The only offensive defenseman the Detroit Red Wings had last season was Mike Green, but despite having an incredibly hot start to the season, things really trailed off for him. This player review is going to be looking into Mike Green’s season start to finish, offensively to defensively, and everything in between.

 

Looking at Mike Green’s PET chart tells me one big thing, hes average, or maybe even slightly below average. You’re not getting a game changing defenseman, you’re getting a number four defenseman. He’s below average, but not by much, when it comes to primary assists (which is concerning because he’s supposed to be an offensive defenseman), and denied entry rate. But he’s above average when it comes to his exit rate, and entry rate. So really, hes an average defenseman using the PET chart.

As I said before, Mike Green had an incredibly hot start to the season, so 8 goals, and 25 assists is disappointing. 18 games into the season Mike green had 1 goal, and 13 assists for 14 points, and put him on pace for 5 goals, 59 assists, and 64 points in 82 games assuming he stayed healthy, which he didn’t. Now, is it fair to expect him to score 64 points at this point of his career? No, however at least hitting 40 would’ve been nice.

As you can see, Mike Green’s corsi,well… it’s not that great. But I didn’t expect it to be very great considering how many minutes he played, and the team he was on. It would be hard for an average defenseman, like Green, to have a good corsi, on a bottom team, playing all the minutes he did. Green’s CF% was near the bottom of the team, and was the fourth worst of players who played 60+ games for the Red Wings.

Goal-based tells us that Mike Green had more goals allowed, than scored when he was on the ice, and this was by no fluke. The expected numbers tell us the same story, so what can we make out of this? That Mike Green is overused, as I said before, he’s an offensively minded, average defenseman who would be more suited for second pair minutes, in a sheltered role. He should not be a teams number one defenseman. Mike Green was once again, below average on his team using this metric as well, furthering proof that he’s overplayed.

 

I think Mike Green has already played his last game as a Red Wing. The Red Wings already have a logjam of forwards and defense, and resigning Mike Green to what would probably be a high price, too long of a term contract just doesn’t seem smart to me. The Red Wings have players in their system who could replace Green, just think of Sulak, Hroenk, Cholowski, Hicketts, we have so many options.

I think Mike Green hits free agency this summer, and a team that’s expecting to make the playoffs next season will overpay for him.

In conclusion, Mike Green is probably the most overrated, and overused defenseman on the team, and probably has played his last game as a Red Wing.