The Naughty List: Worst performing Detroit Red Wings so far this year
We've got the airing of the grievances on this Christmas Day, and we're looking at the naughtiest Red Wings players so far this year.
As we hit Christmas, there are far more grievances needing to be aired by fans of the Detroit Red Wings than there are compliments.
For starters, the fact that the Red Wings are in second-to-last place in not only the Atlantic Division but the Eastern Conference as a whole is something that not many saw coming - or would ever have predicted to take place midway through the 6th year on the job of GM Steve Yzerman.
Yzerman may be attempting to build a young core of players that is set up to compete for a long time, but fans are understandably growing impatient with the lack of progress not only with the timeline of their prospects but with the underperforming of their current players.
Who makes the naughty list for the Red Wings?
Playing in the 2nd year of a 5-year contract, Compher has gone through a horrific scoring slump after posting a career-best 19 goals last year; his goal earlier this month against the Philadelphia Flyers was his 1st since October 27.
Either Compher is playing through some kind of debilitating injury, or he's simply having the worst season of his career.
Fans often like to single out Copp's contract as being one of the worst on the Red Wings compared to the production that he brings.
Signed in 2022 to be Detroit's 2nd line center, Copp has mostly played in a checking role (something he even called out recently) and his offensive production has been far too few and far between compared to his salary.
Coach Derek Lalonde
Coaching in his 3rd (and possibly final) year behind the Red Wings bench, the team has yet to find an identity under his leadership.
Not only does the team play an extremely conservative style of hockey, but also find themselves routinely unprepared to play, badly outshot from the onset of games by their opponents, and routinely out hustled and out skated.
Perhaps no NHL coach has a hotter seat than Lalonde, though many argue that GM Steve Yzerman would have made a change already if it were his intention for a major shakeup after the Red Wings were defeated (and badly outplayed) by the lottery-bound San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks last month.
Joe Veleno
A former Round 1 pick of the Red Wings in 2018, Veleno reached a career-best 12 goals last year, yet that number still seemed rather underwhelming.
He's up to four goals this year, but before a recent hot streak last week that saw him net a trio of goals in as many games, Veleno had managed only a single goal up until that point.
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