It is tough to predict what some of the star Detroit Red Wings players will do this season based off of last year's statistics, as pretty much every key player on the roster missed a fairly significant chunk of time due to injury.
Nevertheless, several players on Detroit can be extremely valuable if they do not have such rotten injury luck in 2014-15. Here are the top five.
1. LW Henrik Zetterberg
The Detroit captain is still the most valuable player wearing the winged wheel, and he finished third on the team in points scored last year despite playing in just 45 games. In a full slate of games, Zetterberg still has the capability to be a 100-plus-point player.
Zetterberg had a plus-19 rating last season; the best on the team.
2. D Niklas Kronwall
2014-15 will be Kronwall's third season as Detroit's top d-man, and he has proven worthy of the job. Defensemen do not score as often as forwards, so Kronwall's numbers of eight goals and 41 assists (tied for the team lead in points last season) are that much more impressive.
The negative about Kronwall is that his plus-minus may not be great unless the Red Wings trade for another top-tier defenseman, as he will be playing many minutes against the opposition's best players every night without another star at his side.
3. C Pavel Datsyuk
The "magic man" is still an elite player, but something was definitely off in his injury-riddled 2013-14 season. Like Zetterberg, he played in just 45 games. Unlike Zetterberg, however, he only had a plus-one rating.
Datsyuk's 2013-14 season did not compare favorably to his 2013, one in which he played nearly the same amount of games due to the lockout.
In 2013, Datsyuk had fifteen goals, 34 assists and a plus-21 rating.
Last year, he had seventeen goals, but just twenty assists and the afore mentioned plus-one rating.
Maybe he was playing injured. Who knows. But we still saw greatness out of arguably the most exciting player in the game even at age 35 and we should continue to expect greatness out of him even at age 36.
4. G Jimmy Howard
The Red Wing netminder admitted that he had a disappointing season in 2013-14, and will surely be better this upcoming year.
To be fair, Howard did not have too deep of a defensive group in front of him, and several key defensemen (like Jonathan Ericsson) missed games due to, you guessed it, injuries.
This year, he will have a very similar group of defensemen in front of him as GM Ken Holland failed to sign a top notch blueliner in free agency, but this season's group should be healthier and more experienced. Not to mention that Holland still may have a trade up his sleeve.
Howard has proven throughout the course of his career that he can be a standout goaltender. 2014-15 may be a year to remember for him.
5. RW Gustav Nyquist
Nyquist exploded onto the scene last season and was arguably Detroit's MVP. He had 28 goals and 20 assists in 57 games with a plus-sixteen rating and a team-leading six game-winners.
He will play in a full slate of games this year (barring injury, of course) and can become the team's next big star if last year's performance was any indication of what he is capable of.