David Perron has not been the same for the Detroit Red Wings in ’23-24

The Detroit Red Wings are bringing in Patrick Kane to their roster after signing him and getting him acclimated in his new home. That will require them to shift things around in the forward core. One of those moves may be shifting David Perron downward.

Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron has taken some regressions in terms of being the player he was in 2022-23. He has not settled back into the 2023-24 as quite the same player. Given the Red Wings’ uptick in offense, it’s alright.

I do not want to point the finger at age and play the age card right off the bat, but Perron is only getting older and is going to begin to run out of gas, regardless. The now 35-year-old winger will have to find ways to keep his game intact to be a beneficial part of the Red Wings.

The good news is Perron’s contract will be over after this year, and he is not tied up on some lengthy deal. Not that Perron needs to be done away with right now, but not having to eat a few years on a lengthy contract is undoubtedly a good thing.

Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron is not quite the same player he was.

Last season, David Perron managed 24 goals and 32 assists for 56 total points over 82 games played. He performed around a 0.68 point-per-game rate. He was also able to get the job done on the powerplay, helping out when the Red Wings had a man advantage. 39% of his points last season came while on the powerplay.

For the Red Wings veteran, 2023-24 has not been quite as kind. In 2023-24, Perron has seven goals and six assists for 13 points over 24 games. He’s performed to a 0.54 point-per-game rate and is on pace for about 45 points in 2023-24. This season, he has managed 54% of his points scored on the powerplay.

It may only be a menial regression, but something must be said about his performance. The success has been on the powerplay and certainly helped in that regard, but in 5-on-5 situations, Perron has not exactly been that same veteran boost of offense.

With some changes coming as Derek Lalonde wants to shuffle his deck, the Red Wings may need to consider moving Perron down.

They can continue to deploy him on the powerplay unit to hopefully keep churning some points, but the Red Wings may want to consider this change.