Kasper Thriving in Top Line Learning Experience

20-year-old Red Wings rookie Marco Kasper has enjoyed a promotion in recent weeks, moving up to Detroit's top line, beside captain Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.  It's a move that's paid dividends for Kasper as an individual and for the line.

Since Jan. 10, Kasper has seven points in eight games.  As a trio, per MoneyPuck, that group has played just shy of 100 minutes together, earning a 55.4% share of expected goals and a 54.5% share of actual goals—all while facing elite competition on a regular basis.  The former figure is tops among Detroit lines that have played 70+ minutes together.

When asked about the impact of the move to a top line winger role (from the fourth line center one he had been tackling), Todd McLellan said of Kasper, "The first change, and it's a really good change, is more ice time.  Second change, and I think it's a positive one, he's playing against top players on a nightly basis.  Whether we're at home or on the road, teams are matching against Larks' line, so it forces him to have a real sharp game night after night.  The negative, or a positive, is that he's gone from the position where we drafted him and want him to play to a position where it's probably gonna end up being part-time.  He's probably gonna end up going back to the middle, but right now, we want to play him up there and get him as much experience against some of the best players in the world."

He added that Kasper's industriousness has helped put Larkin and Raymond in positions to succeed, saying, "There's a reason Larkin and Raymond have [the puck] so much...It's cause somebody has to loosen it up and forecheck and create, so I think they're all connected.  It doesn't matter who has it on their [stick].  If they're not playing well, somebody on that line is sleepy or not quite getting the job done."

While Kasper, as McLellan said, is presumably bound to return to a center role eventually, his experience on the wing with Larkin and Raymond has clearly proved educational and beneficial.  In the featured video above, I spoke more to the ways the move has put Kasper in positions to play the best of his game.

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