HIGH SPIRIT: ‘My transition worsen with Red Wings, young star in doubts

The way Alex DeBrincat sees it, his first season with the Red Wings mirrored the team’s regular season. The best times were scintillating, exactly what the Wings were hoping for when they acquired DeBrincat in July from the Ottawa Senators. The not-so-good times were confounding and disappointing, as DeBrincat slumped late in the season, just when the Wings could have used some goals.

In the end, a 27-goal season from DeBrincat was a nice opening season. The 27 goals matched his season before in Ottawa, and he collected one more point for 67 total, compared to 66 in Ottawa in 2022-23, thanks to 40 assists compared to the 39 in Ottawa the season before. The way DeBrincat sounded during his season-ending media conference last month, his best times as a Wing may yet be coming.

“A lot of ups and downs,” DeBrincat said, when analyzing his season. “I would have loved to be more consistent. When you’re going through those slumps there’s still other things you can do to be effective and be beneficial to the team. Those (checking, defense, playmaking) are the things I try to do. It’s not always perfect. Each year in this league I’ve gotten better, and I hope to get better next year and be more consistent.”

“Consistency is what makes great players and I want to be a great player. That’s something I need to work on,” he said.

When the Wings acquired DeBrincat for forward Dominik Kubalik (11 goals in Ottawa), prospect defenseman Donovan Sebrango and draft picks, they felt the organization finally had the pure goal-scoring wing they had long coveted. And placing DeBrincat on a line with Dylan Larkin, the torrid start was what everyone around the Wings envisioned. DeBrincat had nine goals and 13 points in the first seven games, igniting the Wings to a 6-1-0 start, as the line clicked and the Wings and DeBrincat were successfully speeding out of the gate.

“He doesn’t get enough credit throughout the league of how good he is, and how much he means to the team,” DeBrincat said of having the opportunity to play with Larkin during the season. “Playing with him every day and seeing him practice, he works so hard and he definitely pushes everyone to be better.”

He’s our best player,” he said. But then, suddenly, the deluge out of the spigot simply stopped. The goals became more sporadic, reaching a disappointing conclusion in the end as DeBrincat had four goals and 10 assists (14 points) in the final 23 games. He did score three of those goals in the final three games, a two-goal game April 13 in Toronto and a goal two nights later against Montreal.

Though DeBrincat’s goal-scoring went quiet, coach Derek Lalonde felt other parts of DeBrincat’s game came alive. One in particular is defensively. Playing on an Ottawa team with similar overall talent, DeBrincat had a minus-31 plus-minus rating and was scorched on social media for his defensive woes.

But with the Wings, DeBrincat was plus-1 and displayed a desire to play sound defense, especially when going through his goal-scoring drought. “Obviously his goal total, he wanted more of it,” Lalonde said. “But at the same time, he has a lot of goals and even through some of those stretches he wasn’t scoring, he had chances. I wasn’t concerned.

“What I’m excited about with Alex is, he went from a minus-31 player last year and our win total and point total wasn’t a whole lot different to what he experienced last year, and he’s a plus-player this year. He added some more plays defensively, he won more battles and plays on the wall. The DNA of some of our forwards, some are more offensive first and Alex puts a lot of pride in putting pucks in the back of the net. But you can see him (understanding) what it takes to win and the team game, so I’ve been very happy with Alex.”

Having gone through the shock of being traded two summers ago from Chicago to Ottawa prepared DeBrincat for the transition to the Wings and his third team in three years. But the fact DeBrincat was coming home (he’s a Farmington Hills native) and being around family and friends, and playing for the Wings, were all factors that made this particular move to a new team much easier.

DeBrincat and Kane have uncommon chemistry on the ice, seemingly knowing constantly where each other is on the ice. There was skepticism by many analysts that Kane wouldn’t be able to return to his elite level of play after the hip surgery. But Kane did, nearly averaging a point per game (47 points in 50 games).

DeBrincat wasn’t surprised by Kane’s stellar comeback. “Not at all,” DeBrincat said. “A lot of people maybe doubted what he could do when he came back, but I’ve seen how hard he works and I’ve seen what he does on the ice. If anyone is going to do that (return), I knew it was going to be him, and to come back and effective right away I wasn’t really surprised.” “Like I said, he’s a huge part of our team and we’d love him to be back,” he said.