I'm predicting big 2020-21 season for Detroit Red Wings' Tyler Bertuzzi. Here's why
Helene St. JamesHe led his team in goals and amassed a career high in assists and points.
In this edition of Detroit Red Wings' Fast Forward, a series that projects how a player will perform in 2020-21, the subject is forward Tyler Bertuzzi.
Bertuzzi, 25, began the 2019-20 season with a splash, posting two goals and three assists in the first two games. When the NHL paused the season March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic, he had 21 goals and 27 assists in 71 games, matching his goal output from 2018-19, which was his first full NHL season. His 48 points ranked second behind Dylan Larkin’s 53.
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Bertuzzi has emerged as a rebuilding block since being drafted with a bonus pick in 2013, when the Wings acquired the 58th overall pick as part of the trade with San Jose to swap first-round picks (the Sharks selected defenseman Mirco Mueller at 18th; the Wings drafted Anthony Mantha at 20th).
Bertuzzi spent a little more than two seasons with the Grand Rapids Griffins and was named playoff MVP in their 2017 Calder Cup championship (nine goals, 10 assists in 19 games). One of the reasons the Wings traded forward Tomas Tatar in 2018 was to create an opening to bring up Bertuzzi from the minors.
He was the team’s best player in the first half, which saw him accumulate 14 goals and 16 assists in 38 games at the time of the Christmas break. The longest he went without a point was a four-game stretch in late November. His play earned him an invitation to be the Wings’ representative at the 2020 All-Star Game.
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Bertuzzi is a smart player, but he also brings grit and a knack for getting under an opponent’s skin. He’s generally a hard worker, but his production did drop in the second half (seven goals, 11 assists in 33 games after Christmas). He seemed to have righted himself just before the shut down, when he scored goals in three straight games.
Bertuzzi has hovered near 50 points two years in a row. That will help his cause in the offseason, as he’s a restricted free agent. He is coming off a two-year, $2.8 million contract ($1.4 million salary-cap hit) and is likely to be signed to a four- or five-year contract in the $4.5 million annually range.
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Bertuzzi, 6-foot-1 and 199 pounds, isn’t a fluid skater, but makes up for it with grit and savvy. He’s effective in front of the net and at digging pucks out of corners. He has developed excellent chemistry with Larkin and Mantha.
He projects in the 25-goal, 55-point range for next season (based on an 82-game season, which the NHL has said there will be in 2020-21 even if the pandemic delays the start until January). If general manager Steve Yzerman makes improvements to the team — such as adding a puck-moving defenseman and shoring up goaltending — Bertuzzi could flirt with the 30-goal mark.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings will be published in October. To preorder, go to Amazon.