{"id":557697,"date":"2026-04-22T05:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557697\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:02:22","slug":"kasper-an-enigma-for-red-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557697\/","title":{"rendered":"Kasper an Enigma For Red Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Marco Kasper<\/a> scored 19 goals in his rookie season with the Detroit<\/a> Red Wings, the fan base went all Charles Dickens in celebration of the event.<\/p>\n

There were great expectations for Kasper everywhere you looked. <\/p>\n

Maybe even between Kasper\u2019s ears, wondered Red Wings coach Todd McLellan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe when he goes home in the summer, his mind is thinking, \u2018You know, that way it\u2019s going to be a 25-goal year (next season),’\u201d McLellan said. <\/p>\n

We know by now it wasn\u2019t. Not even close.<\/p>\n

The sophomore jinx came down on top of Kasper<\/a> like a ton of bricks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard as a sophomore to come back and really understand what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cYou have to experience it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boy, did Kasper ever experience it. <\/p>\n

The Austrian forward counted one point, a goal, through his first 10 games. Despite mostly playing at center, Kasper went 30 games before collecting his first assist of the season. He endured a 36-game goalless drought.<\/p>\n

At season\u2019s end, Kasper\u2019s totals were a dismal nine goals and 19 points in 81 games. His minus-20 rating was the worst of any Red Wings forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a frustrating year for me personally, especially not scoring much,\u201d Kasper said. \u201cI think chances have been there. I mean, obviously, you gotta find a way to put it more in the back of your head to execute more and even create more, so that you even have more opportunities and it\u2019s progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLellan does believe that Kasper let his struggles overwhelm his psyche at times this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if he could let go of it sometimes when he had to,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cBut he wasn\u2019t pouting, he wasn\u2019t sulking, he didn\u2019t get lazy. He probably held onto it a little bit too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Wings Expecting More From Kasper<\/p>\n

On the one hand, McLellan doesn\u2019t think that the real Kasper<\/a> was the one who tabulated points so effortlessly during the second half of the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure he had a complete rookie year,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cI think from Christmas on, he, or maybe even January on, he started to really click. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at his analytics, his stats. I think his shooting percentage from the point of the coaching change to the end of the year was 36% or something like that. It\u2019s very unrealistic that anybody\u2019s going to stay at that pace. It\u2019s never happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we knew that he would come back down to earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t think that Kasper would come down to earth with such a thud, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively, I think there\u2019s more in Marco,\u201d McLellan<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

That being the case, the last thing the coach wanted to do was pressure Kasper about increasing his offensive output.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate him for what he\u2019s done, and he did score more since we quit asking those questions (about his lack of offense) or trying to get it out of him,\u201d McLellan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked more comfortable, more confident. He was physical. He\u2019s a more effective player that way. Yes, he has to do those things, and he\u2019ll get his chances and his goals. If he goes out onto the ice thinking the other way, well, then it doesn\u2019t quite work for him.\u201d <\/p>\n

There were indications of improvement in the second half of the season. Seven of Kasper\u2019s nine goals came during Detroit\u2019s final 32 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless, he\u2019s mature now,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cHe\u2019s grown up. He\u2019s been through some really good times and some bad times. And, based on the way he carries himself and his drive, it should allow him to be a better player in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fought his way through. He\u2019s given us some good games, and we know he\u2019s going to be a big part of our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does a lot of things really well for our hockey club, and we\u2019re lucky to have him.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Marco Kasper scored 19 goals in his rookie season with the Detroit Red Wings, the fan base…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,1511,93,5137,5,3846,4,3358,5138,1930],"class_list":{"0":"post-557697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-red-wings","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-hockey-now","10":"tag-detroit-red-wings","11":"tag-detroitredwings","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-marco-kasper","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-red-wings","16":"tag-redwings","17":"tag-todd-mclellan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116446607629995040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}