The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood wonders whether Red Wings restricted free agent forward Joe Veleno can break through to the Wings’ “top nine” after playing mostly a fourth-line role for the majority of his NHL career thus far:
Veleno had chances to prove he could score more last season, playing in the top six when Dylan Larkin was out with injuries at times last season. But in those stints, he didn’t prove all that effective. His scoring actually decreased in an elevated role in December, and when he played between Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane during some games in March, Veleno still finished the month without a single point. As an indication of the organization’s trust in Veleno’s scoring ability, by the end of the season the Red Wings were quicker to plug AHL depth player Austin Czarnik into the second line rather than promote Veleno. He remains a player that Detroit can lean on in a defensive bottom six role, but there isn’t much evidence 232 games into Veleno’s career that he’ll ever amount to anything larger. Any plans for Veleno’s future shouldn’t bank on a scoring renaissance.
So where does this defensive version of Veleno fit in the long term version of the Red Wings? Maybe that’s what he can answer with his eventual extension. Projected by AFP Analytics to earn a two-year, $2 million extension, any contract within arm’s reach of that would be relatively cheap for a player from whom Detroit knows what it’s getting.
Continued; as Eargood suggests, with an assortment of young prospect forwards vying for spots on the Red Wings’ roster over the next 2-3 years, it appears that Veleno’s tenure with the Red Wings will be short unless he’s able to break through at the NHL Level.
