The Score’s Sean O’Leary posted a set of Calder Trophy power rankings today, and his listing of Trevor Zegras ahead of Moritz Seider or Lucas Raymond is a reminder that Zegras’ “wow” pass, combined with his advanced metrics, has a hype train rolling that the Red Wings’ dynamic rookie duo (and Alex Nedeljkovic) have to keep pace with going forward:
3. Moritz Seider, Red Wings: Seider continues to log huge minutes and put up points, but his underlying numbers took a massive hit over the past month with a miserable 38.38% expected goals rate across 11 games. The rearguard managed a 54.86% actual goals clip in that same span to minimize the damage, but Seider will have to pump his numbers back up if he wants to take home some hardware at season’s end.
All that said, it’s typical for young defensemen to endure highs and lows while figuring out the league. Seider still ranks third in rookie scoring this season and possesses all the tools to become Detroit’s No. 1 blue-line option for years to come.
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2. Lucas Raymond, Red Wings: For the first time this year, Raymond‘s fallen off the top of the podium. The Detroit dynamo still leads all rookies in scoring, but his points-per-game clip dropped last month. He’s also seen his underlying statistics drastically plummet as well.
Since our last installment, Raymond managed only one goal and fired just 14 shots on net. He may have hit a rookie wall, but it still wasn’t an easy decision to drop him a spot. He’s neck-and-neck with our top candidate in many statistics this season, and he’s by no means out of the Calder race.
Continued; there’s no doubt that Raymond has a wall to break through right now, but I expect him to do so over the next 5-10 games. He’s learned fast, and he’s going to learn to adapt to being “double covered.”
As for Seider, his lateral mobility, edge work and backwards skating are just sublime, and I think they’re separating him from the pack in terms of his ability to shift and pivot to make plays happen.
