Detroit Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond on missing playoffs again
Detroit Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond, April 19, 2025 in Detroit.
- Four Detroit Red Wings players will represent their countries at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.
- Moritz Seider (Germany), Lucas Raymond (Sweden), Simon Edvinsson (Sweden), and Marco Kasper (Austria) will participate in the tournament.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, multiple Detroit Red Wings are about to make do with hockey’s second-best springtime tournament.
Their dreams of participating in the NHL playoffs dissolved into the drought yet again, the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship offers a chance to take part in an elite competition. Moritz Seider will be back to represent his native Germany after being unable to play last year because of his contract situation. Lucas Raymond has signed on to represent Sweden for a third straight year, while countryman Simon Edvinsson will make his debut at the tourney, which runs from May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark.
Marco Kasper, coming off a terrific second half of his rookie season, will represent Austria, making his second appearance at the World Championship.
Kasper, 21, had no goals and two assists in seven games in 2022. But since then, he’s played a season in the Swedish Hockey League, a season with the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) and, this past season, turned heads with the Wings, especially after Todd McLellan’s arrival at Christmas. Kasper finished 2024-25 with with 19 goals among 37 points, working his way up from bit player to centering the second line between Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat.
Austria doesn’t have the NHL talent of the likes of Sweden, having last made the podium at the event in 1947 with a bronze medal. But for Kasper, it’s an opportunity to build on what has been a very good spring for him.
Likewise it’ll be a chance to grow for Edvinsson, who finished his first full season with the Wings posting 31 points and a team-best plus-12 rating in 78 games. He showed poise beyond his 22 years, and could emerge as a key player as Sweden tries to claim gold on home soil.
Edvinsson previously represented his country on the national stage at the 2022 World Junior Championship, where he won a bronze medal.
Raymond has starred at the last two tournaments, both times serving as an alternate captain and recording 17 points in 18 games. He won the bronze medal in 2024.
For Seider, 24, it will be his fifth appearance at the event. He had to sit it out in 2024 because he was a restricted free agent and the lack of a contract (he would eventually sign for seven years, $59.85 million in September) made for insurance premiums beyond Germany’s budget. Seider was part of the silver medal team in 2023.
There are 16 teams in all at the tournament, divided into two groups for the round-robin preliminary round. Group A is headlined by Sweden, Finland and Canada (which will have Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon in the lineup) and also includes Austria. Germany is in Group B, which is headlined by hockey powerhouses Czechia and the United States.
The top four teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals, which are cross-over.
Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
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