Justin Abdelkader has come a long way since making his debut at age 21 in the 2007-08 season.
Since Pavel Datsyuk returned to Russia, Abdelkader has become one of the Red Wings' alternate captains and one of the more vocal leaders on the team.
Abdelkader's versatility is vital to the team as he can play on any line and on both the penalty kill and the power play as a net-front presence.
Now Abdelkader's goal is to return to the form that made him a 23-goal scorer in the 2014-15 season and help the Wings get back to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
200-- On Oct. 26 at Tampa Bay in a 3-2 loss, Abdelkader got the second assist on Frans Nielsen's power-play goal at 18:11 of the third period, which was his 200th career point. Gustav Nyquist had the primary assist. Abdelkader played 21:03, had two shots and five hits. He finished the season with 230 points.
100 -- In the final game of the regular season, on April 7 at home against the New York Islanders, Abdelkader scored a second period power-play goal at 11:58 of the second period, giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. The goal was the 100th of Abdelkader's career. The Islanders prevailed in overtime, 4-3.
600 -- On Feb. 28 at St. Louis, Abdelkader skated in his 600th career NHL game. In the 2-1 road loss, Abdelkader played 20:48, was minus-1 and had two shots. Abdelkader finished the season with 619 games.
7 -- The Wings were relatively healthy this past season but Abdelkader missed seven games, six of them to a lower-body injury after the bye from Jan. 14-25. But that was a far cry from the 18 he missed the previous season. Danny DeKeyser (17), Mike Green (16), Luke Glendening (13), Luke Witkowski (10) and Martin Frk (8) were the only Wings who missed more games. Darren Helm, who was injured in the same game after the bye in Pittsburgh on Jan. 13, also missed seven games.
78 -- Abdelkader led the Wings with 78 penalty minutes, which ranked tied for 22nd in the league. Witkowski was second with 68 penalty minutes, although he achieved that in 31 games as opposed to Abdelkader's 75.
174 -- Abdelkader was also the team leader with 174 hits, which was tied for 33rd in the league. Glendening was second on the team with 137 hits. Jonathan Ericsson was third with 133 and Helm was fourth with 131.
3 -- For the first time in his career, Abdelkader had three straight multi-point games from Nov. 17-19. He had two assists in a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 17, a goal and an assist in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 19 and two assists in a 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 22.
35 -- Abdelkader had 35 points, which was fifth on the team. Dylan Larkin led the team with 63 points, captain Henrik Zetterberg was second with 56, Anthony Mantha was third with 48 and Nyquist was fourth with 40.
