With more than half the season under their belts; the Detroit Red Wings are doing pretty well for themselves. The battle for a playoff place is being won, and the team are starting to look like a serious contender for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
It’s tricky to pick just five players to make this list, but here goes. We’re starting with a Swedish blue-liner who’s playing his 12th season in Detroit:
Niklas Kronwall
Niklas Kronwall is arguably the best defenseman to play to play for Detroit since Nick Lidstrom retired. His hits are fearsome and he’s as comfortable with scoring opportunities as he is defending his own net. He’s reliable too, no other Red Wings D-Man has played more games than him this season. At the time of writing he’s on 45 games, tied with Danny DeKeyser.
His presence on the ice always give opposing teams something to be wary of, and he’s on the ice a lot. Kronwall averages 30.1 shifts per game, only DeKeyser can edge him on this stat, he’s on 30.2. One statistic that his higher than any other of his team mates (not including goalies) is Time On Ice; Kronwall leads the team with 22.45 per game. That’s fifth best in the division.
Presence isn’t everything though, production is also important. Kronwall has only found the net three times himself so far this season, but he’s assisted on 14 more.
Unfortunately we might not be able to see Kronwall improve on those numbers any time soon; he’s been sidelined by injury.
Here’s a video of Kronwall taking Mark Letestu off the puck in his own particular style:
Next: Our favorite Slovakian forward