Tyler Motte is... a guy. But boy was he one hell of a guy. He was brought in to be a steady defensive presence in the bottom six, and that's exactly what he was.
There's honestly not much to say about Motte. He came here in free agency after a 69-game stint with Tampa Bay, where he totaled nine points on their fourth line. Signing a one-year deal with Detroit for $800k, he was brought in to do exactly what he did. Center the fourth line and be an absolute pain to play against. Motte did end up missing 10 games early in the season and 27 games all season due to various circumstances. A hole that was easily filled by various players in the organization.
However, Motte brought something that was lacking in the bottom six. No, it wasn't goal scoring. The Detroit Red Wings' bottom six isn't allowed to have that anymore. Motte brought a sense of energy that was lacking among the likes of Andrew Copp, Michael Rasmussen, and Vladimir Tarasenko.
He was an absolute puck hound every game. There wasn't a shift where he wasn't working as hard as possible to get the puck, whether it be along the boards or during the penalty kill. There isn't much to say about Motte honestly.
Tyler Motte is what he is, and that is, a guy
Overall Grade: A+ - Motte is a journeyman player. He's played on seven different teams in his nine NHL seasons. It's not a surprise that he ended up in Detroit, seeing as one of the team's biggest issues last season was overall team defense.
The problem this season was also the overall team defense. Not only that, Motte was regularly on the fourth line, a line that was usually stuck in their own zone more than the top two lines, but surprisingly less than the third line.
Bottom line is that Motte will always have a place in the NHL, no matter how many points he has during any given season. I wouldn't be opposed to him coming back, but that would cost a spot for a prospect who could do the same thing he does. A prospect like Carter Mazur could easily come in and do the same thing Motte did, but while providing a bit more scoring.
He was, in fact, a guy.