Alex DeBrincat signed a seven-year extension at $13 million a year this week. and I have no argument with it. He is 28, he scored 41 goals and 85 points last season and the deal runs through 2033-34, his age-35 season. It was the one piece of good news in a month full of depressing headlines.
The Detroit Red Wings are 2-3-2 and sit 26th in the league. This might be the most pivotal point they've reached over their last decade; they need to decide what the tone and culture are going to be going forward before they slide back into the motions that have doomed them the past few seasons.
To me, the answer is simple: give the room to the kids.
The same slow starts, year after year
Look at how this team still starts games. Slow first periods and no pace, then a push in the second that runs out of time in the third. I have been saying some version of this for three seasons running. Tyler on the Grind Line Podcast said that it feels like there's a loser mentality in that room; I agree with him.
I think a group that spent years losing got comfortable with it, expected it to happen and never fully shook it. Todd McLellan even said it himself when speaking about the March collapses: everybody in the building, most of all the locker room, “was waiting for it to happen.”
Then there's the former captain who asked for a trade and still walks into that room every day. It has to feel awkward for everybody, and it's hard for much to change when the problems of the past continue to hang around.
Clear out the locker room
Now it's time for part that gets me fired up: the leftovers from the middle of the rebuild took up the majority of minutes last season and gave almost nothing back.
J.T. Compher played all 82 games, averaged 15:40 a night and finished with 11 goals, 28 points. He was the cardio champ of the season, rarely participating in much of anything. Defenseman Ben Chiarot also played all 82 and averaged 20:50, the kind of minutes typically handed to a top-four defenseman. He scored five goals and and finished the season with 15 points, looking like the Ben Chiarot fans came to loathe for his poor defensive play and boneheaded penalties.
Michael Rasmussen played 12:39 a night over 64 games for 14 points and refused to use his size to his advantage. Mason Appleton's production came in the first half of the season before he became just another jersey.
Those four guys, whom the team relied on to provide depth scoring as veterans, combined for a depressing 71 points.
The Hockey Writers graded Compher a C- and Rasmussen and Chiarot each a D. Chiarot was given the 10th-worst net rating among defensemen in the league. Copp is a different case, since he is a defensively minded 2-way center. But he has just one goal and only one assist through six games so far, and his deal expires after this season.
Yzerman reportedly tried to move Copp and Compher over the summer and found no deal, so it's best if fans stop waiting on a trade. Cut their minutes, play the kids and make the veterans earn their way back in. If a team calls with an offer, take it.
The players who bring it every night
The best hockey so far this season has come from some of the youngest players, and the effort gap is pretty easy to see.
DeBrincat has eight points in his first seven games and he plays at full speed from the opening shift. He's under 30, so I will give him the young tag -- at least for now. Emmitt Finnie continues to prove himself at center with an excellent set of wheels, non-stop motor and a deceptively good shot. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard crashes the net, has finally scored off his bomb and continues to show an evolving hockey IQ. Those three give 150 percent every night, which is why I'd keep them together and shift them to the top line.
Moritz Seider has done everything you want from him as one of the best defensemen in the league: pucks on net, pucks out of the zone and rushes shut down before they start. Axel Sandin-Pellikka has begun to show the smart, puck-moving game we keep asking for, though the consistency could use some work. Anton Johansson earned his roster spot in preseason and continued his development through the first few weeks, scoring his first game of the season in Thursday's bout against the Flyers. Lucas Raymond has not scored the way I expect him to, and I think he is still hesitant to shoot, but he has shown that the star potential is there.
When you start to break it down, you notice the guys who move the team forward are the under-30s. The players you hope to build the future of this team around. The last step is letting them build the locker room they want to play in.
It's time to pass the torch
Nobody should expect much this season, which is just another case for trusting the kids. Losing with Finnie, MBN, Sandin-Pellikka and Johansson in big roles teaches them something. Losing with the veterans who built the current mess teaches them that all that matters is seniority, even if it costs games.
Give the kids the keys and let them build the culture they want.
I'd rather watch that than another post-game presser full of excuses.
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