In the fantasy hockey department, DobberHockey’s Michael Clifford discusses Lucas Raymond’s usage by the Red Wings as Alex DeBrincat joins the fold, and, well, Clifford doesn’t believe that Raymond’s successful rookie season was the product of his own hard work:
Lucas Raymond: Anyone that reads my Ramblings knows that I’m not a big fan of Raymond and think he may be a bit overvalued. Of course, he’s still a young player, but he’ll turn 22 years old during the season and will crest 200 career games after Christmas (if he stays healthy). It would be nice to see him start showing signs of pushing the play rather than just relying on Dylan Larkin to feed him in a shooting position.
With that said, Raymond’s share of Detroit’s PPTOI rose as the season went on, hovering around 50% before pushing closer to 60%. The team tried a lot of different combinations as they were holding onto faint playoff hopes, but Tyler Bertuzzi moving on helped in this regard.
Competition is obviously an issue here. Alex DeBrincat is now in the fold, Larkin isn’t going anywhere, and it’s hard to see them leaving David Perron off that top quintet. Robby Fabbri was earning heavy PP ice time in certain stretches, J.T. Compher showed some man advantage prowess on an injured Colorado roster, and there are a handful of young guys that’ll push the veterans. That is not great for Raymond but if he can take that step forward, it’ll be hard to deny him that top PP role. He’s flirted with 20 PPPs in his brief career, and seems poised to finally get there in 2023-24. He will have to earn it, though, given the replacements that are waiting. Detroit may even run two even-ish PP units for large chunks of the season.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and the expression thereof.
I would like to believe that Raymond can be more than a simple sniper who chips in passes fed toward him on a tee, and I don’t believe that the Red Wings’ youngsters will replace Raymond on the power play, but we are free to disagree.
Does he need to drive play more, and generate more of his own scoring chances? Sure, I’ll suggest that Raymond needs to take that kind of criticism and listen to it, especially when it comes to consistency of effort on a game-by-game basis. But that’s where I’d leave it.
