A Detroit Red Wings fans’ April Fools dream come true
Today is April fools day; a day I personally can’t stand in the sports and news world. People get a kick out of tricking you into believing fake news is real and waiting eagerly for your reaction after you realize you’ve been hoaxed. What I will write is an article expressing a transaction surrounding the Detroit Red Wings I wish were not April Fools joke.
For me, it doesn’t do anything for me so I for one won’t write out some April fools joke as click bait. If I published an article headlined “Detroit Red Wings fire Ken Holland, Yzerman seen meeting with Chris Ilitch.” People would click with hope until they wasted three-minutes of their life reading a fabricated, fake article just to get to the bottom and seeing the header “April Fools.”
The Wings have been surging of late in a time where losing would be more beneficial to the future of the franchise they suddenly seemingly can’t lose. The top line of Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi are scorching hot, and that bodes well for the future of the Detroit Red Wings. With complimentary players like Taro Hirose, Joeseph Veleno, Filip Hronek, Dennis Cholowski and Filip Zadina all potentially growing into high-end role players or more the Detroit Red Wings are in excellent shape.
Anthony Mantha is coming off of a 3 goals, 5 point performance last night at home against the Boston Bruins. Mantha is in the midst of a five-game point streak where he’s scored 5 goals and added 7 assists totaling 12 points. Tyler Bertuzzi has recorded three straight 3-point games for the Detroit Red Wings and a four-game point streak that’s seen him score 3 goals and 7 assists totaling 10 points.
The future captain Dylan Larkin is also amid a five-game point streak where he’s accomplished 5 goals and 3 assists.
Dylan Larkin has scored 32 goals on the season, Andreas Athanasiou also has reached the 30 goal mark on the season something no Red Wing has accomplished since 2009. Mantha is sitting at 22 goals scored while Bertuzzi is one goal away from 20.
In a season that some consider a lost season, the team is finally showing growth, and the coaching staff is playing the youth over the veteran players down the stretch. Some of the personnel decisions have been forced on the coaching staff with all of the injuries that have occurred. When many fans want the team to lose to have a better lottery opportunity the team is beating Vegas, San Jose, and Boston. Look at the lineup on the ice and tell me what else the coaching staff can do to lose?
It seems the young players are blending well together and finally developing in a positive fashion and that bodes well for the future. If the Wings pick 6th, they might be able to snag Bowen Byram who is expected to be the first defenseman taken. With the emergence of Filip Honek and the potential shown by Dennis Cholowski earlier in the season, the Detroit Red Wings would benefit from adding another young defender to the sable that also holds Jared McIsaac who is a promising young defenseman.
In this article we will take a look at a transaction we wish would actually happen rather than just wishful April Fools jokes.
Jonathan Ericsson was selected in the 9th round of the 2002 NHL Entry Level Draft.
The draft only goes to the 7th round these days. The big fella played for his father back in Sweden and was actually a forward for most of his early hockey days. As a teenager, his team was really banged up, and they needed someone to drop back and be a defenseman. Insert Johnathan Ericsson, and he excelled right to the show.
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Ericsson recently turned 35-year-old, and injuries have been starting to mount for the big defenseman. He’s currently out with a knee injury that is expected to end his Red Wings’ season with the team only having three games remaining.
He never ever reached his full potential within the eyes of the franchise or the fans in my opinion. I will acknowledge the fact he indeed was a 9th round pick so as a whole he’s definitely exceeded the expectations he had for his draft position, that is not debatable. Part of it is once you finally make it to the show we all have certain expectations for different players.
Take Luke Witkowski for example; what are his expectations? I’d say he is an energy guy who goes out there and bangs the body to get the crowd engaged and he will drop the gloves to try and flip the momentum into the Wings favor. He’s not expected to be a top-six defenseman; he’s a guy who rotates in and out of the lineup plus fills in when injuries occur.
Jonathan Ericsson started as a third pairing defenseman and never really developed into a top-four defender that we’ve all hoped he would. He’s 6’4, 220 pounds and for the majority of his career playing like a 5’9, 195-pound defenseman.
He’s refrained from being a physical dominating defender and generally tends to shy away from banging the body. Although he was a draft bargain, I don’t think any player has frustrated me more throughout his career because I see what could have been from a physical standpoint and as he’s grown old he’s been a defensive liability.
Through 662 career NHL games, Ericsson has scored 27 times and added 98 helpers totaling 125 career points and is a career -9. The April fools joke we WISHED was real is that Jonathan Ericsson with one-year remaining on his contract had decided to retire at seasons’ end.