Rotoworld’s Ryan Dadoun offers 2020-2021 season previews for five Eastern Conference NHL teams this morning, and he discusses the Red Wings’ likely fate from a fantasy hockey perspective:
Detroit Red Wings
2019-20 Finish: 17-49-5 record, eighth in Atlantic Division
Noteworthy Gains: Vladislav Namestnikov, Thomas Greiss, Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal
Noteworthy Losses: None
Strengths: Well… Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Anthony Mantha are three fairly talented young forwards. While none of them have developed into stars, they’re all solid players and combine to be a worthwhile scoring line. There’s potential there for further development and maybe the trio will end up turning some heads this season.
Weaknesses: Almost everything else. It’s overly negative, especially because I do like the experimental additions they added over the summer. The Red Wings got some good veteran role players who should plug some holes nicely. At the same time, we’re talking about a team that was historically bad last season returning with a fairly similar roster. They ranked dead last in goals per game last season at 2 (the next worst was 2.53) and goals allowed per game at 3.73 (the next worst was 3.35). They had the third worst power-play and worst penalty kill. Will they do better this season? Yes, but that’s an extremely low bar.
Player to Watch: One potential silver lining for the team I didn’t really touch on is Thomas Greiss. He struggled mightily in 2017-18, but his other four seasons with the Islanders were fantastic. In fact, he’s put together a really solid career to date with a 2.63 GAA and .915 save percentage in 282 games. It’s going to be tough for him in Detroit given what’s in front of him, but he might be up to the challenge and provide a degree of stability for the team.
