With the Detroit Red Wings exiting this year’s playoffs in the 2nd round to the Chicago Blackhawks, and so many questions and opinions as to what needs to happen with this team during the offseason and into the future, I've decided to talk about the past season, and the state of the team as a whole.
First of all, I would like to just point out that I believe the Red Wings had a very good season. There was a lot of growing that took place, and I believe there are many reasons you should be hopeful about this team’s future. However, there are more reasons than meets the eye.
This season was one of change. With Nick Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom retiring, and the loss of Brad Stuart and Jiri Hudler to free agency, this team lost a combined 53 goals, a +38 rating, and years of leadership that include 10 Stanley Cups and our captain who just happened to arguably be the best defenseman of all time. Okay, Brad Stuart was technically a trade, but he would've been gone had we not traded him anyway. How then was it possible not only for this team to make the playoffs, but then push the President’s Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks to overtime in a game 7 in the second round of the playoffs? Well, there are a number of answers to that question, and no one of those answers is the lone correct answer. There are many factors that are in play here.
Whether you credit this team’s work ethic, superior coaching, or our goaltending, you will be correct in crediting a factor that made us successful. However, I believe the biggest reason we were able to be successful in the playoffs is due to the fact that this team has done a phenomenal job in the draft, especially since the 2004-2005 lockout. We are just now seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of these picks. Look at players on the team this year that were either drafted or picked up as an undrafted free agent:
Goaltenders:
Jimmy Howard: 2nd round 2003
Petr Mrazek: 5th round 2010 (He only played in two games, but he played well and has shown a lot of promise)
Defenseman:
Niklas Kronwall: 1st round 2000
Danny Dekeyser: Undrafted free agent
Kyle Quincy: 4th round 2003
Brian Lashoff: Undrafted free agent
Brendan Smith: 1st round 2007
Jonathan Ericsson: 9th round 2002
Jakub Kindl: 1st round 2005
Forwards:
Pavel Datsyuk: 6th round 1998
Henrik Zetterberg: 7th round 1999
Johan Franzen: 3rd round 2004
Damien Brunner: Undrafted free agent
Valtteri Filppula: 3rd round 2002
Justin Abdelkader: 2nd round 2005
Cory Emmerton: 2nd round 2006
Joakim Andersson: 3rd round 2007
Tomas Tatar: 2nd round 2009
Gustav Nyquist: 4th round 2008
If you throw in Darren Helm 5th round 2005 who only played in one game this season due to injuries, Jan Mursak 6th round 2006 who only played in two games this year for the Wings, and spent the rest of his time in Grand Rapids, and Riley Sheahan 1st round 2010 who like Mursak only played one game for the Wings this year before spending the rest of his time in Grand Rapids, it’s easy to see how much homegrown talent this team has. It is going to keep coming too. The minor leagues are stacked for this team. In fact, our AHL affiliate team where we keep a lot of our prospects is currently up 2 games to 0 in the Calder Cup Finals. The Calder Cup is the equivalent to the Stanley Cup for that league, so it's a pretty big deal.
Keeping homegrown talent like this is what Ken Holland has come up with in order to stay consistently competitive in this league. Young talent usually provides teams with the most bang for their buck, because they are unproven and playing on cheap entry level contracts. However it can be risky since they are unproven. That’s why the Wings have started to stockpile some draft picks. With more “spins at the wheel” during the draft, the better chance we have to find serviceable youngsters that can grow into big time players down the line.
As I said earlier, we are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the successful drafts this team has had over the past 8-10 years.
For instance, a complaint I heard a lot this year was that the team needed to be better defensively. Frankly, I can’t stand it when people say that. I mean sure, who wouldn’t like to get better defensively? I would think every team would like to give up fewer goals. However, in the Wings case, they were the 5th best defensive team in the regular season when it comes to goals against/game with 2.29 goals against/game. Contrast that with the fact the team was 20th in the league with 2.54 goals for/game, I think it’s easy to see where our bigger area of need is. We need goal scorers.
I understand that when we lose a Hall of Fame caliber defenseman like Lidstrom, people will immediately jump to the conclusion that the defense can’t possibly be as good anymore, and they might be right. However we had some players step up big time this year. Jonathan Ericsson, Brendan Smith, Danny Dekeyser, and especially in my opinion Jakub Kindl are just a few examples.
I just want everyone to know that the defense is fine. Should they add one during free agency this summer? Maybe, but it would only be for experience and leadership purposes. It would be hard to do without a trade though. Here’s why I’m so confident about our defense: We have a lot of young talented defenseman both in the NHL and in our prospect pool. For instance, last year Danny Dekeyser was the CCHA Defenseman of the Year, Nick Jensen (one of our prospects) was the WCHA Defenseman of the Year, and Ryan Sproul (another one of our prospects) was the OHL and CHL Defenseman of the Year. Those are some impressive awards we have for defenseman in our system. I’m especially impressed with Ryan Sproul. He has a cannon for a shot, and he put up monster point totals from the blue line this year. A few players who have recently won the CHL Defenseman of the Year include Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Ellis, Keith Yandle, Dan Hamhuis, and even Brad Stuart. Toss into the mix that players like Marc Staal, Jake Muzzin, and Drew Doughty won the OHL Defenseman of the Year recently, and it’s easy to see that Sproul has a bright future in front of him. He will be playing in Grand Rapids full time next year.
That’s not the end of the line when it comes to our defense prospects, however I’ll touch on the prospects more in a future post. For now, I’ll leave with the statement that the Wings had a great season, and there is a lot of hope for the future especially on our blue line.
QUESTION: With the new collective bargaining agreement and to combat the decrease in salary cap, each team is allowed to buyout two players over the course of the next two summers (2013 and 2014) so their contracts will not count against the salary cap. However, if we buy out a player, they cannot resign with us for an entire year, and they will likely be picked up by another team by that time. Is there anyone on this team you would like to see bought out? And why?
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