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Red Wings: Who’s Poised to Bounce Back Next Season?

By John Manzo

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Luke Glendening #41 of the Detroit Red Wings skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on January 31, 2020 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Red Wings 4-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Luke Glendening #41 of the Detroit Red Wings skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on January 31, 2020 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Red Wings 4-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Taking a look at the Detroit Red Wings roster and seeing who’s  likely to return to form following a disappointing season.

The Detroit Red Wings need summer school.

With last week’s 24-team NHL playoff format announced to take place in the foreseeable future, it left the Red Wings wondering what’s next. There are rumors next season will start as late as January, meaning the team will not play a meaningful hockey game for 10 months.

As typical now that Detroit’s season is over, it becomes report card time. Media outlets like the Detroit Free Press and MLive have graded the team, but I’m not going to do that. If you watched even a handful of games this season outside the first four, then you know the team shouldn’t receive many passing grades.

Instead, let’s take the glass half full approach given how negative most everything has been in the news since the start of 2020. Rather than pile on with bad report card grades for the likes of Justin Abdelkader, Frans Nielsen, Valtteri Filppula, Luke Glendening and others, I’m going to let you guys know which player has the best chance to leave a poor season in the past and play back to his potential next season.

I’m not going to rattle off all the poor season performances but I will eliminate guys like Brendan Perlini, Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley and Jimmy Howard because I don’t think they’re going to be back with the team so it doesn’t make sense to talk about them.

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Looking at the roster, it’s those aforementioned guys who under performed like Abdelkader, Nielsen, Filppula and Glendening, who will likely be back given the outlandish contracts handed out the past couple seasons.

So, of these four, who’s going to return to form?

It’s Glendening and it isn’t even close.

Truthfully Abdelkader might not be back – despite three years left on his deal – because he’s been so bad, and Filppula and Nielsen are 36 with their best years behind them.

Meanwhile Glendening has a niche. He’s a grinder, penalty killer, good face off man and has been around long enough to instill the culture and work ethic the organization prides itself on to newcomers.

He’s only a season removed from his normal production and his role will only get more defined as the roster continues to improve. He’ll carry less of a burden, be able to focus on what he does best and be a contributor at the back-end of the roster as the team aims to get back to the playoffs next season for the first time since 2015-16.

Until then, Red Wings: it’s off to summer school.

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