Detroit Red Wings: Mathias Bromé’s exile to the taxi squad is uncalled for

The Detroit Red Wings have assigned Mathias Bromé back to the taxi squad after they had some players come off of the COVID-19 protocol list. The Red Wings have now dropped seven straight and frankly, this is just uncalled for.

While the Detroit Red Wings got some much-needed help back, is it really much-needed help if it takes opportunities away from the younger players? Players like Frans Nielsen and Adam Erne getting ice time is useless, while they play a role and do eat up some of the ice time, taking time away from Bromé is unnecessary.

Bromé is currently making the jump from the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) over to the National Hockey League (NHL) and it has not gone as smooth as anticipated. But he did not get any time in the American Hockey League (AHL) and was tossed into the fray after a very brief training camp.

In his brief training camp with the Red Wings, he looked pretty good, he was making plays and looked as if he may translate into the playmaking forward he could evolve into. But one thing is certain, moving him to the taxi squad is not going to do that for Bromé.

The Detroit Red Wings shifting Mathias Bromé to the taxi squad is a questionable move, even after his lackluster start.

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To start off the 2020-21 season and his NHL career, Bromé has played in ten games and has failed to register a single point.

The 6-foot, 183-pound winger has failed to make his way onto the scoresheet and is a minus-six with eight shots and six penalty minutes. However, Bromé is still settling in, the lack of offense should not be too frustrating.

He has spent a good chunk of even-strength ice time out there with Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, or Anthony Mantha, or some combination of the three.

The production just has not been tapped into yet. While this assignment to the taxi squad might just be a reset for Bromé, it just seems dumb given who is taking his place.

The bottom-six allowing more ice time for Erne, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, and Nielsen is just ludicrous.

Erne and Nielsen are no more deserving than Bromé is of playing time. Neither Erne nor Nielsen are really that helpful to the on-ice production, while yes, Bromé is of no help to production either he deserves this season to try and figure it out.

Maybe the reset helps, but sitting him down for a few games might have been the better option for Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill. Not to mention, Bromé has been incredibly unlucky from a statistical sense.

Now, I know some of you are going to tune me out here, but PDO is essentially a measure of “luck” in hockey. A way to measure the odd bounces and rate whether a player is getting those bounces or not.

The median rating is 100. Anything above 100 means things are going your way and you are getting the bounces or “getting lucky.” Anything below 100 is the opposite, things are not going your way and maybe a new tape job or a new pre-game ritual is needed to change things up.

As a general rule of thumb, everyone will finish right around the 100-mark or within that 98-102 range. This of course is over an 82 game season, not a 56-game season, or even the ten games that Bromé has played.

Brome currently has a PDO rating of 91.5.  While the ten-game sample size definitely has something to do with this, this is incredibly low. The poor guy cannot catch a break and now he’s heading to the taxi squad.

Even if sitting him down was the right move, the Detroit Red Wings should not have “sat him down” indefinitely with his demotion to the taxi squad. Hopefully, someone in the front office realizes this and he is recalled sooner than later.