Sometimes, the grass is greener on the other side.
Sometimes, it’s brown, dead, and ugly — which is kind of like Tyler Bertuzzi’s career post-Detroit Red Wings.
The 58th overall pick in the 2013 entry draft is in his ninth NHL season. Somehow, he has gone from one of the top players on the Red Wings to a middle-six forward on every team afterward.
Bertuzzi’s best season came in 2021-22. He played 68 games for the Red Wings, recording 30 goals, 32 assists, and 62 points while playing 19:52 a night. The winger hasn’t been able to replicate the 0.91 points per game pace ever since.
During the 2022-23 season, Bertuzzi was traded to the Boston Bruins. There, he saw an uptick in production. He went from 14 points in 29 games with the Red Wings to 16 in 21 games with the Bruins.
Things were looking up.
On July 2nd, 2023, Bertuzzi signed a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He would see the ice with all of the Leafs’ top players: Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander.
Despite this premiere deployment, he scored 43 points in 80 games. That production is nothing to scoff at; however, it represented another decline in offensive numbers.
The previous season, he recorded a 0.60 points per game pace between the Red Wings and Bruins, with the Leafs, that dropped to 0.54. With the Chicago Blackhawks this year, that has further plummeted to 0.38 points per game.
It’s not uncommon for a player to experience a big decline like this, especially one who isn’t afraid to muck it up, who is also turning 30 in February. The rate of decline certainly presents some concerns for the Blackhawks.
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