The Red Wings have already played 41 of their 82 games, and the second half of the season begins today against the Seattle Kraken (3 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/KHN/KONG/NHL Network/Sportsnet/97.1 FM).
As such, the Free Press’s Helene St. James and MLive’s Ansar Khan have both issued first-half-of-the-season grades for the Red Wings’ players. St. James offers blunt assessments…
F Alex DeBrincat: A-
Stats: 18 goals, 17 assists, minus-8 in 41 games.
Contract: $7.875 million AAV through 2026-27.
The buzz: He’s on pace for 36 goals but the way he’s playing of late, he looks like he could flirt with once again being a 40-goal scorer. Very effective in front of the net.
F Vladimir Tarasenko: F
Stats: 4 goals, 10 assists, minus-10 in 40 games.
Contract: $4.75 million AAV through 2025-26.
The buzz: Brought in to balance the exodus of offense that departed in the offseason but he hasn’t scored a goal since Dec. 1, with just three assists since then. He has gotten looks on the top line, but, well — nothing.
Dylan Larkin (A-): He went 15 games without a goal (Nov. 27-Dec. 29) but was facilitating and contributing in other ways. He’s back on pace for another 30-goal, 70-point season.
Lucas Raymond (A): A go-to player whose strong finish in 2023-24 has propelled him to perhaps an even more productive season, scoring17 goals and leading the team with 27 assists, 41 points and 21 power-play points.
Moritz Seider (A): Workhorse continues to thrive while doing everything – playing against top lines, playing on the first power-play and penalty killing units, preserving leads in the final minute and just being hard to play against. He’s averaging more than two minutes per game than he did a year ago and leading the team in hits and blocked shots.
