After making the playoffs for 25 straight years, the longest active playoff streak in North American professional sports came to an end last season. But not all is sad in Detroit. The organization, one of the best in hockey, has a plan in place to rebuild the team over the next few seasons. The team has a few pieces already in place and with some savvy veteran leadership to help, the team should see progress beginning this season. Just like the Detroit Red Wings organization, you will want a mixture of young and old players from the team on your fantasy roster this season. Here are the best Red Wings to draft this year in fantasy hockey.
Top Three Players To Own
1. Henrik Zetterberg
The veteran recently stated his intentions of retiring in two seasons, but until that time comes, he is the best player on the Detroit Red Wings. After a down year in 2015-16, Zetterberg had a highly productive season last year, recording 68 points, his highest total since 2011-12 and 51 assists, the second best mark of his lengthy career. Zetterberg will not score your team a lot of goals, having failed to reach 20 since the 2011-12 season. Otherwise, he is a highly dependable fantasy option.
2. Tomas Tatar
The best way to describe Tomas Tatar is a physical forward with good goal scoring abilities. The center has averaged 25 goals over the last three seasons, scoring at an efficient rate of 13.8% over the same period. Tatar will also benefit your fantasy team with some physicality. The forward averaged over 1.00 hits per game over the last three seasons. Last season his 92 hits ranked 17th out of 51 forwards who scored 25 goals or more. The biggest hole in Tatar’s game is his declining role on the power play. Tatar only managed eight points last season, and he has seen his total decrease since 2014-15 when he set a career high with 19 points. Even without the power play points, Tatar is still a top-100 forward in fantasy.
3. Dylan Larkin
The young forward took a step backwards last season, seeing his goals decrease from 23 to 17, and his point total slip from 45 to 32. There is a reason to believe he will take a positive step forward in his third NHL season. Last year was a bit of an anomaly for the Detroit Red Wings. The team had its worst season in over two decades, which did not benefit the development of Larkin. Now, with the team better set for the future, Larkin should see his goal totals return to the mid-20s, while the likely line pairing with Tomas Tatar could turn Larkin into a 60-point player this season.
One Fantasy Bust: Gustav Nyquist
When Gustav Nyquist got a prominent role with Detroit in 2013-14, the right-winger jumped on the opportunity, scoring 28 goals in just 57 games. Following his impressive campaign from 2013-14, Nyquist has just 60 in 240 games since. Last season, Nyquist set a career high in average ice time, yet scored just 12 goals on 7.3% shooting. Nyquist averages just over 0.5 hits and 0.25 blocks per game over his NHL career. Do not expect Nyquist to be a great option in fantasy this season.
Goaltending Situation
The goaltending situation in Detroit is hard to predict, as the team had three goaltenders start 14 games or more last season. Jimmy Howard, should he be healthy, will be the number one goaltender but there is no guarantee he will be able to last a full season. In the last two years, Howard combined to start 63 games. Last season in 26 games, Howard was having a career year, posting a save percentage of .927 and a GAA of 2.10. If he had those numbers over a full season (50 to 60 games), he would have been one of the best goalies last season. Their other goalie, Petr Mrazek, had the worst season of his career. In 50 games, Mrazek recorded just 18 wins and set careers worst in save percentage at .901 (down from his previous low of .918) and a GAA of 3.04 (up from a previous high of 2.33). If he can get back to his career norms, Mrazek is a great backup, but if he plays like he did last year, he is one of the worst options to pick in fantasy this season.
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