It’s no secret that Marco Kasper’s second season hasn’t gone to plan. The Austrian center, going into his sophomore campaign, was expected to center a line with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat for the Detroit Red Wings. Or, potentially play top line minutes with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond as he had for much of last season after Todd McLellan became head coach of the Red Wings.
Instead, Kasper has seen his ice time steadily decrease and has been demoted to playing with the team’s third line on the wing with Elmer Soderblom and rookie Nate Danielson. Part of that has been how good Andrew Copp has been in the past month, with five points in his last five games.
At the moment, Kasper has five total points (3 goals, 2 assists) through 36 games and is owning a minus-13 rating going into the Christmas break.
The situation could be getting dire for Marco Kasper
He was also healthy scratched for the Red Wings' second game of a back-to-back home-and-home series with the Washington Capitals. Kasper recorded an assist in the previous game, and it was one of his stronger performances this season.
Coach Todd McLellan told reporters after the game it was part of a rotation to allow all the players to play in front of their moms during the Red Wings “Mother’s Weekend” celebration, as Jacob Bernard-Docker and John Gibson were also rotated out.
“...Did we ice our best lineup tonight? We did. We won the game. Some could argue it one way or the other, but that’s what we believe in, and that’s part of culture. So we had to tell Kasp. How do you pick who comes out? Everybody played well in Washington yesterday.”
Kasper’s been having a rough season by any metric, and at the moment is looking potentially being the odd man out in the rotation. The young forward hasn't recorded a goal since October, and only two assist in that period, both in December.
Veteran Mason Appleton returned to the lineup and John Leonard, who led the AHL in goal scoring before being called up by the Red Wings, has produced three points in four games with the main roster.
Right now, Kasper is struggling to find his footing in the NHL. I’ve written previously that the entire third line of Soderblom, Danielson, and Kasper could benefit from some time in the AHL to establish better chemistry and help them to hone their scoring touch in a more sheltered environment. Kasper is the most in need of it, and the most likely to be sent down to the Griffins, as one of the Red Wings' other young forwards did earlier this season.
Will that same Red Wings forward get another chance?
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard probably wasn’t too happy when he got demoted from the Red Wings main roster to join the Grand Rapids Griffins. While the rookie forward had, at the time, led the team in hits, through nine games in the NHL, he’d only recorded an assist.
Since then, the Norwegian winger has been putting in the work with the Griffins and has 18 points in his 22 games with the Red Wings AHL affiliate. The Griffins are an ideal environment for Brandsegg-Nygard to hone his skills this season. Brandsegg-Nygard was drafted for his boomer of a shot, and while he’s been starting to pick up his pace, he’s always been something of a streaky scorer and that’s continued in Grand Rapids.
He’s had four different stretches so far where he hasn’t directly found the net, including a five-game stretch from Dec. 7 to Dec. 17, though, he ended that with two goals in the next two games. During that most recent stretch, Brandsegg-Nygard didn’t even have an assist until the game before he broke his goal scoring drought on Dec. 19.
Right now the Griffins are dominating the AHL with a 25-1-1 record. Brandsegg-Nygard is getting top line minutes, and has four points (2 goals 2 assists) in his last three games. Bringing him up would put him in a role playing fewer minutes, with fewer opportunities to work out the inconsistencies in his game.
While the Red Wings could certainly use more of his willingness to finish checks and aggression, it’s hard to say whether or not NHL ice time would actually benefit him and his development. Playing against tougher competition could lead to regression like it has for Kasper, and that would mean sending him back down to Grand Rapids