Connect with us

Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Raymond Budding NHL Superstar

Detroit forward establishing his presence among NHL elite

Published

1 week ago

on

Lucas Raymond, Red Wings
On pace for a 92-point season, Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond is estblishing his presence among the elite NHL players.

Last season was a coming out party for Detroit Red Wings star forward Lucas Raymond.

This season is about Raymond establishing his credentials among the elite performers in the NHL.

Following a four-point night Monday in a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings, Raymond is leading the Red Wings in scoring with 56 points. He’s on pace for a 92-point season. That would be the best single-season performance by a Detroit player since Pavel Datsyuk was collecting 97 points in 2008-09.

Since 2000, Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are the only Red Wings players to be posting a 90-point campaign. That’s the kind of company that Raymond is keeping.

It’s the kind of company that Detroit coach Todd McLellan believes Raymond resembles.

“I think I said one day he reminds me a little of Zetterberg,” McLellan explained. “You could open up a whole book of adjectives to describe Zetterberg. That’s pretty easy. I could probably do that for Lucas right now.

“He’s a complete player. He plays all three zones, he plays them equally hard. He values each of the three as importantly as the stat sheet. I don’t want to say it’s hard to find players like that but when you do you treasure them.”

Red Wings Raymond A Winner

It’s about more than piling up points where Raymond is concerned. He truly is driving the bus for the Red Wings in all aspects of the game. Much like Zetterberg was doing for the team when Detroit was a perennial Stanley Cup contender.

“I think they’re both winners,” McLellan said, again returning to the Raymond-Zetterberg parallels. “The difference right now is Hank has the jewelry to prove it and it takes a team to do that.

“I’d say a winner with Hank, but I think you could win with Raymond for sure. Competitive, two-way, high hockey IQ, leader.”

Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider believes that the Raymond everyone is seeing on a nightly basis now is the guy they always figured was there waiting to emerge.

“Just I think what you kind of always wanted to see,” Seider said. “I think that he can take games over by himself.

“Obviously him and and Dylan (Larkin) are the motors of our upper up-front lineup right now and they’re driving and obviously that makes it really hard for the other team to defend them. I mean, they kind of buzz around everywhere. They aren’t afraid to go into corners, win battles.”

Related Topics:
5 Comments
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
MICHAEL C ZACK

The puck follows him like his shadow. His puck control reminds you of the Russian 5 and his tenacity makes you think of Zetterberg. Is he a better pick than Seider or. the just great pagesv in a book. There’s almost a plan here.

0
Reply
PoDaHit

Not a two way guy. Yzerman will probably move him and a pick to unload the contract

-7
Reply
Imp.Bsht

Do you watch any games? This kid is a wing for life unless Steve can pull off a fleecing

-1
Reply
AKscott

He’s been awesome since the tail end of last season. I honestly didn’t see this coming. I never saw him as the game breaker, go to guy he’s turning into. I do think Seider, as good as He is, hasn’t even figured out yet how great he can be, (especially on the offensive end). I can envision him putting up 65-75 points a season and eventually being a perennial Norris candidate.

0
Reply
Mark W

agree.AK Raymond will be an HOF player and he’s only 22 ? so much upside there. In dark recesses of fan minds….some might trade Larkin for a younger version if the opportunity presented itself.

-1
Reply