Detroit Red Wings’ Defense is Spectacularly Ordinary

The Detroit Red Wings defencemen are doing their jobs, but how well are they all actually doing?

The Detroit Red Wings have a problem. It’s not necessarily a bad problem. It’s a problem that a handful of teams in the NHL would willingly accept if they had the chance. But it’s a problem the Red Wings will have to remedy soon if they want to be taken seriously as Stanley Cup Contenders.

The Red Wings have seven average defencemen. Zero who are awful. Zero who are great. Seven who are completely middle of the pack.

If you want to dig a little deeper, you could argue that there are a few quality defencemen suiting up for the Grand Rapids Griffins who could handle themselves in the NHL, but let’s stick to the seven currently on the Red Wings’ roster. You have Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Mike Green, and Kyle Quincey as the team’s veterans, and Danny DeKeyser, Brendan Smith, and Alexey Marchenko as the relatively new faces. And sitting here as the calendar flips to 2016, none of them are anything to write home about.

Ever since Nicklas Lidstrom retired at the end of the 2012 season, the Red Wings have struggled to put together an elite defensive group. Having arguably the best defencemen to ever skate in the NHL will cover up a lot of deficiencies, and when Lidstrom retired the Wings lack of a quality backup plan got exposed.

Kronwall was supposed to be that next great Detroit defencemen, but since 2012 when he lost Lidstrom as his partner on the blue line we’ve seen that Kronwall is a solid player but is better known for his flashy hits than anything else. Kronwall has benefited from being Detroit’s only power play option (until Mike Green arrived), but the rest of his game has been league average at best.

Since Lidstrom’s last game, Kronwall has been a sub-50% possession player for Detroit, benefiting only by fan’s argument as “Well, he’s the best we got.” Even this year, he’s been generating offense at a rate that’s hovering around the middle for NHL blue-liners even though he starts more of his shifts in the offensive zone than any other Detroit defencemen. Kronwall seems to get a lot more credit than he deserves.

Jonathan Ericsson is having one of the worst season’s of his career, posting a Corsi-For below 45% (and that’s not even worst on the team!). He’s posting his usually awful numbers offensively, but luckily for Detroit he is getting bailed out by his netminder defensively. Ericsson is also bottom of the pack in allowing shots and high quality scoring chances to the opposition. Believe it or not he is actually posting a positive on-ice goals for vs. goals against ratio so far this season. He should send Petr Mrazek a present for that one.

Kyle Quincey has only played nine games thus far this season, and while he’s been impressive he’s hardly been a stand out on either end of the ice. Mike Green, who was acquired from Washington over the summer to be an offensive specialist, is finally getting his footing here in the Motor City. He’s actually putting up solid numbers across the board, but is yet to be rewarded by lighting up the score sheet. He gets a pass for his slow start to the season since he’s been adjusting to a new team and system, and everything points to him picking up the pace soon.

Based on Danny DeKeyser’s young career, no one was expecting him to be a dynamo in the offensive zone, but the normally defensively sound player is struggling to keep pucks away from his own net. Not only is a drag on the team’s puck possession, but he’s allowed the second most shot attempts on the team while he’s on the ice.

Only the overrated Kronwall has allowed more. If DeKeyser can’t play better in his own zone to make up for his lack of offense, he’s not as useful as Wings fans were hoping he’d be in his fourth year in the league.

I’ve written about Brendan Smith and Alexey Marchenko in the past. While their overall statistics have continued to grow over time, their level of play has stayed pretty consistent. The two are playing well, but against the easiest competition that Jeff Blashill can have them face. They can only play the guys opposite them, but those opposite guys are generally not top-level competition.

So the Red Wings’ defencemen having the best seasons are also the ones facing the easiest assignments. The players facing off against the other teams’ top players aren’t quite holding their own. So Detroit’s top players are getting dragged down while the ones on the bottom are starting to rise up. In a word, you could call that…..average.

Detroit lacks a true #1 blue liner that Chicago, Los Angeles, or Montreal currently have. No they don’t have any glaring wholes either, but no defensive player on their current roster is going to put them over the top.

Could a trade be in order? Kronwall, Ericsson, Green, and Quincey are past their prime and don’t look like they’ll be the ones to lead the Red Wings to the promised land. DeKeyser and Smith are going to continue to grow, but based on their current trajectory it’s unlikely they’ll ever be called elite.

Next: Should The Red Wings Try To Sign Steven Stamkos?

Maybe Alexy Marchenko? Or one of the youngsters in the AHL? Their future is bright, but it’s hard to judge on such young players. Detroit seems to have a lot of players on their blue line that play different styles yet produce similar results. Not necessarily a bad thing, but when the playoffs come and it’s only the best of the best still standing, it’s hard to imagine one of those teams having such an ordinary group of defencemen.