The Detroit Red Wings don’t seem like the fantasy hockey ideal club, despite finishing in the top 10 in the NHL last season in terms of goals scored and power-play %.
The Red Wings don’t have a forward in the top 35 or a defenseman in the top 20 of The Fantasy Hockey Report’s rankings, despite Detroit scoring 275 goals last season (3.35 goals per game) and hitting at a 23.1% success rate on the power play.
In The Fantasy Hockey Report’s rankings, Detroit scored 275 goals last season (3.35 goals per game), and the Red Wings hit at a 23.1% success rate on the power play, but they don’t have a forward or a defenseman in the top 20.
Moritz Seider is Detroit’s best-scoring defender along the blue line. His 42 points from the previous season were just good for 32nd place overall in defenseman scoring.
The Fantasy Hockey Report uses points as the only metric for rating. They take into account each player’s track record, upside, age, team, injury history, and fantasy trade worth when ranking players for the upcoming one to two seasons.Highest-Rated Red Wings Forward, Larkin
Larkin ranks as the best available forward for the Red Wings. He assigns an overall ranking of 35th. For Alex DeBrincat, the next player from Detroit, you will slide all the way to 49th. Vladimir Tarasenko (98), Patrick Kane (66), and Raymond (68) follow them into the top 100.
Raymond might seem a little low on the list if we were to only base it on the fact that he will complete the 2023–24 season with 14 goals during his final 17 games. DeBrincat, Tarasenko, and Kane are all prior 40-goal range shooters. Granted, it has been some time since each of them achieved that high point. DeBrincat performed most recently in 2021–2022. Kane’s season was 2018–19, while Tarasenko scored 40 goals in 2015–16.
It Hurts to Gostisbehere Departure Detroit Defense
With 56 points, Shayne Gostisbehere ranked 13th among NHL defensemen in scoring the previous season and was set to leave Detroit as a UFA. This puts Seider, who leads Detroit’s top power-play unit, back in the starting lineup.
He scored 50 points in his career during his Calder Trophy-winning season of 2021–2022, but he has only scored 42 points in each of the previous two seasons.
Red Wings Goalkeepers Share An O-fer
Among four netminders, Detroit goalies would record four shutouts in the 2023–2024 season. They are posting an o-fer and have four goalies with NHL level contracts for the next campaign. Jack Campbell, Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, Cam Talbot, and others were unable to make it into the Fantasy Hockey Report’s top-50 NHL goalies rankings.
It does, however, highlight the uncertainty surrounding the club’s goaltender situation. In the meantime, Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren, the goalies for the Washington Capitals, are both ranked in the top 30. Last season, Washington edged out Detroit by one point to claim the last Eastern Conference postseason spot.