The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
It wasn’t a lucky win, either, the guys earned it against one of the powerhouse teams in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Say what you will about the rebuild for the Detroit Red Wings going off the rails, the lineup not being up to snuff, or the coach having his hands tied behind his back. The Detroit Red Wings can play hockey and keep up with the big boys. To me, there isn’t room for excuses at this point for the team to not pull themselves out of their lingering depressive state.
While I understand it’s one win, it’s the one that I’ve been waiting for—showing that they aren’t shadows of last season. We still have most of the core pieces. During the offseason, there may have been players who departed, but there’s no reason the Detroit Red Wings cannot duplicate what they did against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Detroit Red Wings won in convincing fashion against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but something is even cooler
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the ending to the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs? Specifically, the Detroit Red Wings players on the ice have less than a minute to go in the game with a 3-2 lead.
Those players:
Dylan Larkin (duh!)
J.T. Compher (sure, why not?)
Moritz Seider (obviously)
Simon Edvinsson (who would’ve thought?)
Lucas Raymond (all grown up)
Three out of the four players were Steve Yzerman’s first-round draft picks.
Say what you will about a failing Yzerplan or the fact that the Detroit Red Wings don’t have a superstar prospect. The fact that all three (2019, 2020, 2021) first-round draft picks are already in the NHL, making a positive impact on the team to the point that our coach (for whatever his opinion is worth) chooses them against one of best (if not best on paper) teams is neat.
Say what you will about prospects in the first round who are supposed to pan out, especially in the first round, no draft pick is guaranteed to play an NHL game, let alone have impacts on their teams this quickly. Granted, maybe this situation speaks volumes about their veteran players (only two on the ice, but I guess Seider and Raymond could be considered veterans, albeit loosely, at this point).
The success of these young players is all the more impressive that they aren’t highly touted. They’re not considered superstar-tier players. None were chosen above fourth overall (Raymond was selected fourth overall, while Edvinsson and Seider shared the sixth overall destiny selection).
There was Filip Zadina in 2018 who has gone on to greener pastures (or dare I say draw-dropping, breath-taking, jealousy-inducing mountains covered in magical snow in Switzerland). However, please remember that he was picked before Yzerman’s return to the Detroit Red Wings.
The fact that we have Jonatan Berggren, Joseph Veleno, and Michael Rasmussen still playing games for the Detroit Red Wings is impressive as well.
I hear the negative wet pool noodles now, and maybe they don’t meet your expectations of success. However, they are still playing games in the NHL, which is more than can be said about you and 99.9999% of the population, so I think that’s a win for the Detroit Red Wings amateur scouting department (even if it was the previous regime).
For all the things people complain about with Yzerman, his first-round draft picks (and even beyond the first round) are making an impact on the organization.
Hopelessly dreaming about Lucas Raymond and Team Sweden at the Four Nations Face-Off
As the calendar rolls closer to February, the anticipation is building high. To think about watching Raymond (and yes, Larkin, too!) playing with some of the best players in the world will be something special.
In the meantime, I let my thoughts race, so I figured I would share those racing thoughts with readers (as dumb as these thoughts might be to some people).
I continuously hear observers (both within the organization and onlookers—myself included at times) that the Detroit Red Wings don’t have a superstar in the making.
The guys like Raymond and Seider are pieces to the puzzle that is a solid foundation, but nothing more than really good players.
While I can agree that the Detroit Red Wings don’t possess a superstar-level player, yet, I can’t help but think Raymond may become one. Although he might not ever reach the points, respect, or admiration of the Connor McDavids, Auston Matthews, or Kirill Kaprizovs of the world, he still has the potential to reach the superstar tier.
The way that Raymond absorbs the characteristics of players around him astounds me. He’s already had the chance to learn from Larkin, Bobby Ryan, David Perron, and is going to be among the best of the Swedish forwards, including William Nylander, Elias Pettersson, Filip Forsberg, and Mika Zibanejad. Even if the young Detroit Red Wings star doesn’t play on a line with any of them, just watching and learning is good enough for Raymond.
He likely won’t factor high into the lineup (at least to start the games off, and considering it’s only a small number of games, he might not move much within the lineup). Still, it’s a great experience that will push him to be an even better player than I originally thought (and possibly others might fall into this line of thinking as well).
Already, Raymond plays in all situations and is the catalyst who is moved around to help jumpstart a line that’s struggling. Raymond is kind of like head coach Derek Lalonde’s Swiss army knife or a five-tool player in hockey like Brad Krysko of the Winged Wheel Podcast has preached. He can do everything so well, so it’s kind of like a jack-of-all-trades master of most.
According to Money Puck, Raymond is third on the team with an 8.1 expected goals, leads the team in primary assists with 10, drawn the second most penalties with 22, leads the time in goals above expected with 3.9, is second on the team in shooting percentage at 19% (with shot attempts per 60 at 14.12) in all situations.
I still question if he might shift to center someday, but even if he doesn’t, he will continue to make an impact as a winger. Additionally, the Detroit Red Wings already have Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, and even other prospects like Liam and Noah Dower-Nilsson who all play center.