Red Wings drop preseason finale; ‘tough’ roster decisions loom

The Detroit Red Wings wrapped up the preseason Saturday with a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

Now they must trim their roster to 23 players by Monday prior to their regular season opener Thursday against Pittsburgh at Little Caesars Arena.

"A lot of moving parts, and some tough decisions," coach Derek Lalonde said Saturday morning. "I mentioned going into camp I hope we sit here after eight (preseason) games with some very hard decisions and our young guys have done that to us. So, something we'll work through the next couple days."

The Red Wings seemed to have their roster in place prior to training camp with 12 non-waiver exempt forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders.

If there are any surprises it'll likely be at forward, where young Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur, and veteran Austin Watson (pro tryout), in particular, were pushing for jobs. Kasper, the eighth overall pick in 2022, had an outstanding camp and preseason, but the Red Wings would need to waive or move a player to make room for the center.

"We've been very open minded throughout camp with a lot of moving parts, and this is a good problem," Lalonde said. "We've had some young players step up in camp. This is going to be an interesting 48 hours."

Just because a player starts the season with the Grand Rapids Griffins doesn't mean he'll stay there.

"Everyone makes such a big deal of making the team on Day 1 and I've never understood it because Grand Rapids is two hours away," Lalonde said. "We'll have played 33 players by Christmas. I think in reality, we're probably going to have 15 forwards, 10 D that are going to play for us and make our team (over the course of the season)."

Andrew Copp had a goal and an assist Saturday. Christian Fischer scored a goal. Ville Husso made 30 saves, playing his second full game.

John Tavares snapped a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal at 4:58 of the third period.

Fischer opened the scoring by tipping in Copp's point shot at 3:33 of the first. Copp put the Red Wings ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 17:58 of the first.