EP Rinkside’s Dmitri Filipovic breaks down the DeBrincat trade from an analytical perspective:
When we wrote up our main takeaways from July 1st’s spending spree recently, I was rather critical of how the Red Wings were going about their business. For the second straight summer, they were aggressively dipping into the free agent market and investing legitimate resources in players that didn’t really make sense for their purposes.
It wasn’t even a critique of the players themselves in isolation, it was purely a question about the awkwardness of how they fit within big-picture plans. Detroit isn’t nearly good enough right now, nor are they close enough to seriously competing in the immediate future to justify that sort of team building approach. Tying up money years down the road on players who already aren’t legitimate difference-makers into their late 20s and early 30s is an easy way to limit your upside for growth as an organization, and to make sure that you’re stuck in the purgatory that is the mushy middle in the NHL.
DeBrincat is an entirely different story however. Even when applying the context of where the Red Wings are currently at as an organization, it’s still nearly impossible not to like this deal from their perspective. He turns just 26 a couple of months into the season, and they now have him for his 26, 27, 28, and 29-year-old campaigns. They essentially managed to get him for the remainder of his most productive seasons, without having to pay for any of the stuff at the back end that you’d typically pinch your nose about and attempt to justify as the price of doing business.
Not only is he a really good player, but he’s also conveniently one who possesses the type of the skill that the Red Wings are desperate for in the worst way. To put it bluntly, their offence last year was awful.
At 5-on-5 Detroit finished 28th in scoring, 31st in high danger chances generated, and had this monstrosity of a shot chart.
The area where he’ll help provide a much needed shot in the arm most specifically is off of the rush. Regularly creating quality looks in today’s game has become largely dependant on your ability to attack in transition, so it’s no surprise that a team like the Red Wings struggled so mightily offensively in 2022-2023.
Continued (paywall)
