Detroit Red Wings' Alex DeBrincat wants to be 'a great player.' Here's his next steps
Alex DeBrincat's start with the Detroit Red Wings teased what an impact he could make: 11 goals and seven assists in 18 games before Thanksgiving.
By Christmas, he had 15 goals and 17 assists, for 32 points in 34 games. But then he started to slow down: At the season's midpoint in January, he was at 17 goals, with 38 points in 41 games.
That he finished his first season with his hometown NHL team at 27 goals and 67 points in 82 games tells the story of his second half: Not good enough. His quietest stretch came in the 19 games from Feb. 29-April 10 — so all of March, when the Wings were trying to get back inside the playoff picture — when he had just one goal and six assists.
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"I would have loved to be more consistent," DeBrincat said a couple days after the season ended in April. "When you're going through those slumps, there’s still other things you can do to be effective and be beneficial for the team. Those are things I try to do.
"Each year in this league, I think I’ve gotten better every year, so hopeful 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."
DeBrincat's past as a two-time 40-goal scorer — most recently in 2021-22, the last of his five seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks — was a key reason why general manager Steve Yzerman acquired the 5-foot-8, 180-pound native of Farmington Hills last summer. It helped that DeBrincat, 26, wanted out of Ottawa, leading to a trade that only cost the Wings forward Dominik Kubalik, prospect Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 first-round pick and Detroit's 2024 fourth-round selection.
DeBrincat fit in with Yzerman's offseason plan to add more scoring, and debuted Oct. 12 on a line with Dylan Larkin and David Perron. DeBrincat scored in his first game, and twice in his second. In November, he added another dividend, as he was cited by former Blackhawks teammate Patrick Kane as one of the reasons for choosing the Wings for his comeback.
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Whether Kane returns is up in the air, but the Wings are grounded to DeBrincat through 2026-27 with an annual salary cap hit of $7.875 million, second last season among Wings only to Larkin's $8.7 million. DeBrincat did seem to have a stretch of bad luck, in which his usually reliable shot hit a crossbar or a post, and he rediscovered his scoring touch in the last week, with setting up all three scores in Lucas Raymond's hat trick April 11 against the Penguins in Pittsburgh and scoring twice himself two days later in Toronto. Over the last four games of the season, his seven points helped the Wings bank seven points.
"I had a blast," DeBrincat said. "This is probably the best team I’ve been a part of, probably the most fun year. As a team, we’re right there. It’s a tough way to get out.
"We know we can be in the mix and be a really good team. We just have to do it more often. I think there were too many lulls in the season where we weren’t playing well and it went on for too long. When we play the right way, we’re a really good team and we can beat anyone in the league."
Having missed out on a playoff spot this spring by virtue of a tiebreaker, the Wings are setting expectations higher for next season. That holds for DeBrincat, too, as he seeks to be a more consistent scorer.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Alex DeBrincat seeks consistency as he grows with Detroit Red Wings
