from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

The Red Wings’ top defense prospect, Simon Edvinsson, has a claim to being in the section above. The 2021 No. 6 pick made his debut late in the season, playing nine games before being sent back to the AHL to preserve the first year of his entry-level contract. And in most of those nine games, he was quite good. Edvinsson has obvious talent, skating beautifully in a 6-foot-6 frame, handling the puck well, and exhibiting an excellent defensive stick. He showed some real physicality in his NHL stint, too.

The upside, in other words, is outstanding.

He’s listed in this category mainly because of the depth on Detroit’s left side, although Chiarot’s foray at RD hints at one easy path for Edvinsson to crack the opening-night lineup. Logic would say that after what he showed late in the season, an October job should be his to lose. But Detroit has slow-played prospects before, and Edvinsson will have to show up to camp (and the preseason) ready to leave no doubt.

Still, the bet here is that he will do so. And while his unbothered demeanor may lead to the occasional mistake, his overall impact should more than balance that out. Edvinsson may not produce at the level Seider does, but he should become a very good two-way defenseman for the Red Wings, capable of killing plays with his body and his stick, transitioning the puck, and logging huge minutes for years to come.

In the short-term, part of Edvinsson’s roster push will be beating out another Swede who spent his 2022-23 season in Grand Rapids: 2019 second-round pick Albert Johansson. While Edvinsson’s upside leaps off the ice, Johansson’s game is more subtle. Yzerman pointed out Johansson quietly having a “very, very good year in Grand Rapids” at the trade deadline, and then-Griffins coach Ben Simon similarly told me the AHL rookie had been “probably one of our most consistent defensemen.”

In fact, it would not have shocked me if Johansson had even gotten a call-up before Edvinsson. Unfortunately for him, an injury ended his season soon after Yzerman’s comments, with assistant GM Shawn Horcoff alluding to a broken bone of some kind at his end-of-season news conference.

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