Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Red Wings have had a touch of good fortune with defensemen from Sweden.

There was Nicklas Lidstrom, who left after 20 years with seven Norris Trophies and four Stanley Cups. There is Niklas Kronwall, current leader of the blue line.

Down the road, there are signs prospect Mattias Backman could be part of the team's core. He's the sort of smooth, heads-up player the Wings love.

Backman is scheduled to play in his third exhibition game tonight against visiting Pittsburgh. He's just getting used to North American hockey rinks — after finishing the season with Linkopings last spring, he hopped over to play in two games for the Griffins, then played 10 games in their playoff run.

"He's a good young player," coach Mike Babcock said Tuesday. "He's going to have to spend another year in the minors and get stronger and get used to the game a little bit."

Backman, 21, a fifth-round pick in 2011, is in the group of young defensemen who inspire confidence that one or more soon could join the Detroit corps. Xavier Ouellet heads the pack with Alexey Marchenko and Ryan Sproul close behind. Nick Jensen has been better than expected.

Henrik Zetterberg cited Backman's mobility as one of his strengths, and noted that for a young European player, the first year is always about the same adjustment. "He's got to put some muscles on him," Zetterberg said, "but that will come. I think this year will be big over here, just to play and get used to the ice. I'm not surprised if we're going to see him playing games for us this year."

Backman, who like most of the Swedish Wings speaks English like he has done so all his life, said his little taste of spring hockey helps this fall.

"I think it was good for my development to come here and see everything," he said. "I hope I can feel more comfortable when I come over now. But I can, of course, be more comfortable. It's a lot of things, like how do you play the system, and the rink is smaller. But I feel more comfortable every day at the rink."

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

Tonight: Penguins

Face-off: Pittsburgh at Red Wings, 7:30, exhibition.

Where: Joe Louis Arena.

TV/radio: FSD, WXYT-FM (97.1).