Red Wings center Andrew Copp hasn’t produced a ton of offense over his two-season tenure with the team, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Copp wants to tap into his offensive game this upcoming season, but Copp understands that he’s probably going to be playing on a “third line” with Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer, yielding more of a shut-down role:
“Role wise it kind of changed from last year being a little more offensive to this year kind of playing against the other team’s top line in a checking capacity,” Copp said. “There’s more to my game offensively but that wasn’t really asked of me. You kinda just gotta do what’s asked of you. It felt like I did a decent job, especially down the stretch.”
As much as he downplays his offensive contribution, Copp did score 13 goals last season. That was his third-highest output as an NHLer. And he did so while seeing very minimal power-play time.
“It’s really tough to produce five-on-five in this league,” Copp said. “Power play is a huge part of producing.”
Between them, Copp (13), Rasmussen (13) and Fischer (five) would combine for 31 goals. The Red Wings will again be seeking that type of scoring depth from their bottom-six forwards.
“It felt like, especially when Me, Ras and Fish were going, I thought we were producing and we were playing against the other team’s top line through a lot of the games that we won down the stretch,” Copp said.
If Copp works best as a 3rd line center, that’s where the Red Wings should play him. I was initially expecting more offense from him given his salary, but I’m comfortable with the concept that Rasmussen, Copp and Fischer can be used as a shut-down line, with Copp teaming up with J.T. Compher as a fine penalty-killing unit.
Going into his third season in Detroit, Copp may not have fulfilled the expectations of Wings fans thus far, but as long as he’s maximizing his impact with the team, I’m comfortable with the Wings spending $5.25 million on a checking-line center.
Sometimes you get what you get from a player offensively. Copp’s going to be around for a couple more seasons at least given the size of his contract, so let’s see him play well and worry about the here and now.
After all, as my Aunt Annie and the great comedian Carol Burnett say, “Should’ves and could’ves are words we don’t use; they only depress us, and give us the blues.”
