from Sam McCaig of The Hockey News,

It will probably get worse for Detroit, too, before it gets better. They’re in the bottoming-out phase of a full-blown rebuild. Steve Yzerman, in his first year as the Wings’ GM, appears content to let the season play out and see what he has among the team’s current group of players. Plus, Yzerman surely plans to weaken the lineup further by trading roster players for picks and prospects at the deadline.

At least there’s some good news in all of this. The bad veteran contracts are starting to come off the books. The Wings have accumulated some top-10 draft picks in the past few seasons and can look to hot-shot prospects such as Filip Zadina and Moritz Seider to be the building blocks for the future. And, given that they’re virtually guaranteed to finish last overall this season, the Wings are the odds-on favorite to win the draft lottery and No. 1 pick in June.

So there’s hope for the future, even if there’s pain in the present. And to be sure, the Wings are bad, real bad. Here are 10 stats that speak to their struggles:

.259 points percentage

Not only are the Wings the worst team in the NHL this season, their points percentage says they’re the worst team in the NHL in the past 20 seasons. Not since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers went 14-57-11 in their expansion debut, which translates to a .238 points percentage, has the league seen a train wreck like this.

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