as the Silvertips won their first Ed Chynoweth Cup, and he also picked up a bronze medal with Canada at the World Juniors. That’s the kind of production that gets attention.
There’s also a path, at least in theory. Patrick Kane leaving in free agency creates an opening in the top six, and if Emmitt Finnie slides down, that’s a spot Bear can chase.
But he’s not the only one in the mix. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård is right there too, coming off a 20-goal, 44-point season in Grand Rapids and 8 points in 8 playoff games.
At 6-foot-1 and 204 pounds, with a heavy shot and NHL experience already on his ledger, he’s the most obvious obstacle in Bear’s way.
Bear has been clear about how he plans to approach camp. In an interview with Brennan McClain from Pro Hockey Rumors, he said:
“I try doing me and just work my ass off," the first round pick said. "Everyone’s goal is to make the NHL.
That’s my goal, I feel like I have a chance. Everyone gets a shot, and it’s about being competitive and outworking guys.”
The mindset is right. The math is tougher.
Bear doesn’t look like a fit for a nine-minute fourth-line role, and he doesn’t look like he’s beating out MBN for a bottom-six job either. If he cracks the roster, it probably has to be in a top-six role with power-play time, ideally alongside someone like Viktor Arvidsson or Alex DeBrincat.
Otherwise, Grand Rapids makes more sense, where he can play heavy minutes instead of being buried.
Johansson’s road is steeper in a different way. The 2022 fifth-round pick, 105th overall, finished last season with the Grand Rapids Griffins and looked like a real candidate for a third-pair role. He’s tough as hell and smart with the puck, the kind of player who can add some needed edge to the blue line.
But there are bodies in front of him. Jacob Bernard-Docker arrives with a contract extension in hand and the advantage of being the incumbent.
The right-shot veteran has 207 NHL games over 6 years, and he’s made it clear he wants to show off his penalty killing and physicality this camp. He’s not a star, but he’s a known NHL commodity.
Then there’s Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who already had the job at one point. He posted 21 points in 68 games as a rookie last season and finished third among Red Wings defensemen in goals behind Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson.
Still, the minus-20 is hard to ignore, even if plus-minus is a blunt tool. His defensive issues were real enough that after Detroit acquired Justin Faulk at the deadline, he was pushed out of the lineup, sat as a healthy scratch for seven straight games, and ended up back in Grand Rapids.
Sandin-Pellikka is now trying to prove those defensive lapses were the exception, not the rule, which makes him a serious threat to reclaim the same spot Johansson wants. If he shows real progress in the defensive zone, that fight gets even harder for Johansson.
Still, Johansson has a real shot. Of the two dark horse battles, his feels like the more open one. He’s fighting for a bottom-pair job, not a top-six role, and that matters.
Neither race is settled, and that’s what makes these camp battles worth watching. Bear has to outplay an NHL-tested winger and a hungry prospect for a role that just opened up.
Johansson has to get past a veteran with a fresh contract and a rookie trying to reset his own narrative. If there’s a lean here, Johansson looks likelier to get there first.
But both names deserve attention over the next few weeks.
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Detroit also wasted a night in which its special teams never really found a rhythm, and the Penguins were able to make the most of the openings the Red Wings handed them. With other scorers contributing and a few regular absences shaping the lineup, the margin for error was already thin, and one bad break in particular became the kind of play a team spends the next day trying to flush. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkins Red Wings Future Suddenly Feels Much More Uncertain
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If Larkin does suit up, the question becomes less about whether he can help and more about how the team would use him while this situation hangs over the roster. Detroit could choose to keep him out altogether until the picture changes, and that uncertainty leaves his role, his motivation and his immediate future all feeling unsettled. For now, the Red Wings are left weighing the value of having him available against the risk of putting more miles on a player whose long-term place in the organization is suddenly far less certain. [Read more 🡒]