Coming off a breakout season in which Detroit Red Wings forward Marco Kasper finished tenth in Calder Trophy voting, the follow-up act has not gone as planned. The 21-year-old has largely struggled for most of the 2025-26 campaign, having posted only three goals through 23 games played.
Playing down the middle on a line to open the season, with Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, whom he finished his Freshman year with, expectations were high that the Austrian could carve out a role as the Red Wings number two center, behind Captain Dylan Larkin.
Last season, Kasper posted 19 goals and 18 assists, with the majority of those points coming after the Red Wings made a change behind the bench, bringing in now head coach Todd McLellan.
In the 48 games after McLellan took over, Kasper recorded 30 of his 37 points, gelling with DeBrincat and Kane, while asserting himself in all situations, including power play, penalty kill and 3-on-3 overtime.
The strong play really showed over Kasper’s final four games, where he accumulated five points, including two goals in Tampa Bay, where Kasper tied the game late in the third period and gave the Wings the two points with a breakaway goal in Overtime, beating Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The first goal of the season came in game number two during a 6-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs, where the Kasper-Kane-DeBrincat connection showed, but it really slowed down after that. Eight games went by before Kasper found the back of the net again, scoring two goals on Oct. 30, against the Los Angeles Kings in a 4-3 shootout victory. That’s been all for the Austrian to this point in 2025.
Currently mired in a 12-game point drought and being shuffled up and down the lineup, the frustration appeared to reach its boiling point last Thursday against the New York Islanders, as Kasper and Islanders defenseman got into a fight with under two minutes to play in the Wings eventual 5-0 loss.
Speaking to the media post-game at Little Caesars Arena after that loss, McLellan brought up confidence or lack thereof when watching his second year forward, “I think it’s obvious, it’s not where it needs to be,” said McLellan. “It’s difficult when you’ve entered the league and a lot of good things have happened for you, and then you come back and all that momentum goes away.”
The chance to get back on track
The Nashville Predators are coming to Detroit for the Red Wings annual Thanksgiving eve home game and this could be exactly what the young forward needs. The Predators sit last in the National Hockey League standings, as the season reaches its quarter mark, with a record of 6-12-4. Losers of their past three games, where the team has given up 15 goals, Kasper has a chance to break out of this funk.
Ansar Khan of MLive.com was at the Wings morning skate today and is reporting that Kasper was bumped back up to the second line, to centre DeBrincat and Kane, as J.T Compher was not skating due to flu symptoms.
If Compher, who is being listed as a game-time decision is unable to go, Kasper appears to be in line to get a shot with his former linemates of last season, to help restore the hope he gave Wings fans when the former eighth overall draft selection in 2022 was starting to assert himself as a force in the league.