Team: 2022-23 Detroit Red Wings

Initial Creation Date: Oct. 13, 2022

Published: Oct. 13, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The forwards:
The 1st line, 59-71-23 was an elite line the first half of last season, but as Raymond started to drop off, so did the lines play. Still, it ended up with just over 50% xG% which matched Guentzel - Crosby - Rust and was better than Tkachuck - Norris - Batherson, and a 2.82 xGF/60 which puts them just ahead of the Wild's first line. Overall, it was a little bit shaky defensively, but in pretty good company when it comes to the offensive numbers, which should improve if Larkin and Bertuzzi can keep this up, as we all know Raymond is just gonna keep getting better.

This year, two second line should automatically be a whole lot better, a lot of which has to do with the upgrade at 2C, Andrew Copp. Now, no one should be expecting him to return to last seasons form; 8 goals and 18 points in 16 games is not really where he's at as a player, and that showed with how he dipped in the playoffs when Panarin was struggling, but, I also don't think that's why Yzerman signed him. While he has shown he can score at a ~20 goal, and a 50-60 point pace, his offense is far from his greatest strength. He's what experts refer to as a 'Swiss army knife', he can do a bit of everything and play up and down the lineup. He's great defensively, solid offensively, plays the powerplay and penalty kill, can shut teams down and is never a liability offensively, and can be relied upon in the last few minutes of a game, no matter if his team is chasing a tie or holding on to a lead. He plays left wing, right, wing, center, if he was a Leaf he'd probably be playing defense. While he isn't a permanent 2C solution, he's good enough to where he'll be decent for the next year or two, while we're waiting for either Marco Kasper or a trade/signing, and after that will be able to play just about anywhere in the lineup. Ok, enough on Copp, the other two linemates are just about as interesting. Perron was another addition this offseason, and a good one at that. He's been roughly a point per game player since he turned 30, and if anything is just getting better with age. He was very good for the Blues in their cup run, but was even better last postseason, putting up 9 goals and 13 points in 12 games, and he's someone you can rely on to produce on the 2nd line. Vrana is maybe the most interesting player on the team, 21 goals in 37 games since being traded here for Anthony Mantha (brilliant trade btw), he's someone who I'd love to see play a full season. He has the potential to put up 35-40 goals, maybe even more than that, or he might regress, since despite being brilliant in his last two seasons, he's only played 37 games. This means the 2nd line is almost brand new. It might take some time for them to gain chemistry, but I have a lot of hope.

The 3rd line is actually pretty good too. Looks like Joe Veleno will take the 3C slot, with Kubalik and Zadina on the wings. Veleno is a really interesting case, he looked like a steal at 30th after putting up 104 pts in the QMJHL, which was just a point behind Lafreniere, and despite a less than perfect rookie season, he still has potential to grow. I think he can be a solid 3C, but eventually that spot should be taken by Marco Kasper, unless he jumps directly into the top 6, with Copp shifting to the wing. Kubalik is interesting too, having put up 30 goals in his rookie season, he regressed insanely fast. We'll see what he can do on the Wings, the hope is he can regain some of that offense, or at least be a solution on PP2. I have hope he'll be able to put up around 20 goals, but we have enough wingers, both on the team and in the pipeline, to where him failing is pretty inconsequential to our playoff hopes. It'd be nice if he could score, but if he doesn't it's fine. It would be nice, however, if Zadina could live up to the hype he had when he was drafted. He's had flashes of brilliance, but he hasn't been able to put the puck in the net so far. If he does break out, he'll either be a solid top 9 option for us for the next few years, or a good piece for the deadline, to help bolster or d-core.

There isn't much to say about the 4th line, it's pretty solid I think. I love Söderblom, I like the idea of a tree that can either dangle someone out of their skates or just go through them, and it would be nice if he could just stand in front of the net on either PP1 or PP2 doing his best Thomas Holmström impression. Rasmussen and Sundqvist are pretty uninteresting, Rasmussen could have more to give, Sundqvist is decent, if expensive, depth not much more to say.


The defense:
I like the idea of a Chiarot-Seider pair. Seider, of course, is amazing, soon enough he should be a perennial Norris.contender. Chiarot is interesting, if he can play in more of a stay-at-home role, and not be a liability offensively, he could be good, but there's no guarantees with him. Still, he should be an upgrade from DeKeyser. Määttä is underrated in my opinion. A solid shutdown dman to play alongside a more offensively minded Hronek. It could be an alright pair, if Hronek can stay around 40 points and Määttä can be decent. It would have been nice to have Edvinsson though on the 3rd pair, but I think placing him in GR with Johansson was the right call. If either, or both, of them play to their potential, this d-core could be nasty. Just imagine a top 4 consisting of Seider, Chiarot, Edvinsson, and Johansson, sounds good right? We're pretty far from that at this point, but the future looks very bright. The present though, I'm not sure. At the moment, with injuries, the 3 options for the 3rd pairing are Lindström, whos good, Oesterle, whos more of a 7th/8th d, and Hägg, who was signed as a last minute emergency 7D. The only thing we can do now is pray that either Edvinsson can be called up soon, or Walman isn't injured for long.

The goaltending:
Nedeljkovic is better than how he played last year, but then again I could play better than that. Nevertheless, he should be able to bounce back, at least a little bit. The big question though is whether Husso is real. If he can play like he did in St Louis, we have our new starter. If not... well let's hope Cossa is good. I have a lot of hope though, Husso should be excellent, which would make our goaltending excellent.