PREVIEW: Red Wings entertain Blue Jackets to close out 2026-27 preseason slate on Saturday

DETROIT -- Playing their fourth and final 2026-27 preseason contest before wins and losses count toward the standings, the Detroit Red Wings are set to welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.

“It’s been a good Training Camp,” Albert Johansson said. “Shorter than usual, but I think we’ve been working hard every day. Working on some new stuff within our game and just trying to get everything going here. It’ll be a good test tonight here.”

Detroit and Columbus will drop the puck at 7 p.m. ET, with broadcast coverage set to air on Detroit SportsNet and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

“Just the unity of the players right now is fairly good, but we haven’t really played yet,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “I had some concern about that. Not that they’re going to be torn apart, but just how they were going to deal with all of this stuff. And to this point, the locker room, the practices, the intermingling that I do with the group, they’re handling it fairly well. I don’t want to say that’s a surprise, but that’s good to see in here.”

A lot of credit goes to Detroit’s veterans for helping foster that environment this fall, a group that largely set the tone in Thursday night’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres – a physical, rather chippy contest that included the preseason debuts of established names like Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and Andrew Copp.

Now, based on Saturday’s morning skate, McLellan is again icing a lineup of mostly NHL regulars against the Blue Jackets – though some Opening-Night roster battles are coming down to the wire.

“It’s been very competitive,” McLellan said. “And the decisions, as I’ve said, they’ll basically decide with their play who ends up being on the team and who doesn’t. Separation has been created. Some individuals are getting another opportunity tonight, but there are obvious individuals that have stepped up – players that haven’t played on our club before have stepped up – and done a real good job. They have to continue to grow their game, but it’s starting to become clear to everybody in the organization.”

With the Detroit Tigers amid their final homestand of the 2026 MLB season this weekend, it was only fitting that McLellan borrowed some baseball terminology to describe how the organization is deciding who might make up the club’s 23-man Opening-Night roster.

“A lot of the immediate evaluation goes into it, because this is who you are in the moment,” McLellan said. “They do have track records that we have to refer to. Maybe things aren’t going quite as well for them in the moment right now or somebody has hit a bunch of home runs that normally doesn’t hit the long ball, so we have to be realistic and take their whole body of work into consideration. But basically, Training Camp, last game, roster on Monday. It’s about right now. Can you help us? That’s where we’re at.”

Like so many of his teammates have proclaimed since the beginning of their shortened 2026 Training Camp, Johansson sees internal competition as a benefit to the Red Wings as a whole.

“It’s positive,” Johansson said. “There are guys who are coming up, and everyone wants to make the team. We’re pushing each other, and I think that’s good too. It’s good for the practices, good for the games. That means the guys are going and showing the coaches they want to be in the lineup.”