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Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Is it finally a good time to be a Detroit Red Wings fan again?
The future is bright in Motown. Defender Moritz Seider began his NHL career and has played hot and scored five assists in six matches. And now Lucas Raymond leads all the newcomers by seven points, marking the 15th place in the NHL.
Yes, things are starting to get better.
Raymond got the hockey world to speak on Sunday night at a four-point night, highlighted by the first hat trick of his career only in the sixth match of his NHL career. It’s amazing, really.
Sure, it came against Chicago and after a two-goal night game, but Raymond has been involved in a big way. Among the 18 entrants A 5-5 game total of at least 60 minutes, Raymond is miles ahead of Bowen Byram (2.88) in points per 60 (4.4), and is second only to Nashville’s Tanner Jeannot (11.71) in shots 60 (10.55) ) and is the only striker to have broken the 2.0 limit per goal to 60 (2.64). The short sample size certainly distorts the numbers a bit, but the fact is that he thrives early in other newcomers.
If you followed Raymond’s career so far, none of these will surprise you. His chemistry with a possible Alex Holtz from the New Jersey Devils helped form the “Terror Twins,” two of the most dominant attack threats coming to the 2020 draft. But if you looked at Raymond’s stats for his draft year – 10 points 33 in a game against Frolunda – it might not have been entirely clear.
Raymond often saw only a few minutes of ice time per match, which is not uncommon for young players in the Swedish league. Raymond scored 18 points in his second year and one point per game in the Youth World Championships before he jumped full-time into the NHL. Many European leagues do not give potential players enough ice time because they focus on winning with veterans and do not give enough development time for young prospects who are not on the team in the long run.
But if Raymond didn’t score goals against inferior men, why does he do it in the NHL? The development of hockey is a crazy thing. How much a player develops from season to season at a young age, especially as he adapts to professional play against older, stronger competitions, is huge. Raymond showed he could control his own age group, so the experience against men was a good step forward.
When Raymond played in the Traverse City tournament in Detroit, he made an impact with his goal in three sets. Then, when Raymond played in the top six during the preseason, he proved capable of competing with the best and was often one of the biggest offensive catalysts for a team with little choice. So instead of Yzerman and Co. would have sent him back home or to the AHL, it was best to keep the young star playing in the big club.
Since then, Raymond has improved his pace almost at night. He adapts quickly and efficiently, and the Red Wings are better at it. Last year, the Red Wings sent the usual top-tier Reverendable Anthony Mantha to Detroit, which means we had to look for a new top-line striker with Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin. Jakub Vrana was supposed to be that guy, but shoulder surgery will keep him away for four months. So Raymond was the first real option to fill the place, and he’s not disappointed.
“This is no surprise,” a Swedish scout said of Raymond’s early-season game. “Talent has always been there. He’s already putting it together on a team that doesn’t have much of a goal now. When they’re competitors, he’s such an important part. He’s a human highlight that only He didn’t get the opportunities to be more dominant in Sweden.”
Concerns about Raymond’s game before the trip to the NHL – his skating, lack of physical physicality and a smaller 11-meter – haven’t really changed, even though the NHL says he weighs 182 pounds, 11 more than before. tensile weight. But the team doesn’t need him to be physical, though, with a couple of bigger heavy sets with Bertuzzi and Larkin in his line and Seider and Marc Staal in the background. Raymond’s bread and butter is his creativity and intelligent decision-making as a game maker with a set of scoring tools in his arsenal.
When Red Wings selected Raymond as fourth in the overall competition in 2020, it marked the beginning of a new bright era for Red Wings to move forward. The team has struggled for most of the past decade, while replacing the years-old farm system with several businesses – and many successful runs – in 30 years. But with Raymond at the helm and Seider behind, the team has a nice little foundation to build on. The Red Wings are not a challenger this year, but there is at least an interesting reason to follow the teams this season, which has been lacking in recent campaigns.
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Sources 2/ https://www.si.com/hockey/news/make-way-for-red-wings-rookie-lucas-raymond The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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