Detroit Red Wings stock exchange: two losses and a win

Since the last edition of the stock exchange, the Detroit Red Wings dropped a couple of games and secured a win.

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

Trending up

The 2022 Draft Pick

Detroit is falling apart. The team is 2-8 in their last ten (with a handful of those losses by multiple goals), falling precipitously down the standings. In fact, Detroit is now in the bottom ten in the league in points.

The good news? The Red Wings can now look forward to an improved pick in the upcoming 2022 NHL Draft. Early on, it seemed as though Detroit might end up with a middling pick, somewhere between 12-16. Now, in free fall, it seems as though the Wings will slot into the top ten.

Jakub Vrana

Vrana has been one of the only positives from this stretch of abysmal play. Since his return from injury, the Czech winger has five goals and an assist. This week, he netted a couple of goals and an assist. Vrana seems to truly be establishing himself as a member of Detroit’s core heading forward – if he keeps up this play down the stretch, it’d be hard to argue that he hasn’t joined the core.

Trending down

Jeff Blashill

At the beginning of the year, things were looking up for the Red Wings. The team took advantage of a weak schedule to hover just above .500, propelled onwards by Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Alex Nedeljkovic. It was the best stretch the Wings have had in years.

That early success quieted the calls for Jeff Blashill’s job. However, with the season falling apart, those calls are getting loud again. On Blashill’s watch, the Red Wings have not fielded a winning team. Sure, most of that is due to the intentional rebuild, but the most recent losses have been downright embarrassing (namely, the 9-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes). If the slide continues until the end of the season, Blashill might be putting his job in jeopardy.

Staying put

The defense

Well, the defense is still terrible. Not much has changed there. The Red Wings gave up 11 goals in three games – not egregious, but certainly not great. At least they didn’t give up nine goals.

Thomas Greiss

Greiss has been awful this season. There is no way around it. He only made one start this week, playing against his former squad, the New York Islanders. He was pulled after two periods. Greiss has been terrible all year, and this week was more of the same. This will be Greiss’ last season in Detroit.