Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted an early-evening column which cites Andrew Copp, Lucas Raymond and Joe Veleno as three Red Wings forwards who need to score more regularly for the Red Wings to succeed this upcoming season.
There’s no doubt that Lucas Raymond hit the wall as his sophomore season progressed, but that doesn’t mean that he’s hit a wall as a player:
Lucas Raymond: The prevailing wisdom around the Red Wings was that Lucas Raymond wasn’t as effective as he was a rookie. Call it a sophomore slump. His scoring went down from 23 to 17. The Red Wings were hoping it was going to go up.
As a rookie, Raymond looked like a natural scorer. This past season, he didn’t seem to have the same drive.
Hope for Raymond in 2023-24: The Red Wings would like 25 from Raymond in his third NHL season. He’s only 21. Maybe that’s asking too much. But this is a very talented forward.
Continued; Raymond can hit 25 if he’s worked on his conditioning and strength during the offseason, because he’s definitely a marked man when it comes to opposing defenses and opposing players trying to mess with a smaller forward in a physical manner.
