DetroitRedWings.com’s Berenter breaks down the Wings’ forward lineup

With the Red Wings’ roster all but set for the 2021-2022 season, DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter has filed a report discussing the Wings’ “Reset” for this upcoming season, first focusing on the forward group:

The Red Wings have a bevy of players listed at center going into training camp, which gives the club flexibility to slot a handful of forwards into different wing positions while remaining strong up the middle.

Detroit’s No. 1 center is Dylan Larkin, who’s coming off his first season as Red Wings captain, in which he earned 23 points (9-14-23) in 44 games before suffering a season-ending neck injury on April 20.

The Wings’ captain avoided offseason surgery and is progressing with his rehab as he prepares to begin his seventh NHL campaign. Larkin celebrated his 25th birthday on July 30 and he’s on pace to be a full participant in training camp as he continues evolving into a complete, two-way player.

“The biggest key for Dylan is to be as great a two-way player as humanly possible,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “If your best players are those great two-way winning players, it starts to build towards being a winning hockey team. Dylan knows that. He’s worked extremely hard at it over the six years we’ve been together. His work ethic and compete level is second to none.”

Other returning centers include Robby Fabbri, Vladislav Namestnikov and Frans Nielsen, as well as re-signed centermen Sam Gagner and Michael Rasmussen, who agreed to new deals before free agency began in July.

Continued; as Berenter notes, the Wings don’t have many left wings or right wings currently signed, but with Adam Erne and Givani Smith sure to be re-signed before trading camp, the depth charts on PuckPedia and CapFriendly look solid, with Detroit having both the cap and roster space to invite a player or two to training camp on pro tryouts if they wish.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.