Sportsnet’s staff posted an article in which they discuss players from the NHL’s 16 Atlantic Division who are under pressure to perform this upcoming season, and they spotlight Red Wings trade acquisition Alex DeBrincat:
As Steve Yzerman keeps adding veteran players to his roster, the Red Wings are taking an almost expansion-like approach to their build, accumulating other teams’ cast-offs to (hopefully) put together a unit of motivated individuals determined to prove people wrong. That’s sometimes what this plan feels like, anyway.
This past summer Yzerman added Alex DeBrincat, who was a different sort of acquisition in that he wasn’t some other team’s cast-off. DeBrincat was acquired by Ottawa last season to be a difference-making goal scorer, but he didn’t really deliver on those expectations and then had no real desire to stay put. Rather than slow walk to free agency, the Senators had to trade him out.
Now with his hometown Red Wings, DeBrincat has a new four-year contract and the same expectations the Senators had for him. Can he get back up to 40 goals? The Red Wings have a lot of “pieces” but, so far, not enough difference makers. They need DeBrincat to have a significant presence right away if they’re to rise above the other rebuilders in the Atlantic.
