Detroit Red Wings: Now Accepting Resumes for Prolific Scorer Apply Within

The Detroit Red Wings haven’t had a 30 goal scorer in quite some time.  Actually, the last time a Wings player scored 30 or more goals was 2008/2009.

Oddly enough in 08/09, the Detroit Red Wings had four players eclipse the thirty goal marker.  Marian Hossa, remember him?  The guy Detroit should have re-signed over Johan Franzen, granted that is easy to say in hindsight.

Anyway, Hossa scored 40 that season for the Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg along with the aforementioned Johan Franzen all did tally north of thirty goals for the Wings that year.  That type of production along with consistent goaltending and a guy named Nicklas Lidstrom anchoring the back-end leads you to back to back finals appearances.

The Detroit Red Wings are currently accepting resumes for a prolific scorer but the hope is a couple of the young players can will the void within.  Insert Filip Zadina, Michael Rasmussen, Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin you get the point.

Things have changed, and not for the better in Hockeytown since those beautiful years of stellar hockey; we were always waiting for the playoffs to start.  Now we have been waiting for the playoffs to end to see who the Wings can draft, and replenish the troops until they are once again relevant in the hockey world.

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The Detroit Red Wings even after Marian Hossa moved on, and Franzen couldn’t continue on with his career, struggled to find a “prolific” scorer.  They had Pavel Datsyuk along with Zetterberg at the time quite possibly two of the top ten players in the league.  To go along with those star players, Detroit always found multiple players who could score twenty or more goals throughout their line-up.

Even the 20 goal scorers have dried up in Detroit in recent years.  Last season Motown only saw two players that found the back of the net more than twenty times.

Anthony Mantha along with Gustav Nyquist were the only Red Wings to pot twenty or more.  This up and coming season Detroit hopes to have a more balanced scoring attack up and down their line-up like in years past.

Along with Mantha and Nyquist, Thomas Vanek should be around just long enough to score 20 before he’s moved at the trade deadline.  Gus Nyquist should have an opportunity similarly to Vanek, to notch 20 before he is looking for a new home in another city around the deadline as he enters the last year of his Red Wings contract.

It’s an unfamiliar feeling in Detroit, to have no “superstars” who could be counted on to produce regularly. Larkin and Mantha budding stars but yet to prove they can carry a franchise.  In previous generations with the likes of  Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan & Nick Lidstrom all handed the baton to Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Johan Franzen.

It’s time a few of these younger players who have been around a few seasons step up and fill the void left behind. Expect Dan Bylsma to create positive energy and a new voice beside Blashill on the bench for Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, and Andreas Athanasiou. The expectation is Bylsma will assist them in a positive fashion offensively, to take a step forward as they receive the handoff from Henrik Zetterberg.

Even a few rookies and younger players will look to start their NHL careers with a bang, and it is needed for this hockey team and the city of Detroit.