There’s plenty of messiness around the Detroit Red Wings right now, but the organization’s future has some cleaner, brighter moments showing up in the AHL.
Trey Augustine gave one of them Friday night. The Grand Rapids Griffins goalie stopped 31 shots in a 3-0 win over the Iowa Wild, picking up his first professional victory in the process.
The shutout pushed his Griffins record to 5-1-2 and trimmed his goals-against average to 2.26. His save percentage now sits at .921.
The Griffins are rolling, too. With Dan Cleary now running the front office as general manager, Grand Rapids improved to 12-2-1-1 heading into the second game of the series in Iowa tonight.
That team success has come with some strong individual performances. John Leonard scored twice in the win, while Jesse Kiiskinen added an assist and kept his hot start going. The Finnish winger now has six goals and nine assists for 15 points through his first 16 AHL games.
Carter Bear’s six-game points streak came to an end, but he still sits fifth in the AHL scoring race with 18 points in 14 games.
The goaltending picture in Grand Rapids is especially interesting because Augustine isn’t the only name making noise. Michal Postava is 6-0 with a 1.50 GAA and a .944 save percentage, and the hope is that the two of them can become a goaltending answer in the not-so-distant future.
Postava, 24, has already been up this season and seems likely to be back in Detroit again this year. Augustine, meanwhile, is expected to spend the full season in the AHL.
The game itself had its moments, and one note from the prospect side captured the flow well: “Griffins dominate the first. Trey kept them in the game in the second. Third period was a bit of wash but he had some big saves throughout the game.”
Elsewhere in the pipeline, Harvard freshman goalie Rudy Guimond, taken 169th in 2023, earned his first collegiate win in a 3-2 overtime victory over Princeton.
Adam Levac, selected 108th in 2026, kept surging for the Peterborough Petes with two more goals in a 6-4 win over the Oshawa Generals on Saturday. He’s now riding a five-game points streak with nine points in that span, and his season totals stand at nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points.
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Detroit has been through longer losing streaks before and still found a way to recover and reach the playoffs, so the current slide is not automatically fatal. Still, the way the Wings respond now matters, because getting out of this stretch will require more than just tightening up. It will take a team willing to take some risks again and trust that playing to win is better than simply playing not to lose. [Read more 🡒]
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The wrinkle is that Detroit is not operating in a vacuum. Reports say Edvinsson and suspended former captain Dylan Larkin both have multiple suitors, and the team is actively scouting potential trade partners as it tries to navigate a crowded market. For a club trying to stay competitive while reshaping parts of the roster, the next few weeks could determine whether Horcoff is merely managing a squeeze or making a far more consequential move. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Face Real Pressure With Simon Edvinsson
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Interim GM Shawn Horcoff has already made clear he does not want to trade Edvinsson, which leaves the front office with one real path forward and not much time to take it. Reports have suggested Edvinsson could be ready to play in Sweden if a deal is not reached by the deadline, a possibility that would only sharpen the pressure on Detroit to settle this before the situation slips beyond its control. [Read more 🡒]