Detroit Red Wings Playing Out Of Hughes Sweepstakes Is a Good Thing

The Detroit Red Wings have ascended up the standings and practically played themselves out of the Jack Hughes sweepstakes. With the 2019 NHL Regular season-ending, there are some good takeaways from this late burst of wins.

First things first, this is not the consistent article talking about how the Detroit Red Wings or any team needs to go and draft Jack Hughes, this is not even the article about how the Red Wings need to go and draft Kaapo Kakko instead of Hughes.

This is all about the Detroit Red Wings starting to win games at the end of the year, they started winning and winning, which seems ludicrous, but it’s true. It sure seems like this is terrible are ruined our shot at the top pick. However, there is something else to take away from this; the rebuild has to be close to the end.

Going into the 82nd game of the season, the Detroit Red Wings were sitting at 8-2 in their last ten games. After losing four straight games before that, something clicked. Something began to fall in place, and that seems like great news if you really get past the fact that the Red Wings don’t get the top pick.

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In the last ten games have outscored opponents 33-24 and have been running a 30% conversion rate on their power play. All of these numbers are great, but the question begging to be asked was “where was this all year? Why is this happening now?” and the answer comes from the roster.

Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou have been playing incredible hockey all year. Larkin heads into game 82 with 32 goals and 41 assists for 73 points to lead the Red Wings, while in terms of goals Athanasiou is not far behind him with 30 goals and 23 assists for 53 points. Even Mantha managed 24 goals and 23 assists for 47 points through 66 games for the Red Wings. Tyler Bertuzzi has 21 goals and 26 assists for 47 point as well through 71 games.

There’s a common theme among all four of these players… YOUTH. The young players are finally clicking. Mantha and Larkin were the top two players in Corsi For% (CF%) with Mantha as 55% and Larkin at 54.5%, behind those two were even more young players in Filip Hronek and Dennis Cholowski.

There’s a common theme here, lots of youth and youth that is finally starting to pan out. A few weeks ago we signed payers to entry-level contracts, and since they have been added to the lineup, things have generally gone well for the Red Wings.

For example, Taro Hirose has seen the ice in nine games for the Red Wings where he totaled a goal and seven assists in the first NHL stint of his career after great success with the Michigan State Spartans. Ryan Kuffner played in nine games and did not tally a point, which is totally fine, he finished with a higher CF% than Hirose if weighing those in comparison of the two rookies stints with the team.

Circling back to the idea that the Red Wings missed out on the top draft pick, it seems like that’s worth losing if you really look at it. The Red Wings are still going to get a top-tier pick in the draft, Filip Zadina is still to see a lot of time with the NHL squad since he only appeared in 9 games so the Red Wings could extend his entry-level contract.

Assuming the young guns like Hirose can come back, make the team and be an immediate force for the Red Wings, the defenseman continues to excel (i.e., Hronek, Cholowski, Madison Bowey) the rebuild is going to end and end soon. The amount of young talent the Red Wings have from the prior drafts including names like Joe Veleno and Jared McIsaac who just prove that the Red Wings future is bright, their window to excel is coming, and it is coming fast.

For anyone who is upset that the Red Wings played themselves out of getting Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko, just look at it from this aspect, the grass looks much greener on the other side of things in the scenario.

Next. Wings have played themselves out of Jack Hughes’ services. dark

A Detroit Red Wings team that is going to compete with other teams, a become a force to be reckoned with shortly sounds much better than missing out on a top draft pick. Do not mistake this, getting Hughes or Kakko is going to be great for a franchise, but why dwell on what the Red Wings could have had? Look at where the Red Wings are heading, things are heading in the right direction and that’s all fans can ask for, for the time being.

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