Former Red Wing Named to IIHF Hall of Fame

This morning, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced its Hall of Fame Class of 2025, featuring Detroit Red Wing alumnus Frans Nielsen.

Nielsen—who spent five seasons with Detroit between 2016 and 2021—might not be the first Red Wing that comes to mind when you think of international excellence, but he was a key member of the first Denmark men's hockey team to ever qualify for the Olympics.  Nielsen features alongside Henrik Lundqvist, Kim Martin-Hasson, Vicky Sunohara, Zdeno Chara, David Vyborny, and Kai Hietarinta in the 2025 class.  (As a point of clarification, the IIHF Hall of Fame is not the same as the Hockey Hall of Fame, into which Pavel Datsyuk was inducted earlier this season.)

In five seasons as a Red Wing, Nielsen played in 319 games, scoring 48 goals and providing 76 assists for 124 points.  He'd arrived in Detroit in the summer of 2016, having spent the first 10 years of his NHL career with the New York Islanders.

While his NHL career tended toward the ordinary, Nielsen's international career was more distinguished than you might he realize.  After his last season with the Red Wings in 2020-21, he played one season in the German Deutsche Eishockey Liga, helping Eisbären Berlin defend its DEL title with 27 points in 33 regular season games, then seven more in 12 playoff appearances.

Nielsen also represented Denmark 14 times at the senior level, including helping the nation to its first ever Olympic appearance at the 2022 Games in Beijing, where he scored two goals and gave an assist.  He also played for Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey where he won a silver medal.  He was also the first Danish citizen to ever play in the NHL.

And now, Nielsen is a Hall-of-Famer, at least in the IIHF's eyes.

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