After a wineless road trip, the Detroit Red Wings have bounced back with a four game winning streak – let’s assess a few player performances by revisiting the “stock exchange”.
Trending Up
Alex Nedeljkovic
Nedeljkovic was absolutely stellar for the Red Wings this week. In fact, he’s a major factor in the four game winning streak (although Thomas Greiss was the starter for the win against the Kraken), especially in Detroit’s 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Neddy stopped 41 of 42 shots on goal.
In the his last four games, Nedeljkovic has a save percentage of .946, highlighted by a few magnificent saves. If the he keeps this up, he’ll also be in the conversation for the Calder Trophy.
Lucas Raymond
I feel like the league has been put on notice multiple times, but here we are again. Raymond was declared rookie of the month for November; he leads the team in points now, with 10 goals and 12 assists. Somehow, the rookie star just keeps getting better. He’s the driving force of a highly effective top line, both as a lethal goal scorer and a playmaker. Raymond is the sort of player that ends a rebuild early.
Trending Down
Michael Rasmussen
Rasmussen is having a rough year. His stock has dropped precipitously nearly every week, and this week was no different. The young center seems scared when he gets the puck on his stuck, whiffing on shots, losing possession or giving away unnecessary turnovers. His xGAR and xWAR are both in the negative and his Corsi and Frenwick percentages are hovering around 40 percent. ‘Ras has yet to live up to his offseason contract extension unfortunately.
Nick Leddy
Leddy has not been too impressive lately. He’s been pretty invisible on the ice and not too effective as the second power play unit quarterback. Statistically, Leddy is also just meh – his Corsi and Fenwick percentages are both on the wrong side of 50. He’s also been pretty average in points, with just seven assists 24 games in.
To be fair, part of the problem with Leddy is that Seider is already ridiculously good. The expectation was that Leddy would pair up with the rookie defenseman and sort of act as his mentor into the NHL. Well, after just a few weeks, it was clear that Seider was ahead of schedule, and the duo has been broken up. Leddy has been just okay in his new pairing with Filip Hronek.
With all that being said, Leddy has not been bad this year, far from it. He just hasn’t really lived up to the draft capital that Steve Yzerman used to acquire him.
Holding Steady
Robby Fabbri
Fabbri is just having a very solid stretch. Nothing too impressive, but certainly one of the better forwards on Detroit’s roster. He has five goals and six assists in 24 games, and he’s probably the best forward on the second line right now (unless Filip Zadina starts improving his shooting percentage).
Jordan Oesterle
Oesterle was one of the more underrated performers of the last week. While he didn’t provide any sort of offense, he’s been an effective fill-in with the absence of Danny DeKeyser – in fact, you could argue that he’s been better than DK. The fact that his absence on the ice often goes unnoticted is a good thing – you want your third pairing/seventh defenseman to do just that.