Lucas Raymond had a slow start to the 2026-27 season, but he has quickly emerged as one of the lone bright spots on the Red Wings.
In Tuesday’s loss against the St. Louis Blues, Raymond provided assists on Andrew Copp’s first-period goal at 19:47 and Moritz Seider’s third-period goal at 18:46. While it wasn’t enough to beat the Blues, Raymond nevertheless made his presence known.
That has become a running theme for Raymond as of late, considering the way he started the season. In Detroit’s first eight games, Raymond compiled four points and no goals.
What was more frustrating? Raymond fired 23 shots on goal. Throughout his first few seasons in the league, firing the puck more was a weakness. That wasn’t the case early, and Raymond wasn’t rewarded for his efforts.
Ironically, since Detroit’s shootout loss on Oct. 20 against the Seattle Kraken, Raymond has been producing at another level. Despite the Red Wings falling to 4-6-1 in that stretch, Raymond has put up 14 points and six goals, proving that he can potentially reach or surpass the point-per-game milestone in 2026-27.
Raymond Remains Bright Spot Amid Red Wings’ Offensive Woes
The problem is the timing. While it’s always great to see a young player on a young team exceed expectations, the Red Wings have given Raymond little help.
And it isn’t like this team is devoid of talent, with Alex DeBrincat, Viktor Arvidsson, Emmitt Finnie, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard showing high-scoring potential. Moritz Seider can produce from the blue line, and Justin Faulk is still a fair point producer.
But scoring 31 goals in the last 11 games as a team isn’t going to cut it, even with Raymond’s outburst in production.
What might be the most frustrating statistic? Detroit has allowed just 35 goals in that same span. They are scoring 2.8 goals per game and allowing 3.2. The latter could be lower, but it’s still manageable — 269 goals over an 84-game pace.
Detroit’s Point-Producers Must Get Closer To Raymond In Consistency
One can argue that Andrew Copp has been Detroit’s second-best point producer in that 11-game span. Since the beginning of November. Copp has five points and a goal, starting when the Red Wings beat the Florida Panthers on Nov. 2. But unlike Raymond, Copp isn’t known for his production.
DeBrincat, Arvidsson, Finnie, Brandsegg-Nygard, and Co. have since cooled off. If Raymond keeps up his consistency — and he has done a good job of doing that in the past — and Detroit’s high-potential producers get going again, they can turn their luck around rather quickly.
That said, 19 games into the season, Detroit is already on the cusp of the quarter-way mark of 2026-27. There may be a lot of hockey left, but those early-stage playoff races will heat up quickly.
So Detroit must up the sense of urgency before they fall too far behind in the brewing wild card race and keep things manageable. Defensively, that means keeping opponents in check in ways the Red Wings have mostly been doing.
Offensively? It means taking head coach Todd McLellan’s words following that 3-2 loss to St. Louis to heart. Detroit can turn things around on Thursday when they meet up with the Panthers.
Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond Bucks Troubling Trend Amid Losing Streak