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The Detroit Red Wings have faced some tough times since their 25-year playoff streak came to an end in 2017.
Naturally, they've struggled to be competitive while rebuilding and have now missed the playoffs in five straight seasons. However, with some key, young talent making the jump to the NHL, for the first time in a while, the Red Wings have something to be excited about in their on-ice product.
Detroit has gotten off to a promising start to the season and hold a 15-13-3 record heading into the Holiday Break. While it'll be a huge challenge for them to make the playoffs this season based on their competition within the Atlantic Division, as well as the Eastern Conference overall, the team's young stars look poised to lead the team to future success.
Lucas Raymond, Detroit's fourth-overall pick in last year's NHL draft, is a Calder Trophy frontrunner. He's scored 10 goals and 28 points in 31 games so far, a pace of 26 goals and 74 points per 82 games. If he can maintain that pace, he would post better numbers than Patrick Kane and Nathan MacKinnon in their respective rookie seasons. At just 19 years old, the Swedish winger will undoubtedly be a top forward with the team for a very long time and judging by what he's been able to accomplish in just the first part of his rookie season, he's certainly a player the team can build around.
Perhaps one of Raymond's biggest competitors for the Calder Trophy is his own teammate, 20-year-old defenseman Moritz Seider. When Seider was taken sixth overall in 2019, it came as a shock to a lot of people who didn't even consider him to be a top-10 player in the draft. Jump ahead two and a half years though and he's already proving doubters wrong. Often with a young defender, there's a learning curve upon entering the league and it could take a few years for them to fully round out their game. Seider has bypassed that curve though and is already playing a huge role on the Red Wings' blue line. The defenseman is logging well over 22 minutes per game and has 21 points in 31 games so far this year.
The Red Wings also solidified their goaltending situation in the offseason, acquiring 25-year-old Alex Nedeljkovic from the Carolina Hurricanes. A finalist for the Calder Trophy last year, Nedeljkovic hasn't missed a step since joining the Red Wings, posting a .916 save percentage through 21 games. In comparison, veteran Thomas Greiss holds just an .893 save percentage through 14 games with Detroit this year. Nedeljkovic is likely to be the team's starter for a long time to come and with 2021 15th overall pick Sebastian Cossa in the system as well, the Red Wings should be set in goal for a very long time.
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It's certainly not just a case of a few young stars mixed in with an aging group either. Looking at the Red Wings' roster, the majority of the core group is made up of players in their early to mid-20s. Captain Dylan Larkin, 25, has an impressive 15 goals and 29 points in 27 games, while Tyler Bertuzzi is 26 years old and has produced near point-per-game numbers himself. Jakub Vrana, who was acquired as part of the Red Wings' huge return in the Anthony Mantha trade in April, was also scoring at a point-per-game pace after joining the Red Wings last season. The former 13th overall pick is still just 25 years old and will be capable of putting up 60 points per year once he's healthy. On the blue line, Filip Hronek is also still just 24 years old and we can expect that he and Seider will make up the right side of the top-four group for the foreseeable future.
The list goes on, as former top-10 picks Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen continue to improve and Robby Fabbri (who just signed a three-year contract extension) is in the mix as well. You can include the likes of Pius Suter and Joe Veleno as players who could be around for a long time too, while 2021 sixth-overall pick Simon Edvinsson is likely to be a key member of the defense group in the near future as well.
There will be some important contract decisions to make in the near future, as Larkin, Bertuzzi and Nedeljkovic will all become unrestricted free agents in roughly 18 months. That said, Steve Yzerman has proven to be one of the league's savviest general managers when it comes to managing the salary cap and there's certainly no reason to think he won't be able to keep the Red Wings' core group together for a long time.
The point is, the Red Wings sit ninth in the Eastern Conference in points percentage this season, while the likes of Raymond, Seider and others are still just scratching the surface of their potential. Detroit is already pushing to be a playoff team, the question is just how soon they'll get there.
With such a talented, young roster, the team is finally starting to compete again. While the Red Wings may still be a little ways off from truly contending, we're likely on the verge of another playoff streak all over again.
