It has been six years since the Detroit Red Wings have played a playoff game. Only two players from that team are currently playing for Detroit. Only 14 players from that team played at least one NHL game last season. Detroit’s record since their last playoff series is 131-191-51 in 373 games played for a .420 winning percentage. Let’s take a look at the roster for the Detroit Red Wings in 2015-16.
Centers
Playoff teams seem to always be strong down the middle. The Red Wings were no exception during the 25 year playoff run. In 2015-16, the top two scorers were both centers.
In his 13th NHL season, Henrik Zetterberg led the team in scoring with 50 points in 82 games. Zetterberg played two more non-playoff seasons scoring 68 and 56 points respectively before retiring because of a chronic back injury.
Pavel Datsyuk was second in scoring with 49 points in 66 games. Datsyuk retired from the NHL after the 2015-16 season and the Red Wings have missed the playoffs every year since he moved to the KHL. At 43, Datsyuk continues to play at a very high level in the KHL.
Brad Richards also played center for Detroit in 2015-16. In his 15th NHL season, Richards scored 28 points in 68 games before retiring from the NHL.
Riley Sheahan was the fourth line center in 2015-16. He scored 25 points in 81 games. Sheahan played for Buffalo last season.
Andreas Athanasiou split his rookie season in the NHL with Grand Rapids (AHL). He scored 14 points in 37 games. Athanasiou now plays for the Los Angeles Kings.
Joakim Andersson played his final NHL season in 2015-16. He scored three points in 29 games before moving back to the SHL. He played three seasons in the SHL before retiring at the end of the 2019-20 season.