Of the 10 players who finished the regular season with a plus-minus of minus-25 or worse, five were Red Wings.
Missing out on a potential franchise player like Alexis Lafreniere will sting for a rebuilding club like the Red Wings. Just when it seemed the Wings might be able to field two lines of offensive players, Filip Zadina suffered a leg injury at the end of January.Put simply, they really were that bad.The Wings have gradually sunk in the standings over the past four years, dropping from 25th in 2016-17 to 27th in 2017-18 to 28th in 2018-19 to rock bottom this season. Most recently in the QMJHL with Rimouski Océanic. Losing Danny DeKeyser to a back injury eight games into the season robbed the Wings of their most dependable defenseman.Lafreniére isn’t in the same echelon as Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, but he’s a top-line forward who would add depth to a team as desperate as the Wings. Lafreniére's late birthday left him ineligible for last year’s draft by less than a month; he turns 19 on Oct. 11. 1 pick more than any other team. The Los Angeles Kings won the second pick and the Ottawa Senators third with the San Jose Sharks’ selection from the 2018 Erik Karlsson trade. Two more were Red Wings until the trade deadline, including Andreas Athanasiou, who had an NHL-worst minus-46 rating in just 55 games.Alexis Lafreniére is regarded as the top talent in the draft. Left Wing -- shoots L Born Oct 11 2001 -- Saint-Eustache, PQ [18 yrs. Now, onto the picks!Then Ottawa traded their 46th overall pick to the Islanders for a third round pick in 2020 and 2021. Their minus-122 goal differential dwarfed the next worst by minus-40. Contending teams that are cap-strapped won’t deal an impact player before the postseason, but also would want to, in order to free cap. The deal was the rights to Alex Killorn once his contract became a modified-no-trade-clause for the 39th overall pick.The reasons behind each deal will be discussed as the picks roll in, so if you are interested in the deals you can scroll ahead to the picks that were dealt to see why we did what we did! The Detroit Red Wings need the No. Chicago dealt their ninth overall pick to the Wild for the 11th and 54th overall picks. The Wings averaged 2.36 goals per game when Mantha was hurt in November — the L.A. Kings, the second-lowest scoring team in the league, averaged 2.53 goals a game all year — and 1.79 while he was gone. Statistics of Alexis Lafreniere, a hockey player from Saint-Eustache, PQ born Oct 11 2001 who was active from 2017 to 2020. When the NHL paused the season with three weeks to go on March 12 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Wings were the only one of 31 teams mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the only team locked into its final place in the standings. After that was a four pick swap between Carolina and Minnesota, with Minnesota moving their 25th and 42nd overall selections to Carolina for their 19th and 54th overall picks.The first player trade was between Tampa Bay and Montreal. (And, no, that does not include retired LTIR residents Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen.) Desperate times call for desperate measures and for the past weeks, it seems to be the case when we are talking about the current NHL shutdown and the upcoming draft that was supposed to take place at the end of June in Montreal, Canada. Following that trade up, and the last trade of the two round mock, Philadelphia sent Shayne Gostisbehere to the Canadiens for a 2021 2nd and the 61st overall selection in 2020.Alexis Lafreniere #11 Quinton Byfield #55 (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)Your favorite teams, topics, and players all on your favorite mobile devices.Build your custom FanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis on Puck Prose and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more.Before we get into the draft, let’s look at some trades that were made.