When the final buzzer sounded on the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-1 prospects game victory against the Dallas Stars Saturday night, the Red Wings’ side had finished in dominant fashion. Aside from the score that matters most, the shots favored them 38-18, and they finished the game scoring five straight in the third period.
In such a lopsided win, there were lots of developments among the Red Wings prospects in play. Here are six takeaways from the performance, including the first look at a first round pick, a flashy assist from a late-round pick and a potential UDFA steal in the making.
Michael Augello
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard Proves Effective Despite Slow Start
If you were concerned with how slow Michael Brandsegg-Nygard started this game, don’t fret. That’s par for the course for a European player getting their first taste of a North American ice sheet, and it’s especially prominent when Brandsegg-Nygard’s game is driven by his ability to get open and unleash his shot.
By the end of the game, Brandsegg-Nygard got a chance to show that shot, uncorking a 5-on-3 power play one-timer that led directly to Jakub Rychlovsky’s 3-1 goal. The issue is that it took a two-man advantage for Brandsegg-Nygard to find that space. What happens when there’s a full team defending him is the bigger issue.
“One thing I’d like to see him do is get open, try to get some more opportunities to shoot the puck,” coach Dan Watson said after the game. “He has an absolute bomb, and we have to do a better job of trying to find him some more opportunities to shoot that puck.”
Now even if that adjustment is still a work in progress, Brandsegg-Nygard showed some dynamism with a couple of nice passes, including a seam pass to Nate Danielson that foiled Dallas’ penalty kill in the second period. He did a good job of finding work when his shot wasn’t available.
“Something that people don’t really talk about in his game is his playmaking ability,” teammate Amadeus Lombardi said. “I saw today, he makes some really nice passes. He’s kind of known as a shooter, but he’s a very smart player. He makes really smart, nifty passes. So that’s something that I really like to watch out of him.”
Watson also noted the progress he saw within the game when it came to Brandsegg-Nygard’s play along the walls. Again, for a player adjusting to a smaller ice sheet, it would’ve been shocking to see a complete takeover by Brandsegg-Nygard. The progress he showed throughout the game is an encouraging sign, especially for a player who’s going to be around for Red Wings training camp, too.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Lombardi’s Confidence Bringing out Creative Flair
Amadeus Lombardi is the kind of visionary that can fill highlight reels with his crafty moves and well-timed maneuvers. Last season, though, his adjustment to a much more physical AHL saw a lot of those plays disappear. A 100-point scorer in the OHL a season prior, Lombardi finished 2023-24 with just 26 points and only five goals across 70 games. That’s what happens when a player like him isn’t fully confident.
So what happens when he is confident? How about Saturday night’s two-point outing that saw Lombardi become Detroit’s most consistent offensive producer of the night. He played free, using his speed and hands to create plays out of thin air.
“That’s every hockey player — when you’re playing with confidence, you’re going to do things that if you didn’t have that confidence, you wouldn’t necessarily be doing,” Lombardi said. “And I feel like with this tournament — every year I came in — the first year I was young. I made my plays, but I was a little bit hesitant. Last year, a little bit more (confident). And then this year, obviously I feel pretty good.”
Saturday’s performance is sure to put Lombardi in a good headspace leading into training camp and the regular season. And to think, he almost didn’t play in it. He wasn’t on the original Detroit roster for this series, as players who’ve completed a pro season usually aren’t asked to attend. But, injuries to some forwards created spots on the Detroit roster. Earlier this week, Lombardi said general manager Steve Yzerman and assistant general manager Shawn Horcoff asked him to attend this prospect series, and he took the opportunity. His two-point night is a pretty fortunate outcome.
It takes confidence to make those plays, but confidence can also be a killer when plays go awry. Lombardi was far from perfect Saturday as a few defensive zone gaffes gave up high danger chances to Dallas. But for a player whose impact primarily stems from his offensive creativity, Saturday’s performance was exactly what Detroit should want to see from Lombardi all season in his sophomore campaign. Paired with an offseason of training, he appears to be in a good position to make these performances more frequent.
“He got a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, but he didn’t lose any speed. His pace is still there,” Watson observed. “I think we mishandled some pucks early on, but with that said, he created the pace tonight for us. That whole second line did with (Hunter) Johannes, (Alexandre) Doucet and himself. … So again, we want to see growth in these guys, not just from their hockey side of it, but what they did (and) the work they put in this summer. We want to see that come to fruition for them. And I thought I saw that here tonight.”
Carter Gylander Impresses with Early Control
Even if the shot total and score are lopsided, there was a time in this game that Dallas had the upper hand. In the first period, the Stars peppered the Red Wings with shots and confounded Detroit’s breakouts. After Arttu Hyry scored the game’s first goal in the first period, things could’ve gotten out of hand. But Carter Gylander didn’t let them.
Gylander stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced, but those numbers don’t really tell the tale. The lion’s share of the shots he faced came in the first frame, and a decent portion were the kind of high-danger variety that usually ends up in the back of the net. His pads turned almost all of them away, buying enough time for Detroit to pay him back by allowing only a handful of shots against in the second period and just two in the third.
“He’s very poised in the net,” forward Emmitt Finnie said. “He’s one of the few goalies you see that’s confident the whole time. He didn’t let that one goal get to him. He stood on his head the rest of the game, and it’s easy when you have him behind you.”
Considering the depth chart ahead of him, it appears that the 23-year-old Gylander is going to get more usage in Toledo than at the AHL level. Getting extensive reps in his first pro season will be useful for him, and playing for what should be a competitive Walleye team can really help him develop. Outside of Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine, the competition for the third-best prospect in Detroit’s pipeline is pretty wide open, and Gylander made a really strong case for the title.
Finnie Dazzles with Highlight Reel Assist
Seventh round picks dream for moments like the one Emmitt Finnie had Saturday.
Moments after free agent invite Charlie Paquette tied the game at one, Finnie took the puck at the Stars’ blue line and made one of the best plays of the entire game. With a move from his backhand to his forehand, he split two Dallas defensemen with ease and took a shot at the net, leading to a rebound that linemate Gabriel Seger buried. The goal stood as the game-winner, and Finnie won a whole lot of praise for his craftiness.
“I just see him getting better and better every time I’ve seen him,” Watson said of Finnie. “From his first development camp after he was drafted to last year and now again, he just continues to put mass on his body, continues to keep the speed though, and the skill that he has to work on.”
Detroit’s seventh round pick in 2023, Finnie is coming off a team-leading 59-point campaign with the Kamloops Blazers that earned him his entry-level contract this offseason, alongside a brief AHL tryout. An energy guy who’s now discovering his scoring touch, the highlight reel play he made Saturday is a sample of what’s grown in his game.
“I’m just trying to show my abilities out here,” Finnie said. “You know, nothing’s set in stone for what’s going to happen. So I’m just trying to work as hard as I can each day, and I’ll see where it takes me.”
Rychlovsky Flaunts Deceptive Playmaking, Competitive Drive
The Dallas defense took its eyes off Rychlovsky for less than a second midway through the first period, but that’s all the time he needed. Setting himself up in open ice to the left of Dallas’ goal, Rychlovsky received the puck and stickhandled right up to the net, lacing right through the opponents in front of him. The only thing that stopped him from scoring was a misplaced shot, but the overall effort and vision that went into the goal was downright impressive.
Rychlovksy’s playmaking stood out, but so did his competitive drive. He used his body to make life difficult for the Stars’ prospects, and he put himself right into the mix during puck battles.
“You can see he’s got that hunting mentality,” Watson said. “He wants the puck. He’s willing to go and get it back. He’s not scared of that work and that compete level.”
Much like Brandsegg-Nygard, Rychlovsky is still adjusting to smaller ice. His rebound goal on the power play was a great reward for the way he played all game, and he could be a really intriguing player this season.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Danielson Looked to for Leadership among Detroit Skaters
A first round pick who’s going to compete for a roster spot the next few weeks isn’t going to be judged off of a prospect game. Nothing Nate Danielson did against the Stars was going to prove anything about his NHL readiness. And even if he didn’t take over the game scoring-wise on a night that saw him go pointless (he was, however, on the ice for Rychlovsky’s power play tally), Danielson was still impactful all over the ice and especially in his own end.
Danielson’s 200-foot play cleaned up a few messes that both he and his teammates’ mistakes created. He dug for pucks and backchecked deep into his own end when the Stars got the puck. Much of Detroit’s turnaround from a sloppy first period came from Danielson’s takeover. While he didn’t score himself, he made his teammates look a whole lot better. That in itself is a strong indicator that he’s ready for another level of hockey, if not the NHL then his rookie season in the AHL. He was a leader among his fellow prospects, and that’s exactly what the Red Wings want out of him.
“He’s been in this tournament before, so he’s done a really good job so far of keeping the guys in check off the ice, ready for the game, ready for the periods. I like to see that, which he’s done a good job,” Watson explained. “Even on the ice, we know how smart he is and how talented he is — making sure he can do that consistently, shift after shift, period by period. He’s got to be a leader on the ice, off the ice like I mentioned, and (this was a) good start for him.”
Watson noted a few areas Danielson should improve, namely how long he spends with the puck, but he quickly focused on how easy that is for a smart player like Danielson to correct. The conversation around Danielson was how this series is building toward his training camp, just as it should for a prospect of his caliber.
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