The fantasy season is upon us — another year of tears of joy and heartbreak.
To help you along, here’s your fantasy outlook for the Detroit Red Wings.
2022-23 Fantasy Outlook: Detroit Red Wings
Last season: 32-40-10, 6th Atlantic, 25th overall. GF: 25th, GA: 31st, PP: 26th, PK: 32nd.
The improved record was nice, but it misses the point of the Yzerplan. Entering their fourth season under GM Steve Yzerman, the key metric for the Red Wings wasn’t wins, but how quickly they could build up their prospect pipeline and develop them into a winning team rather than trying to stay afloat with half-measures. The offense was good enough on most nights, but what killed the Wings’ season was mediocre defense and bad goaltending. Their bet on Alex Nedeljkovic to be the starter, whom the Hurricanes had passed on even though he set NHL bests with a .932 Sv% and 1.90 GAA the previous season, did not work out; his .901 Sv% and 3.31 GAA ranked 27th and 29th, respectively, out of 30 goalies with at least 41 appearances, and according to naturalstattrick.com’s 5v5 GSAA model, ranked 97th out of 119 goalies.
But for the most part, the good outweighed the bad since the Wings were surprisingly in playoff contention, if only for a brief second. They were inching closer, but last season’s emergence of Moritz Seider as a potential franchise defenseman kickstarted the next phase of their rebuild with a busy off-season, signing Andrew Copp, David Perron, Ben Chiarot and Ville Husso to contracts worth a combined $70.9 million after spending just $19.1 million on 11 UFA’s in July 2021.
Best fantasy option: Moritz Seider, D
Dylan Larkin is their most consistent forward with the highest floor in fantasy, but it’s unlikely he’ll be drafted before Seider in most leagues. Seider’s ability to contribute in all categories makes him particularly valuable at a pretty thin position, especially in banger leagues. He ranked 14th in assists, 19th in points (50), 19th in shots (187), 31st in hits (151) and ninth in blocked shots (161) while playing all 82 games and averaging over 23 minutes per game. He became a No. 1 defenseman the moment he stepped onto NHL ice and tied Cale Makar for the second-highest point total by a rookie defenseman in the cap era behind Quinn Hughes’ 56 points. He’s already better than Victor Hedman at the same age and belongs in the conversation as one of the top-5 best fantasy defensemen in keeper leagues.
Hidden gem:…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at "ice hockey" – Google News…