Revisiting the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings

I've been thinking a lot about the 2019-20 Red Wings. It was a dark time in Red Wings history that saw them record the worst points percentage in Red Wings history and the worst since the Atlanta Thrashers in the 1999-00 season.

This also was a blessing in disguise, however. This season marked the first season of the general manager Steve Yzerman era and the start of a legitimate rebuild. Yzerman came in and announced that he planned on making the Detroit Red Wings into perennial Stanley Cup contenders once again.

When Yzerman became the general manager of the Red Wings, the roster was abysmal. We're talking about a second line consisting of Sam Ganger and Anthony Mantha being centered by a 35-year-old Valtteri Filppula far past his prime. As well as a top defense pair of 35-year-old Trevor Daley and Filip Hronek. All this led to them getting eliminated from playoff contention in mid-February.

What's even worse is that at one point in the season, the top six of the team also included Taro Hirose. Also, Jacob De La Rose was still on the team. Half the time the net was occupied by the duct-taped and super-glued together body of Jimmy Howard. The only "bright spots" of the season were Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels's commentary and Jonathan Bernier in net.

How can a pro hockey team be as bad as the Detroit Red Wings were in 2019-20?

The simple answer to why the 2019-2020 Red Wings were so bad is they're rebuilding or it was the year they tore it all down. While that is the primary reason, most teams have to work to be as bad as the Red Wings were. Even the 2023-24 San Jose Sharks had nearly 10 more points than that team and they were running what was essentially an American Hockey League (AHL) team playing all season.

While this was a product of a full-team teardown, it likely never would've been as bad if it wasn't for the botched first round drafting of Ken Holland years before. In fact, With Filip Zadina recently signing in the Swiss league earlier this month, only three of Ken Holland's last six first round draft picks with the Red Wings are still in the NHL. Not only that, his decision to keep the Red Wings playoff streak alive for as long as possible cost the team valuable draft capital and potentially higher-quality talent.

With that being said, the 2019-20 Red Wings had a lot of reasons to be bad. They lacked consistent top tier talent and at this point, the top-three point producers were Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Anthony Mantha, none of them reached 30 goals and Bertuzzi reached 20 goals that season.

Goaltending was an issue as well. Jimmy Howard was well past his prime and it showed, big time. That left Bernier to take most of the starts. While he did his best, he could only do so much behind a defensive core that atrocious.

The team also didn't have the world's best coach. He may have been able to get something out of the Grand Rapids Griffins while he was there, as an NHL head coach, Jeff Blashill sort of floundered. Sporadic line combos, horrible defensive pairs, and his apparent love for going with an 11-7 lineup. While you can attribute some of that to the lack of talent, it was pretty obvious that he was still coaching like an AHL coach.

At the very least, if Ken and Mick couldn't cheer you up or Jonathan Bernier putting on a clinic in net when called upon, you could always turn to Red Wing Twitter for a good laugh or a quick smile.