Red Wings: Adam Erne needs to make strides in 2020-21 season

The Detroit Red Wings brought in forward Adam Erne on another one-year deal after General Manager (GM) Steve Yzerman acquired him via a trade.

The Detroit Red Wings have had an exciting offseason, but re-signing Adam Erne was not one of those exciting moves. Erne has been practically invisible in the lineup for the organization in his first year. He likely should slot in as a bottom-six forward based on the moves that have been made.

Erne is a 25-year-old winger with a left-handed shot who needs to improve greatly in 2020-21 if he wants to be kept around. He has had one breakout season, being his 2018-19 campaign with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

General Manager (GM) Steve Yzerman would acquire Erne and try to get him to find similar success with the Red Wings organization, but he would be unable to find it. After a disappointing 2019-20 season, he has to turn things around and be much better in 2020-21.

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Last season, Erne played in 56 games where he notched two goals and three assists for a grand total of five points.

He was a minus-24 plus/minus rating on the season, which is atrocious, but on-par for the Red Wings, who were outscored vastly in 2019-20.

Erne would also disappoint in the analytics department as well; he posted a 44.5 Corsi For percentage (CF%), which was 1.9% lower than the team average.

While that not may be as bad as some of the teammates, Erne still did not fare as well as most would hope.

The Red Wings need to see improvements from some of their forwards; Erne is one of them.

He will likely be slotted in alongside forwards like Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Frans Nielsen, and company. Erne will likely be a minutes-eater as the Red Wings try to simply put up more points than in past years.

Erne is taking home just under a million for the Red Wings in 2020-21, which will not matter too much given the cap situation, but they still should not waste money on players who are not going to produce.

The organization frankly just needs to see some improvements out of their team, and just about anything would be an improvement for Erne. If he can piece together some sort of point increase, it would be better than his 2019-20 performance.

However, it must be noted that Erne is one of Yzerman’s “boys” from Tampa Bay, so he may have some more leeway when it comes to production or lack thereof.

Hopefully, Adam Erne can turn things around during the 2020-21 season for the Detroit Red Wings and get back to the 20-point season he had in 2018-19.