Detroit Red Wings: Looking at Lucas Raymond 2020-21 season early on

Take a look at Detroit Red Wings’ first-round draft pick Lucas Raymond and his 2020-21 SHL performance so far.

As the Detroit Red Wings continue to await plans for a 2020-21 season, they let their prospects continue developing overseas, mostly in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The Red Wings selected Swedish forward Lucas Raymond with the fourth overall selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.

Raymond is one of the team’s top prospects since being selected fourth overall, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing the delay of the start of the NHL and AHL seasons, Raymond stays put in Sweden. He is only 18 years old and could have stayed in Sweden this year either way.

He grew up playing his youth and junior hockey for Frölunda HC in Sweden, where he is spending his 2020-21 season for the time being. Raymond has logged 22 games for Frölunda, where he has five goals and seven assists for 12 total points early on in the season.

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They are currently 13-8 on the season, but the COVID-19 “second wave” has to lead to an outbreak causing the SHL to go on a brief shutdown.

This is okay for Raymond in a sense because he is poised to make the Swedish World Junior Championship team.

For the Swedish youngster, he can lock in and look to dominate at the evaluation camp alongside a few other Red Wings prospects looking to make the cut as well.

Hopefully, he can start to make friends and get acclimated with his future Red Wings teammates in the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships tournament.

But, as for his SHL campaign, he will look to show the Red Wings what he really can be with a strong and powerful 2020-21 campaign.

He has made his playmaking abilities look pretty exciting, leaving fans with a lot to like in his play in the SHL. It is early and he still will grow, but he looks to show that he can develop into a true threat for the Red Wings future offense.

Take a look at this play where he dangles a defender, gets to some open ice, and then finds former Red Wings forward Jan Mursak, who scores the goal for Frölunda.

The Red Wings made the right call with Raymond. Shying away from defenseman and sticking with loading up with the “best prospect available” at fourth overall. He reminds me of someone who could be similar to a fellow Swede, Gabriel Landeskog.

Raymond appears like he could slide into the Red Wings organization to become a 15-20 goal scorer with 50-60 assists as a play-making offensive scoring threat. He could still grow into a frame and turn this prediction on its head. Time will tell.

But after a fifteen point start to the 22-game season in the SHL this year, there is some excitement. Hopefully, he can piece things together to put on a show with Sweden in the World Juniors Championships.

The Detroit Red Wings did not make a mistake taking Lucas Raymond in the first round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, and his start over in the SHL is showing that he is going to develop nicely.