Red Wings stock exchange: the wheels are falling off

On a five-game losing streak, it seems as though the wheels are falling off for the Detroit Red Wings. This week was another stretch of poor play.

Let’s head to the stock exchange to assess this week’s performances.

Trending up

Jakub Vrana

One of the only positive aspects of Detroit’s recent play has been the return of forward Jakub Vrana. In a short sample size, he’s been fantastic, scoring three goals in three games. In his 14 games with the Detroit Red Wings, Vrana has 14 points. It’s still unclear whether or not he can keep this up for an entire season,  but for now, his stock is on the rise.

Trending down

The defense

Detroit’s defense had multiple terrible showings. At this point, this should just be automatically included in every discussion about the Red Wings this year.

However, this week was especially brutal. Tuesday night against the basement-dwelling Arizona Coyotes, Detroit was manhandled in a 9-2 loss. Fans should be used to teams like Tampa Bay or Florida thrashing the Wings – but the Coyotes? That’s an embarrassment. After giving up 10 goals to the Tampa Bay Lightning, it seemed impossible that the stock of Detroit’s defense could get any lower –  but Tuesday night was a new low.

The goaltending

The defense isn’t the only area to blame for the amount of goals the team is letting up. Both of Detroit’s goaltenders are performing quite poorly. Thomas Greiss has only one game with a save percentage above .900 in his last five (albeit, not all were starts). Alex Nedeljkovic had two bad games this week, finishing with a .741 save percentage against the Coyotes and a .875 save percentage against the Minnesota Wild. Sure, the defense hasn’t helped much at all, but the goalies have been terrible of late.

The Red Wings

Yes, I am including the entire team here. This is the low point of the season, full stop. Detroit is on a five game losing streak, with rock-bottom coming against the Arizona Coyotes. Any outside hope at the playoffs is gone, Robby Fabbri is injured and out of the lineup, the defense looks miserable and the offense went cold (save for a solid showing against the Minnesota Wild). The entire team’s stock is plummeting.

Staying put

 Lucas Raymond

Raymond had a decent week. He scored two goals against the Wild, and didn’t snag any other points. While he isn’t quite as electric as he was at the beginning of the year, Raymond is still one of Detroit’s better forwards, and one of the better rookies in the league. His stock remains high.