Detroit Red Wings: Grading the 2019-20 defensemen performances

The Detroit Red Wings season is in the trenches and essentially over, so take a look at how the Red Wings defenseman graded based on their 2019-20 season performance.

Looking at the Detroit Red Wings horrifying season, the defense core dwindled by the end of the year. The team struggled in the defensive zone, giving up a league-leading 267 goals on the season. They had eight defenders on the roster at the time of the season being suspended with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The team ultimately would lose Danny DeKeyser to an injury that has kept him off the ice for the entire season. DeKeyser’s season seemingly ended before it started only having him see the ice in eight games where he still managed four assists.

The Red Wings also would move Mike Green to the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline after he was a staple of the teams’ blueline. Green would pot three goals and tally eight assists for eleven points in forty-eight games for the Red Wings before being traded.

It was Filip Hronek who would spend the most time on the Red Wings blueline this year, playing in a team-leading sixty-five games. Hronek and Patrik Nemeth were the two defenders who played the most of any Red Wings defenseman during the 2019-20 season.

The days of having a stacked set of defense pairings are over, Nicklas Lidstrom has moved on, but Gustav Lindstrom has entered the conversation and is part of the future plans. The Red Wings’ future is very bright for the Red Wings defense core with names like Lindstrom, not to mention 2019 first-rounder, Moritz Seider.

Following the suspension and what could be the conclusion of the 2019-20 regular season, there are some names like Jonathan Ericsson that may have seen their time with the Red Wings come and go. Ericsson and Trevor Daley are prime examples of this, players who are veterans of the National Hockey League (NHL), and it seems that they will move on from playing for the Red Wings.

Another set of defenders, Alex Biega and Nemeth, are an example of players who were brought in as role-playing, bottom-pairing guys on a rebuilding Red Wings team. The excitement around the Red Wings defense core is because of the youngsters who are still making their way to the NHL.

The Red Wings defenders performed as one of the worst in the league, but take a look at how they individually graded based on the 2019-20 regular season.