I think part of Nielsen's decline is the role he's been asked to play.
Over the last two seasons, he's become a defensive center while Blashill reinvents Glendening as a top 9 or top 6 winger for some ****ing reason.
But even in Nielsen's first year, I don't think he gave us $5M worth of hockey.
And I know that a lot of people take the "Blash has nothing to work with angle."
But his inability to come up with lines and stick with lines is absolutely killing guys.
2 points in 32 games isn't something I'd hang on Blashill. I think Nielsen has been exposed a bit out of necessity in Detroit, but there is something about his play that is just off this year. He just doesn't look right out there. But if he's not going to produce, I'm not sure what else to do with him but play him as a defensive center.
I'm not saying I think Nielsen ever fully deserved the contract he got, but this season also isn't how he's played the past few years. this isn't like Holland giving Gator a retirement deal.
Agreed. I never understood the Nielsen contract.
Look at our center situation that summer. Datsyuk left, Z looked like he may not play center again after hitting the wall the previous season coming back from surgery, Helm couldn't (still can't) hold up to the rigors of the position over the course of a season, and Larkin still hadn't played the position for any length of time after riding shotgun on Z's wing. The only center we could really count on was Glendening. The Wings needed a center, and one that could potentially play a lot of minutes.
while that's certainly true on some level it's also an argument against signing 32 year olds to 6 year contracts in the first place
it may be unexpected that he's fallen off this suddenly but it's certainly not shocking at his age
like yeah maybe you risk it anyways for a star but Nielsen was never that
I don't disagree on the idea of not signing guys his age to that contract. At the same time, he has a long history of being productive, and in the three previous seasons with us he went from seasons of 41, 33, and 35 points. This year I think he's pacing for like 6 points. If Nielsen is relatively healthy and this is just his new norm, that's not a normal drop off
