With Zetterberg Out, Red Wings Center Depth Faces Dramatic Decline

The Henrik Zetterberg saga continues this week as Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill admitted that it didn’t seem likely that Zetterberg would be ready to hit the ice for training camp. And if he’s not ready for training camp, then he won’t start the season. And if he doesn’t start the season… well, then he likely won’t play at all.

Though the team is being extremely careful with their language when they speak of Zetterberg’s situation, it’s become abundantly clear that what we’ve feared all Summer is very likely going to come to fruition: Henrik Zetterberg has played his last game for the Detroit Red Wings.

There’s a lot to unpack here from an on-ice and off-ice perspective (not to mention the emotional perspective), but I want to focus on what removing Zetterberg from the equation does to the roster composition. Until the very last game of last season, Zetterberg was the team’s number one center. Dylan Larkin took great strides at center last year and, whether Zetterberg plays or not, was likely going to start the season centering the top line anyways. It’s after Larkin, though, where Zetterberg’s absence really starts to be felt.

Bumped up from the third line, 34-year-old Frans Nielsen becomes the undisputed middle man of the second line. The once 50+ point player barely put up 30 last season as he was relied upon heavily defensively where he played a bottom-6 role with poor teammates. Still, Nielsen had the second best faceoff win percentage at 5-on-5 on the team and is the only natural centerman who is worthy of the 2C spot.

With Luke Glendening rounding out the fourth line, that leaves the third line center spot wide open. When asked, Blashill revealed that if Zetterberg doesn’t play, it will be Andreas Athanasiou who slots in to center the third line.

While Athanasiou is an intriguing option at center given his speed and smooth hands, I’m not sure he’s the best course of action here. There’s no doubt that when he’s at his best, Athanasiou is highlight reel worthy, but he’s also proven to be very streaky. Four times last year, AA went four or more consecutive games without recording a point. Through the month of March, he actually went nine games without a single goal or assist. In addition to this, Athanasiou’s defensive game has been widely criticized by his coaches and the media alike. This is an important part of a centerman’s game. They need to be balanced players with a well-rounded game. AA’s game is more top-heavy and better suited as a winger who can explode off the side boards and catch the opposing defense flat-footed.

He’s got a lot of speed in him, he’s just very selective about where he uses it. He doesn’t have a lot to show for a short stint at center last year, where he put up a painful 39.38 faceoff win percentage at 5-on-5.

With his speed, Athanasiou can play an important role on this team, I just don’t think it should be at center, which leaves Blashill only two other options as far as I can tell.

The first is Michael Rasmussen, who is all but a lock to make the opening night roster this year. Coming up through the junior leagues as a center, the 6’6” #9 overall pick from the 2017 draft has a lot to live up to as the highest Red Wings draft pick since Martin Lapointe in 1991. As they did with Larkin in 2015, the Wings would much rather ease Rasmussen into the league on the wing. The center position is one that comes with a lot of responsibility and, with the kind of expectations already placed on Rasmussen’s shoulders, it would be better if he didn’t have the added pressure of being a centerman. Being on the wing allows him a little more freedom to be creative and make mistakes.

So if Rasmussen is to play wing this year, that leaves Darren Helm as the last option to fill the third line center gap. This, in my opinion, is Blashill’s best option. Helm used to play center on the team before being forced to the wing by better players. This gives us a fairly large sample size to judge him on. Since 2010, Helm has a 51.85 faceoff win percentage at 5-on-5 (51.43% in all situations). He is defensively responsible as he’s been relied upon heavily on the penalty kill and in a bottom-6 role. He’s also got a lot of speed to his game, though, admittedly, not as much as he used to. Most of all, Helm is a seasoned vet who can handle the pressures and responsibilities that come along with playing center. He plays hard all the time and sets a positive example that perfectly personifies the “Red Wings Way”.

The unfortunate thing about this is that no matter how you slice it, there is no good option to backfill the Zetterberg void. There is only a better-than-the-rest option and I believe that due to his defensive reliability, speed, and past experience, Darren Helm is the best option for filling that third line center opening.

It’s going to be a rough year for the Wings as Zetterberg leaves a massive hole at center. They are going to have to weather the coming storm with a weakness down the middle and build to strengthen it in the coming years.