Detroit Red Wings: Where is Forward Taro Hirose?

The Detroit Red Wings kept forward Taro Hirose around with the NHL club with hopes that his 2019-20 season would vault him to a second-line role. This is not the case; Hirose has not quite played up to expectations thus far.

Before even starting the discussion on Hirose’s lack of production this early in the season, one thing needs to be made clear. Personally, I was first in line thinking that Taro Hirose was going to be a stud this season and become a valuable asset to the Detroit Red Wings second line with Valtteri Filppula and Andreas Athanasiou. Hirose has not performed nearly as to where it seemed he would be for this struggling Red Wings team.

So far this season, Hirose has played in twenty games where he has scored two goals and five assists for seven points. His name has not been seen on the scoresheet much, and the belief would be that this gets worked out and adjusts better to the NHL caliber of play. Hirose is only twenty-three years old, and this is his first full season in the NHL, so there’s room for him to turn things around.

Hirose has been playing as more of a third-line role for the Red Wings, which is where he belongs at the current moment and his current level of production. Hirose is a minus-9 on the season, which is far from ideal for the winger, and the analytics have also been working against him.

Looking at his Corsi For rating of 47.8%, that puts him 3.1% below the Red Wings team average of 50.9%. Looking further, Hirose’s measure of “puck luck” or PDO is 91.1, which is far below the desired 100. Any rating under 100 indicates that Hirose has been unlucky when it comes to the puck luck.

Coach Jeff Blashill has used Hirose in more of a defensive deployment with a dZS% of 52.6% for the Red Wings. Dropping him down to the third line is making him comparable to Brendan Perlini, who may not have found the back of the net yet, but he has a role to play for the Red Wings as a bottom-six forward.

If Hirose can get things going, he may be able to jump back up into the top-six, but the beginning of the 2019-20 season has not been kind to Hirose. It seems that Hirose’s adjustment to the NHL and the raised caliber of play is taking time, and he must acclimate and adjust even after a strong “try-out” period at the end of last season.