Red Wings now NHL’s last placed team

The old saying goes “if you’re not first, you’re last”. In the Red Wings case, they are just last.

With the Blackhawks and Kings wins over the last two days, they have both hurdled Detroit in the NHL standings. That drops the Wings to last placed in the entire league. If you want to be optimistic, they are technically tied with three other teams for last with 43 points. But the Wings own the least amount of regulation-overtime-wins of any of them, which is why they rank behind all of them.

That is also not taking into account games in hand. If you are on team tank then you’ll be glad to see the majority of teams in front of the Wings by a few points have played fewer games. Some teams have as many as two or three games in hand.

This is probably best case scenario for the team. Basement dwelling helps Detroit’s lottery odds—more importantly a higher guaranteed selection spot—and puts them in a better position to get a high-end prospect in the draft. At the same time the team has been competitive and putting on as entertaining of a product as you will get from a rebuilding team. They aren’t dealing with the same anarchy as, say, the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche were when they hit rock-bottom.

Since the Wings are destined to pick high in the 2019 draft I’m sure you Red Wings fans will want to get a head start on draft coverage. You can find my midterm rankings here. If the Wings can land one of those names in the top-5, this dreadful season may have been worth it after all.