The Detroit Red Wings have recalled left-winger Elmer Söderblom from the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League. This move was made as the team has struggled to push back against opponents lately. Söderblom was on a line with Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer at the morning skate ahead of the Red Wings’ game against the Philadelphia Flyers, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. The Red Wings would lose this game in overtime by a score of 2-1.
Söderblom said it was “very, very fun” to get the call from Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman. Yzerman oversaw the draft when Söderblom was drafted by the Red Wings with the 159th overall pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft out of Gothenberg, Sweden. After being drafted, Söderblom played two seasons with Frölunda HC of the SHL. The SHL is seen as a level below the AHL and ECHL which are a step below the NHL. At the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship, alongside Lucas Raymond and Albert Johansson, Söderblom scored two goals and added an assist in five games played for Sweden.
I wrote that given that Moritz Seider also played for Frölunda prior to joining the Griffins, the Swedish hockey team had turned into a feeder system for the Red Wings. Söderblom played 21 games for the Red Wings during the 2022-23 season. He will be at least somewhat familiar with the play in the NHL during his second call-up with the Red Wings. The Red Wings have already called up defenseman Johansson from Grand Rapids this season.
The Red Wings were nowhere near a playoff spot prior to firing Derek Lalonde. Since replacing him with Todd McLellan, the Red Wings are 8-4 and are currently six points out of a wild card spot. Lalonde seemed to have lost the locker room, which led to his firing. Söderblom’s job is to find his way into the lineup and help the team try to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. He has been playing well for the Griffins as of late but the NHL is a completely different level of hockey.
Söderblom is 6’8” and was dubbed part of the Swedish basketball team along with defenseman Simon Edvinsson by the captain of the Red Wings, Dylan Larkin, when the two were at training camp in 2022. Edvinsson was the first of this basketball team to make it to the Red Wings’ lineup in a real way this season, playing in 42 of the 46 games that the team has played this season. In that time, he has been moved to a defensive pairing with Seider.
“I hope that he just puts the equipment on and plays,” head coach of the Red Wings Todd McLellan said after the Red Wings morning skate. Edvinsson will have the opportunity to not think and “play f—cking hockey” under the tutelage of McLellan. The “new coach bump” seems to have faded from the Red Wings play. Prior to being called up by the Red Wings Söderblom scored five goals and added 12 assists in 38 games played for the Griffins.
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