Time to talk about everyone’s favourite fourth-liner! Now in his fourth season with the Red Wings, Luke Glendening has had a career of very low expectations. No one expects him to do very well, and well, he doesn’t do very well. And like a lot of the team this season, he had some career lows this year – a year that saw his team miss the playoffs.

Not much to say here. This is pretty much your typical HERO chart for a fourth liner who is given the task of shutting down opponents better than him, under the assumption of the coach that the player is capable of it. His defense is not very good, considering it’s in fourth line territory, and his offense, both generating and scoring, is about what you’d find in your average AHL forward.

(Stats courtesy of NHL.com)

Glendening had his worst season of his career since his rookie season. The most surprising part is that he scored only three goals, although he also only shot at 3.9%, so that will probably jump back up to his average of 10 next season. Obviously, he’s not an offensive phenom, so look more at the last column to see why he’s still in the NHL. He wins faceoffs at a positive rate, although not significantly better than your average forward.

(Stats courtesy of Corsica.hockey)

It was a rough year for Glendening in the shot attempts department, as he had a 42.81% CF%. That is very bad, even relative to the team this year, as he finished in second last on the team in that department behind only Tyler Bertuzzi and his seven games. When you’re that bad, it comes from both ends of the ice, as he was second last to Bertuzzi in CF60, and third last to only Tyler Nosek (11 games) and Drew Miller in CA60. Not good from your “shutdown center”.

(Stats courtesy of Corsica.hockey)

The same applies in the Goals For department, although not nearly as bad. While the percentage itself was worse, as he had a 38.99%, he wasn’t the worst on the Wings in this regard. He was the ninth worst forward in terms of GF%, sixth if you want to exclude Jurco, Lashoff, and Bertuzzi. However, this low total comes more from his lack of offense, as his GF60 was eighth worst on the team, compared to the amount of goals against him, as his GA60 was eighth best on the team.

I’m going to say that Glendening doesn’t shoot 3.9% again next season, and he scores about 10 goals next season, as his usual 10-15 assists. With regards to defense, I’d expect the same old stuff. Ideally, he shouldn’t be playing at all, but if he’s going to, give him easy minutes on the fourth line. But, we know Blashill will give him shutdown minutes, so expect him to pass the eye test for Blashill, but otherwise be atrocious defensively.

It was a down year for Glendening, even by his standards. He contributed almost nothing offensively, and defensively was also terrible, even if you consider the fact that he gets slightly tougher minutes. While you can’t expect much from a fourth liner/replacement level forward, Glendening still continues to disappoint. I’d say that the Wings should just keep him in the minors until his contract runs out, except one problem: his new four year deal starts next season. So, just ride it out I guess.