Detroit City Wire

Jonatan Berggren, a forward for the Detroit Red Wings, is focusing on making significant progress in the upcoming 2025-26 NHL season. After signing a one-year contract extension with the team on June 30, Berggren described his new deal as an opportunity to prove himself.

“Last year was a good year for me,” Berggren told DetroitRedWings.com. “I feel like I got more opportunity after Todd [McLellan] became head coach, and I think I played better. This one-year deal is a prove-it-deal for me. I want to show what I can do.”

Berggren, 24, appeared in a career-high 75 games last season, recording 12 goals and 12 assists for a total of 24 points. He said that playing the entire season with the Red Wings helped build his confidence and allowed him to handle both positive and challenging moments.

“It felt like I was part of the team,” he said. “It’s hard when you’re going up and down between the AHL and NHL, so I got that confidence being there for a full year and I’m going to build off that.”

Since being drafted by Detroit in the second round (No. 33 overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Berggren has accumulated 58 points (29 goals, 29 assists) over 154 games with the club since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Berggren attributes much of his improvement to work done away from public view.

“Especially last summer, I feel like that was really good and then at Training Camp, everything felt good,” he said. “I took another step last year, but I feel like I’m starting at a higher level this year maybe than where I was two years ago. I want to do the same thing this summer because I feel like that’s going to give me a good result this year.”

While training in Sweden during the offseason, Berggren has focused on targeted workouts alongside other players.

“It’s a good group of guys I train with,” he said. “Depending on if we skate or not, we usually start around 8 a.m. There’s also a two-hour workout we do before we recover.”

He has also used this period to rest ahead of what he expects will be an intense preseason starting in September under head coach Todd McLellan.

“I feel like we played really good hockey when Todd came in,” Berggren said. “Now that we’re going to start with him, it’s going to be good to have a full camp with the new systems rather than how we had to learn during the middle of the season. That’s going to be huge.”

With several new players joining Detroit—including defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, goaltender John Gibson, and forwards James Van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton—Berggren noted that Training Camp will offer an important chance for building team unity as they prepare for their Centennial season.

“That’s maybe the biggest thing to have in terms of the group, is everyone coming together,” he said. “You see the good teams, their locker rooms are super tight. We have that going on too. It’s huge for the guys to all come together. We had a good group last year and a lot of the same guys too, so it’s only going to get better and better.”