The Athletic’s Max Bultman focuses on Alex DeBrincat’s Red Wings debut in his training camp notebook:
Ever since the DeBrincat trade broke, the question of how Detroit would deploy him and Raymond has been a source of fascination. Would they try to split the two up to spread out the skill across their lineup? Could they play together, loading up the offensive ability around Larkin?
Head coach Derek Lalonde, for what it’s worth, made clear Thursday’s line combinations were just a first look — “I don’t know if we’re married to it, we’ll see a lot of different combinations,” he said — but the high-powered trio did make an impression right out of the gate.
“They did some very good things, especially on some entries and some rush things,” Lalonde said. “They all three play very fast.”
On one rush drill, Raymond worked the puck to DeBrincat down low, who then found Raymond coming downhill on the back side for a pretty goal that gave a glimpse into what the three could look like together. In reality, much of the day was spent installing coverages and systems, but there were enough rush looks to generate some excitement.
Larkin has of course played plenty with Raymond over the last two years, but DeBrincat would be the most accomplished pure scorer he’s played with since Henrik Zetterberg retired. And the idea of playing with both at the same time this season certainly intrigues Detroit’s captain.
“It would be pretty cool, a couple righties so I’d be looking at a lot of one-time options, and they book like to shoot the puck, and I like to shoot it as well,” Larkin said. “But we can all skate and think, so I think it would be a fun line to play on.”
Continued (paywall)
