With the start of the New Year, it's a good time for some predictions about the season. However, no one wants to be a jinx. Especially not sportswriters who have to keep the receipts public.
On the other hand, of course, there are some things that can be seen with the eye test, and hoped for, at the very least. So in that spirit, this is the first (of hopefully many) installments of a bold prediction and a trend surrounding the Red Wings at varying points of the season.
Prediction: Alex DeBrincat will break 40 goals for the first time
DeBrincat has been playing well for the Red Wings ever since they traded for him in 2023.
The Farmington Hills, MI native had 39 goals with Detroit last year, up from 27 with the team the previous year. As the Red Wings begin the new calendar year, he currently sits with 20 goals and 20 assists through 41 games. That’s his best points pace as a Red Wing, and he currently projects out to 40 goals and 40 assists through the end of the season.
While the start to his season was relatively slow, with no goals through the first eight games, DeBrincat has taken second in points over the past month and a half. And that’s been with a rotating supporting cast on the second line beside him.
Patrick Kane has only played in 26 games due to injury, and Marco Kasper, who started the season as the second line center, has been moved down to play wing with some of Detroit’s other young forwards.
DeBrincat has spent some time on ice with just about everyone on the roster’s middle six, including James van Riemsdyk, Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher, and Mason Appleton. DeBrincat has played on a line with some combination of half of the rosters' forwards at some point this season.
DeBrincat has quietly been one of the Red Wings' main pillars. While players like Moritz Seider have been getting more attention this season for their play and deservedly so, DeBrincat has been key to the team’s success this season.
Trend: Marco Kasper has turned the corner on his sophomore slump
Marco Kasper finally broke his points slump in late December, ending a near two-month-long drought where he did not positively affect the scoresheet. It was also his first assist in nearly eight months.
Regarding points productivity this year, Kasper has looked like he’s just not seeing the game in front of him. He hasn’t had more than four shots on goal in a single game this season and his underlying numbers are rough.
However, this past month on a line with Elmer Soderblom and Nate Danielson has seemed to help Kasper regain some of his form. Soderblom and Danielson also seem to be playing better with the young Austrian center.
They’ve combined for six points over the last month, which isn’t much. However, considering that only one of the group has more than that on the season as a whole, it’s a sign of things trending in the right direction.
Danielson in particular has been the most productive of the bunch with three of those six points, though he has been on a bit of a cold streak. Perhaps as a more definite sign that Kasper may have turned a corner, he replaced Emmitt Finnie on Detroit’s top line for the final two periods of their game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Red Wings veteran depth has been heating up over the last month. Maybe they’re letting Kasper and the rest of the Red Wings’ young players in on the magic.