Red Wings Prospect Sandin Pellikka Out With Serious…
Red Wings Prospect Sandin Pellikka Out With Serious Upper-Body Injury
Evidently, his heart may not be the only part of Detroit Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka’s body that was broken at the recent IIHF World Junior Championship.
Swedish wedsite Sportbladet.se broke the story that Sandin Pellikka will be missing a significant portion of the SHL season. According to the report, the Detroit first-round puck suffering a serious injury while playing for Sweden at the WJC. While the story wasn’t revealing the exact nature of the injury, Sandin Pellikka did undergo x-rays following the tournament to determine the extent of the damage. Expectations are that he will be missing in action for as much as 1-2 months.
Sandin Pellikka was reportedly battling with a major upper-body injury, according to Swedish website Norran.se, which was informed by Skelleftea team doctor Karin Granberg.
Granberg texted Norran, saying, “Axel has an upper body injury and is in a plaster cast.” He declined to provide further details regarding the type of injury.
Sandin Pellikka reportedly played through the injury during the World Junior Championship. He became known as the best defenseman in the competition. After falling to the USA 6-2 in the gold-medal match, Sweden took home the silver medal.
Sandin Pellikka finished with six points (2-4-6) in seven games, one of which came from an overtime victory over Switzerland in the quarterfinals.
Banner Season For Sandin Pellikka
This was just the latest honor the game was bestowing upon Red Wings hopeful Sandin Pellikka. In his first season since Detroit made him the 17th overall selection of the 2023 NHL entry draft, the 18-year-old is leading all SHL defenders with nine goals.
Skelleftea is playing Czech club Vitkovice in the Champions League semi-finals on Thursday but will be doing so minus their teenage sensation.
Robert Ohlsson, coach of Skelleftea, Sandin Pellikka’s club in the SHL, was confirming the injury to Sportbladet.
“It is true that he is injured and that our doctors need to look at him,” Ohlsson told Sportbladet. “What I know now is that he won’t play for the next week anyway. It’s sad.”
Skelleftea goaltender Mattias Hallberg also acknowledged the serious nature of his teammate’s injury to Swedish website Expressen.se.
“What I can say is that he was examined with an x-ray here in Växjö yesterday and unfortunately it shows an injury which means that he is not available for games for the next few weeks,” Hallberg said.
“We in the fellow team are optimistic and believe that his rehabilitation process will go well. We expect him to be fully recovered soon and ready for full play again in a few weeks.”
