It’s not hard to sketch out the Detroit Red Wings’ problem if Dylan Larkin is traded: who fills the first-line center job?
The answer may not come from outside the organization. Maybe the Wings split the duty between Andrew Copp, J.T.
Compher and Marco Kasper. Maybe the new general manager swings a deal for someone like Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks.
But unless Detroit somehow produces a top-line center out of nowhere, the safest bet is to work with what’s already in the building.
That’s where Kasper enters the picture.
His second NHL season was rough on the surface. The former first-round pick finished with 19 points in 81 games, a total that looks like a classic sophomore slump.
But the underlying numbers paint a more encouraging picture, and the bad luck showed up in the shooting results. The message here is pretty simple: there’s no reason to sound the alarm on Kasper.
If anything, he looks due for a rebound.
The key for Detroit is setting him up the right way.
The easiest path to more offense is also the most obvious one: give him better talent around him. Putting Kasper between Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat would give him a clean fit. Raymond can do the setup work, DeBrincat can finish, and Kasper can handle the connective tissue in the middle to keep the puck moving where it needs to go.
Of course, that kind of role comes with real demands. If Kasper is going to stick in that spot, he’ll have to match the speed of top lines and hold up against players like Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. That’s a tough ask, but it’s also the kind of pressure that can force a player forward.
Kasper seems built for that kind of challenge.
He’ll still have to earn the trust of head coach Todd McLellan, and an ideal offseason would have meant time to recover from his knee injury while tightening up the rest of his game. If that work paid off, then when the season opens and Dylan Larkin is gone, Kasper could step into a much bigger role with fewer growing pains.
There’s also a side of Kasper’s game that fits the job description nicely. He led all Red Wings with 186 hits in 81 games last season, so the willingness to play hard and put his body on the line is already there. That matters if he’s going to function in the kind of line structure Detroit could use with Raymond and DeBrincat.
It’s the sort of role that doesn’t always show up cleanly in the box score. Some nights he’ll go quiet.
Other nights he’ll be all over the ice. That kind of consistency usually takes time, and it may take Kasper a little longer than most.
But if the Red Wings put him in a position to succeed, he has the chance to give them much more than just a placeholder at center.
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For Detroit, the appeal is obvious even if the timeline is not. Hurlbert is viewed as a skilled scorer who still needs to round out the defensive and physical parts of his game, which makes college a sensible next step in his development. The Wings will likely have to be patient before they see him in the pros, but if he keeps progressing the way they hope, he could be the kind of finishing piece their forward group has lacked. [Read more 🡒]