Detroit — One of the more interesting personnel decisions facing the Red Wings next month, when the regular season begins, is the case of defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
It wasn’t a sure thing at all last season Sandin-Pellikka was going to make the Wings’ opening-night roster. But an impressive camp and exhibition season led Sandin-Pellikka to force his way onto the Wings’ roster.
Sandin-Pelikka was a regular in the lineup up until March, when the Wings acquired defenseman Justin Faulk at the trade deadline. Sandin-Pellikka became a healthy scratch at that point, leading the Wings to send him to Grand Rapids to gain needed playing time.
In the end, Sandin-Pellikka played 68 games with the Wings with seven goals and 21 points while averaging over 16 minutes of ice time. Sandin-Pellikka’s minus-20 plus-minus rating tied with Marco Kasper for worst on the team, which leads to where the Wings need to see improvement from Sandin-Pellikka this season.
Sandin-Pellikka’s offensive game is good enough to be an NHL player now. But there needs to be some refinement from a defensive standpoint.
Sandin-Pellikka, himself, understands that.
“Obviously you can just be one-sided,” Sandin-Pellikka said this season during the AHL playoffs, while with the Griffins. “You need to defend as well.”
Sandin-Pellikka was paired with former NHL defenseman William Lagesson in Grand Rapids, and was one of the Griffins’ most consistent tandems in the playoffs. Sandin-Pellikka had four points (one goals, three assists) in eight playoff games with a plus-one rating, with better decision making and minimizing risk.
“Me and Laggy, we have good chemistry,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “He’s better than me at the defending part, so he helps me a lot over there. You just got to be strong, smart.”
At 21 years old, it has to remembered Sandin-Pellikka is far from a finished product. There’s plenty to learn, especially being a young defenseman. He’s still learning the fact that good defense can lead to more offensive time.
“Very good defense builds good offense,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “If we’re good at defending, we’re going to have (offensive) zone time. There’s an old coach I had in Skelleftea (Sweden) who said offense wins games, but defense wins championships.
“That’s a good way to say it.”
Being a smaller defenseman (6-foot, 186 pounds) also can make things difficult, particularly around the net on the defensive end. But during last season, Wings coach Todd McLellan occasionally would single out former defenseman Dan Boyle, a longtime star who McLellan coached in San Jose.
McLellan sees similarities, especially physically, between the two offensive-minded defensemen.
“Ax isn’t the biggest guy but he’s not tiny,” McLellan said. “He’s not the biggest defender. Boyle is a real prime example for me. I spent all those years in San Jose. (Boyle was) competitive, he knew how to use what God gave him to the best of his ability. He knew what battle he could win or lose physically, and he was involved in all of them, and if he could win a physical battle, he would go win it.
“If his analysis or his judgment was ‘I’m probably on short end of this stick,’ then his mind and his legs took over and positioned him well. He outsmarted people. Sometimes when you’re not the biggest or strongest, you have to have your legs and head get you out of trouble.
“Axe is still learning that.”
What could hurt Sandin-Pellikka’s chances with the Wings, also, at the start of the season is no availability on the roster.
Mortiz Seider, Simon Edvinsson (currently unsigned), Ben Chiarot, Faulk, Albert Johansson, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Jacob Bryson are basically set in the lineup, with William Wallinder — who is out of minor league options — likely to begin the season with the Wings, who like to normally have eight defenseman on the roster.
Unless there are injuries, that doesn’t leave an opening for Sandin-Pellikka.
Faulk, who plays a similar offensive-minded game based on his superior skating, saw enough of Sandin-Pellikka late last season to see a unique defenseman.
One who isn’t far away from staying in the NHL.
“When you have the base that he has of the skating and the ability and the vision and the playmaking and the shooting and whatnot, it allows him to get around the ice a little bit more and kind of get comfortable playing that style a little bit,” Faulk said.
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Wings’ Sandin-Pellikka hoping improved ‘D’ can land him back in NHL
Reporting by Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
