Lucas Raymond has his spot on the NHL Network’s latest top-20 winger list, and for the Detroit Red Wings, that’s a notable line of recognition in a summer tradition that always seems to spark more debate than agreement.
Raymond landed at No. 20, placed just behind Brady Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Cutter Gauthier of the Anaheim Ducks. It’s an odd slot in some ways, especially considering how steady Raymond has been, but it still counts as a win after he was left out entirely in last season’s rankings.
The bigger eyebrow-raiser might be the player who didn’t make the cut: Alex DeBrincat. He led the Red Wings in both goals and points last season, finishing with 41 goals and 85 points. According to the NHL’s rankings, that still wasn’t enough to get him ahead of Tkachuk, who wrapped up the year with 22 goals and 59 points.
For Raymond, the case is easy to make. Since his sophomore slump, he’s been one of the more reliable producers in the league, putting up at least 72 points in each of the last three seasons. This past year, he closed with 25 goals and 51 assists for 76 points in 80 games.
Todd McLellan wants even more from him next season, and specifically, more shots. "I'm a real big believer in his shot and in his tool kit, that may be one of the best things that he has and that he brings to the game," McLellan said.
"We've talked about it, not just at the end of the season, obviously, throughout the season. If you just take his shooting percentage and you throw in an extra 100 shots, which I think he's very capable of, we have a 40-goal scorer."
That kind of jump would change Raymond’s offensive ceiling in a hurry. If he had added 15 goals to last season’s total, he’d have finished with 91 points.
DeBrincat’s omission is harder to explain. He was 11th among all skaters in goals last season and led Detroit in points, yet he still found himself behind players with less production. Gauthier, for his part, scored 41 goals but had just 28 assists, finishing with 69 points in 76 games.
As always, these NHL media rankings leave plenty of room for head-scratching. And if this list is any indication, the debate won’t stop here.
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