The Detroit Red Wings will continue to lean on aging players as they look to make it back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven seasons. 35-year-old Patrick Kane finished the 2023-24 NHL season with 20 goals and added 27 assists in 50 games played for the Red Wings after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery. The team signed Kane to a one-year contract worth $4 million during the offseason. That is not to say that young players on the Red Wings’ roster did not hold their own and will need to continue to do so.
At only 21-years-old left-winger Lucas Raymond led the Red Wings in points during the 2023-24 season with 72. This was three more points than captain Dylan Larkin, who is now 27 years old, had in 68 games played. Alex DeBrincat, 26 years old, was brought into the Red Wings roster to take some of the scoring load off Larkin. In his first season with the team, DeBrincat scored 27 goals and added 40 assists in 82 games played. If not for a cold streak in which DeBrincat did not score a goal in seven straight games, it could be argued that the Red Wings make the playoffs.
After moving from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Red Wings, DeBrincat was not the only Red Wing to have a frustrating 2023-24 season. Young Red Wing Jonatan Berggren talked with Swedish website HockeyNews.se; Berggren seems to be frustrated by his lack of NHL playing time. This is understandable, as Berggren has done everything he could to prove to the Red Wings why they drafted him with the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 NHL entry draft.
“Of course [I’m disappointed],” he said. “That’s the thing, everyone wants to play in the NHL. I think I contributed when I was up there and got my minutes. I did what I could. Outside of that it’s not in my own hands. It’s business.” In 53 games played for the Grand Rapids Griffins during the 2023-24 AHL season, Berggren scored 24 goals and added 32 assists. These 56 points were 19 more than the second most on the team for this season.
Head coach of the Red Wings Derek Lalonde seems to be in agreement with Berggren. “He did a really good job in a really tough situation last year,” Lalonde said. “I’ll never say anyone’s played themselves out of the American Hockey League. It’s just too good of a league. But he’s proven, or maybe more it’s he’s earned this opportunity (to be in the NHL).” The challenge for Lalonde and the Red Wings’ coaching staff is finding a place for Berggren on the 2024-25 roster.
Berggren is one of a few Red Wings players who are currently not under contract. Defenseman Moritz Seider and right-winger Lucas Raymond are two of the most important players on the Red Wings’ roster. General manager Steve Yzerman needs to re-sign these two players and fit them under the salary cap of $88 million for the 2023-24 season. At the time of this writing, the Red Wings have $17.648 million in salary cap space.
As the 2023-24 NHL season draws closer, Jonatan Berggren and his representatives need to continue to focus on getting a contract extension done with the Red Wings. The Uppsala, Sweden native must feel that he has done all that he can to make the Red Wings roster. Berggren has played less than one full season’s worth of games in two seasons with the Red Wings. The team drafted him with the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft for a reason.
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