When it comes to NHL fighting and hitting, the team in red is not one that leaves opponents black and blue.

A study/story by Rotowire says in 2024-25, the Detroit Red Wings were among the NHL’s less aggressive teams based on the number of hits they delivered and how many fights they had. According to Rotowire’s number crunching, the Red Wings tied the Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers for 29th in the NHL for involvement in the rough stuff.

The only team with less physical involvement was the Dallas Stars who are officially sitting in 32nd place.

While the Red Wings have said publicly that they would like to become a tougher team, there is evidence in the Rotowire ranking that leads to a conclusion that roughing it up doesn’t help as much as we think it does.

Of the 10 most aggressive teams last season, only the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (fourth), St. Louis Blues (fifth) and Ottawa Senators (tied for seventh) made the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the least aggressive group includes the Stars and Oilers who both went far in the playoffs. The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Final and the Stars reached the Conference Finals. The Tampa Bay Lightning (26th), Winnipeg Jets (27th) and the Vegas Golden Knights (28th) win plenty of games while being rather low on the list of aggressive teams.

Not Enough Crunchers

When it comes to number of hits, the Red Wings  ranked 24th with an average of 18.94 per game. The Lightning (17.43 per game) is the only Atlantic Division opponent with fewer than Detroit.

The Red Wings’ raw hits total for 2024-25 is 1,570 and 40.5% of those came from four players — Moritz Seider (212), Marco Kasper (156), Michael Rasmussen (144) and Ben Chiarot (142).

While the study shows that being aggressive doesn’t guarantee NHL team success, the general consensus around the league remains that team toughness is important, particularly in the postseason.

The Red Wings have a heavy hitter in the pipeline in defenseman Anton Johansson. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, the 2023 first rounder, has some pushback in his game. But adding size and toughness is still one of the objectives the Red Wings have when they look at acquiring players. The issue: teams don’t often make those kind of players available for trade.