Adam Erne’s first season with the Red Wings has been a disappointing one. Acquired from Tampa Bay by Steve Yzerman, his former GM, in the offseason, the vision was to bring in a power forward with great skating ability. The belief was the 24-year-old had untapped potential, something to build upon his 20 point season in 2018-19.

Obviously, that potential has yet to be realized. In 56 games Erne has only scored two goals and five points, a major drop off from the year prior. And, unfortunately, that might be how it ends. Monday afternoon Jeff Blashill revealed Erne will miss “significant time” with a broken hand.

The broken hand was suffered in the later stages of Saturday’s shootout loss in Ottawa. What is even more damning is Erne played his best game of the season in this most recent bout with the Senators. He set up Frans Nielsen for an early goal and continued to make noticeable plays with his speed and size.

With no real timetable on his return, Erne will presumably miss the remainder of the season. Only 15 games remain, so, logically, the club will opt to shut him down for the year.

Looking further ahead, Erne is a pending restricted free-agent. Typically, RFAs are a safe bet to return but Detroit has some cupboards to clean. To go along with his poor debut season, there are several other RFAs on the roster vying to be brought back. Some of the other forwards on the bubble include Brendan Perlini, Dmytro Timashov, Christoffer Ehn and Evgeny Svechnikov (who is no longer waiver exempt in 2020-21). The likelihood of them all being brought back is low.