{"id":30840,"date":"2018-06-13T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=30840"},"modified":"2018-06-12T22:08:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T02:08:49","slug":"detroit-red-wings-welcome-return-of-henrik-zetterberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/06\/13\/detroit-red-wings-welcome-return-of-henrik-zetterberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Red Wings Welcome Return of Henrik Zetterberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/red-wings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a> forward and team captain <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zettehe01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henrik Zetterberg<\/a><\/strong> announced last week that he will return for the 2018-19 season. The Swede will turn 38 in October and will be one of the elder statesmen on the team. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/franzjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Johan Franzen<\/a><\/strong> is currently the oldest member on the team at this time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What Henrik Zetterberg has to say on his future with the Detroit Red Wings <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/114XS3AByP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/114XS3AByP<\/a> via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/freep?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@freep<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HeleneStJames\/status\/1004382511949078528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Zetterberg told the<em> Detroit Free Press<\/em> last Wednesday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nhl\/2018\/06\/06\/detroit-red-wings-henrik-zetterberg-return\/679509002\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he would come back for his 16<sup>th<\/sup> season<\/a> with the club. He was undecided at the end of the season because of back problems, but those seem to be behind him.<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 Stanley Cup winner has three seasons left on his 12-year deal that he signed in 2009. However, a herniated disc in his back in 2014 cast his future into doubt. However, he\u2019s said that he is ready to go for the next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m in training and looking forward to a better season,\u201d Zetterberg told the <em>Free Press<\/em> last week.<\/p>\n<p>His return to the team will be helpful to a young squad with little expectations this season.<\/p>\n<h2>Henrik Zetterberg and His Veteran Presence<\/h2>\n<p>Zetterberg is the Red Wings captain and brings a steadying influence to the team. He\u2019s seen it all in his long career from the depths to the heights. The 2006 Olympic gold medalist has been a rock since he first donned the \u201cC\u201d in 2012-13.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been influential to players like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/larkidy01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dylan Larkin<\/a>,<\/strong> who many think will be the next team captain. Zetterberg has taught Larkin to be a more complete player that plays a full 60 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Larkin will be entrusted with the team\u2019s future and Zetterberg is making sure that Detroit is in good hands. The younger players would do well to soak in all of his knowledge in what time he\u2019s got left in his playing career.<\/p>\n<h2>Durability<\/h2>\n<p>Zetterberg played in all 82 games over the last three seasons despite various injuries. He\u2019s played in at least 75 games a total of 10 times in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Jeff Blashill can count on his captain to be in the lineup despite some production issues the last season. Zetterberg only scored 11 goals last year and last topped 20 goals in the 2011-12 season.<\/p>\n<p>However, he\u2019s been a solid playmaker that\u2019s topped 25 assists per season since his sophomore campaign. He is also one of the most intelligent players on the roster and a key cog on defense. His average time on ice has been over 19 minutes a season since 2006-07.<\/p>\n<p>Hockey is a hard game and Zetterberg puts in a lot of hard minutes despite his increasing age. He has been a true workhorse for Detroit.<\/p>\n<h2>Milestones<\/h2>\n<p>Henrik Zetterberg stands 40 points shy of the 1,000-point mark at 960. The 2006 IIHF World Champion has topped 40 points in every one of his 16 NHL seasons.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s likely that the Red Wings are in line to be near the bottom of the league. However, Zetterberg wil give the fans something to look forward to in a long season.<\/p>\n<p>He has been a fixture for the Wings for nearly two decades and will be given a great ovation when he does hit 1,000 points.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image Credit:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/939784782\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 75.084175% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/939784782?et=g9gzKywYSVld81VG70w8sg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=hBnDhJ_JVMvNkZOx4dldo9AKcKK3HaEVHx9GXsNsk3k=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"446\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran Detroit Red Wings forward and team captain Henrik Zetterberg announced last week that he will return for the 2018-19 season. The Swede will turn 38 in October and will be one of the elder statesmen on the team. Johan Franzen is currently the oldest member on the team at this time. What Henrik Zetterberg [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":30850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95,344,292,343,3404],"class_list":["post-30840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redwings","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-dylan-larkin","tag-henrik-zetterberg","tag-jeff-blashill","tag-johan-franzen"],"modified_by":"Tyger Allen, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}