First round pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygård is making an uncommon appearance at the Red Wings’ training camp this month, putting his season with Swedish club Skelleftea on hold while he tries out for an NHL roster spot. It’s a rare move due to how disruptive it can be for both the player and team. It’s not a decision made lightly by either side.
So what drove the Red Wings to bring Brandsegg-Nygård over so early? According to general manager Steve Yzerman, it has to do with getting an experience that he can’t find anywhere else.
Michael Augello
“We’ve talked with Skelleftea in Sweden, we’ve talked with his his agents as well and to Michael to at least come to training camp,” Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said. “He’s played in Men’s World Championships. He was a very good player at that level. We said we’d like to bring him over and get a little bit more experience over here in North America. Be around our staff, work with our coaches a little bit, skate with our teams.”
Brandsegg-Nygård might be a young, 18-year-old winger, but he’s got a lot more pro-ready attributes than the average first round pick. He’s a heavy 6-foot-1 and 207 pounds, and he plays like it. His heavy checking creates a lot of space for himself and his teammates, not to mention how effective his shot is when he finds that space. Those attributes hold up against higher levels of competition, too, such as when he starred for Norway in the Men’s World Championships with three goals in seven games, or even looking at his combined seven points in the past seven games between Skelleftea’s preseason and Champions League games, as well as Norway’s Olympic qualifiers.
[Read More: From Sweden to the NHL Draft, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård is Opening Doors for Norwegian Hockey]
Because of this, Brandsegg-Nygård is a player who is easy to visualize in an NHL role. This training camp is an opportunity to compare him side by side with the real deal.
But pro-ready attributes don’t necessarily mean that Brandsegg-Nygård is ready for the NHL. That’s why this training camp is important. Detroit can not only see how he stacks up against established pros and other hungry prospects, but it can also show him exactly what the expectations will be when he does push for a roster spot. Even if he doesn’t pull off the improbable and make a roster spot, he can see where he needs to improve for the future. Giving him this opportunity with low stakes to actually make the team puts him in better position to do so when the pressure is on.
“Really, the idea of bringing him over is to work with our coaches, work with our staff on his skating, on his strength and conditioning and get a little bit of experience in the preseason and go from there,” Yzerman explained.
As much as he’s playing with house money on what amounts to an educational enrichment trip, Brandsegg-Nygård earned his invite to training camp because the Red Wings believe there’s at least some chance that he proves ready for a promotion.
Notice that Yzerman said his team wanted Brandsegg-Nygård to “at least come to training camp.” That implies that there’s another layer to this opportunity, i.e. a spot he might earn at another level. “At most,” if you will, is probably a spot with AHL Grand Rapids sooner than one with the NHL club. No rush doesn’t mean no stakes.
And Detroit isn’t just bringing over anybody for training camp. Case in point, defense prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka, a fellow first round pick who plays for the same Skelleftea team, didn’t get an invite. The difference is that Brandsegg-Nygård’s game is closer to NHL readiness that Sandin Pellikka, in part because of their positional and stylistic differences but also just based on sheer size and strength.
“The one thing that obviously we’re real impressed about is (Brandsegg-Nygård’s) size, strength and certainly the way he can shoot the puck,” assistant general manager Kris Draper said Saturday in an intermission T.V. interview during the prospect games. “I think that’s something that people and fans are going to see. Michael’s got, it’s a different release, the way the puck jumps off. You can just kind of tell that he has a great shot. He has a knack to shoot, knack to get open, knack to score some goals.”
This training camp is a calibration of sorts, proving where he’s at on his NHL timeline while giving him knowledge of what expectations are at the highest levels. Putting so much on hold back in Sweden might not be the most opportune scenario, but the benefit is worth it in the eyes of both the team and the player.
And if he really thrives, Brandsegg-Nygård might be putting Skelleftea on hold for a little longer than anticipated.
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