How acquired: Selected with No. 17 pick in 2023 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-25 season: Skelleftea AIK (SHL): 46 GP, 12-17-29; Grand Rapids (AHL): 2 GP, 0-1-1<\/p>\n
Sandin-Pellikka (5-11, 185), 20, was named the 2025 Swedish Junior Hockey Player of the Year with Skellefte\u00e5 AIK in the Swedish Hockey League, Sweden’s top professional men’s league. His 12 goals and 29 points were the most of any under-21 skater in Sweden\u2019s top division. He had eight points (one goal, seven assists) in 11 playoff games to help Skellefte\u00e5 reach the SHL semifinals.<\/p>\n
The right-handed shot compensates for his lack of size with his hockey smarts and tremendous work ethic. He starred for Sweden at the 2025 WJC when he was named the tournament’s best defenseman, recording 10 points (four goals, six assists) in seven games.<\/p>\n
“I anticipate he’ll play a regular role (in Grand Rapids), be good on the power play,” Cleary said. “We’re going to work on his skating, his strength and his ability to move around the ice, especially in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone. He’s got to spend a lot of time in the gym, working on skating, learning.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: 2026-27<\/p>\n
How acquired: Selected with No. 13 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-25 season: Everett (WHL): 56 GP: 40-42-82<\/p>\n
Bear (6-0, 179) tied for seventh in the Western Hockey League in goals, and led the Silvertips in points and power-play goals (14) despite sustaining a partially torn Achilles tendon on March 9. The 18-year-old is on track to be fully cleared for Red Wings training camp by September.<\/p>\n
Bear is well-regarded for his skill, work ethic and maturity. He also can play center or on the wing.<\/p>\n
“Very skilled, very tenacious,” Red Wings assistant GM and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper said. “I really appreciate the effort, compete and the way he thinks the game.”<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: 2027-28<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 17 pick in 2023 NHL Draft 2024-25 season: Skelleftea AIK (SHL): 46 GP,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-58822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}