Up next in the midseason report card series is a Detroit Red Wings forward who has been pretty solid for them lately. He's really turned things on with his performance, and it's been good to see him start to tap into more offense with the Red Wings.
Andrew Copp had a great month in January and has been able to step up for the Detroit Red Wings. He's next to be graded out on the midseason report cards as we continue going through the Red Wings players during the All-Star break.
It seems like a disclaimer is warranted. I want to go ahead and note that in January, I put together a piece for the site about how Copp needed to start improving his performance because his contract has not lived up to the hype I was hoping that it would.
Apparently, Copp's an avid reader of the site and decided to kick things into gear. I'm kidding, of course; that's purely satirical. But seeing him start tapping the well of points after that article had gone live was comical. So, I've got to eat my words there, and it's warranted with how well Copp had been playing.
Detroit Red Wings forward Andrew Copp has kicked it into gear.
When the Red Wings went out and signed Copp before the 2022-23 season, they were banking on him being able to recreate the success he had that year. Last year, he debuted for Detroit, and things did not exactly go as planned, with Copp struggling.
In 2023-24, Copp had to come out and get back on track with his performance. He has played in 49 games on the campaign, with ten goals and 14 assists for 24 total points. In January, Copp had seven points over 12 games with five goals and two assists to his credit.
It seemed he doubled his goal count last month and was starting to find a groove. He's still a bit low on points and is only on pace for a performance similar to last year, a tick below, statistically speaking. That also implies he plays in all the remaining games on the schedule.
Detroit has plugged in Copp across various roles, and in January, he started to tap into the scoring touch with his five goals, but all-around, he has played pretty solid as of late. It's worth noting, especially when looking ahead to the second half.
I want to give Copp a better grade, but I remain a bit skeptical about how things will work out in the long run. But specifically, the inconsistency in performance was a bit worrisome. He struggled through the first half until he turned things on in January; if not, Copp would have just five goals and 12 assists for 17 points on the season.
Something has to improve for me to want to bump that grade higher. He's been good and been an asset defensively, but Copp's hot month is not enough for me to want to hand out an "A" on his midseason report card.
Copp's got a chance to get things going again in the second half, but that awaits to be seen. For now, he gets a "B-" and a chance to rest up ahead of the 32-game sprint that remains.