Detroit Red Wings: Marc Staal is the Trevor Daley of 2020-21

The Detroit Red Wings took on Marc Staal’s contract this offseason, but early on, it looks like it will be a long year. Back when the Red Wings acquired Marc Staal from the New York Rangers, it was in exchange for draft capital in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.

The official deal was Staal and a 2021 second-round pick for future considerations. Yzerman opted to take on the $5.7 million cap hit with the sweetener being added to the trade. This seems like a good choice, and extra draft capital makes things deadly for Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings.

The point is, Staal, being here is not really an issue, but his level of play could be better. The way it looks early on in the 2020-21 season, Staal will be this year’s version of Trevor Daley or Jonathan Ericsson.

If Staal does anything more than just eat up minutes, it would be a shock to me. It seems like he is just going to be a pylon out there who is collecting a paycheck on a year where it does not matter too much because the Red Wings are still in their rebuild anyways, especially since he comes off the books after the 2020-21 season.

The Detroit Red Wings traded for Marc Staal this offseason, and he is going to be the new version of Trevor Daley.

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So far, Staal has logged eight games for the Red Wings in 2020-21. He has one assist and is a minus-four on the year.

It may be a bit early to start getting harsh on Corsi ratings, but Staal is a 46.4 CF%, which is 2.8% below the Red Wings team average.

Staal has been the second pairing guy with Troy Stecher in recent games via Red Wings’ line charts on their social media.

Staal and Stecher are both new to the defense core that was brought in this past offseason. Stecher offers more upside, whereas Staal has pretty much been relegated and is not nearly as effective as one would hope.

The Red Wings’ expectations of Staal cannot be that high, and frankly, that is okay.

Burying him in the defense core and hoping he’s nothing worse than someone like Daley. Last year Daley played in 43 games where he had seven assists and was a minus-22 on the season.

Expect something similar from Staal in 2020-21 for the Red Wings. Daley was a healthy scratch for some time, which is why he only played in 43 games. However, Staal will likely be sent out there in a 56-game season to eat up minutes.

If anything, the Red Wings might give players like Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindström a look at the NHL level, meaning Staal gets the healthy scratch or relegated to the bottom-pairing with minimal minutes. He is averaging around 18 minutes of ice time a night so far for the Red Wings, fifth amongst Red Wings defensemen.

The Detroit Red Wings have Trevor Daley 2.0 in their lineup; fans can tune in to watch Marc Staal be a pylon out there for the rest of the year. But it is okay; in the Yzerplan, we all trust.