The top-3 underperforming Detroit Red Wings players so far this year
The Detroit Red Wings made multiple additions and subtractions for this year, but which players aren't performing at their best and hurting the team as a result?
From year to year, nearly no National Hockey League team is able to remain the same thanks to the restraints of the salary cap and free agency as well as the youth waiting in the wings.
For the Detroit Red Wings, this was no exception. The team decided not to re-sign power play specialist Shayne Gostisbehere, who is back with the Carolina Hurricanes and leading their defensemen in total points.
The Red Wings traded Jake Walman for reasons that remain unclear; he's already set a San Jose Sharks franchise record for the quickest defenseman to reach 20 assists in a single year. Oh, and he leads their defensemen in total points as well.
Erik Gustafsson was signed to help offset the losses of Gostisbehere and Walman; so far, his tenure with the Red Wings has been beyond forgettable.
And while the Red Wings brought in an additional handful of new faces for this year along with retaining future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane, who are the most underperforming players on the Detroit roster this year?
After the Red Wings chose not to re-sign David Perron and Daniel Sprong, several gaps were left in their forward lines. The Red Wings signed Tarasenko, a former 40-goal scorer and recent Stanley Cup winner with the division foe Florida Panthers, to a 2-year contract.
The hope was that he'd re-create some of the impressive output earlier in his career that made him among the better scorers in the NHL during his days with the St. Louis Blues.
To say that Tarasenko has been a disappointment would be an understatement. He has scored only four times in 33 games, a far-cry from the kind of output envisioned when he was signed.
Signed to a 5-year contract in the summer of 2023, Compher performed well for the Red Wings for the most part last year; he reached a career-best in goals (19).
Unfortunately, his offensive output this year has completely fallen off a cliff. His goal last week against the Philadelphia Flyers was his first since before Halloween, and he's on pace right now only to hit 10 goals in 80 games - a completely unacceptable number for a player making 2nd line money.
Joe Veleno
Another Round 1 pick but from the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Veleno had scored only a pair of points (1G, 1A) through his first 25 games before a brief hot streak of 3G in his last four games.
However, Veleno continues to completely underwhelm compared to the production expected of a 1st round draft selection. At this point in his NHL career, this is who is is: a bottom-six forward who MIGHT reach double-digits in goals in any given season.
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DECEMBRE 24 | 175 ANSWERS The top-3 underperforming Detroit Red Wings players so far this year In your mind, who is the top underperforming Red Wings player this year so far? | ||
