Luke Glendening recovered well from offseason ankle surgery and did not show any aftereffects during the season.
Unfortunately for the veteran center, he missed double-digit games again due to an injury he suffered in Philadelphia before Christmas.
Ironically, he made his return to the lineup in Philadelphia a month later.
With the expected absence of captain Henrik Zetterberg at least at the start of the season due to back problems, the Red Wings will rely on Glendening for important face-offs, especially in the defensive zone.
Glendening, 29, is entering the second year of his four-year, $7.2 million contract, which has an annual cap hit of $1.8 million.
300 -- On Oct. 18 at Toronto, Glendening skated in his 300th career NHL game. Glendening played 10:17 and finished even, had two hits and one blocked shot. The Wings dropped a 6-3 decision to the Maple Leafs.
13 -- The Wings remained a relatively healthy group in 2017-18 but Glendening was not one of the fortunate ones. On Dec. 20 at Philadelphia, Glendening suffered an upper-body injury early in the first period. He missed 12 games from Dec. 23-Jan. 22. He missed one additional game on April 5 due to a different upper-body injury. Only Danny DeKeyser (17) and Mike Green (16) missed more games.
2 -- The Wings were a consistent offensive threat when playing shorthanded this past season. Glendening scored two shorthanded goals, tied with Dylan Larkin, Darren Helm and Frans Nielsen for the team lead. They were tied for 15th in the league in that category. Glendening also had two assists on Jan. 23 at Philadelphia, his first career multi-assist game.
3 -- In addition to his two shorthanded goals, Glendening also contributed a shorthanded assist, giving him three shorthanded points. That tied him for second on the team with Larkin, Nielsen and Trevor Daley. Helm led the team with four shorthanded points. 58 - Glendening finished with a 58 percent face-off percentage, best on the team among those players who regularly took face-offs. He was tied for fifth in the league in that category.
137 -- Glendening finished the season with 137 hits, second on the team. Only Justin Abdelkader had more with 174. Jonathan Ericsson was third with 133 and Darren Helm was fourth with 131.
11 -- The 11 goals Glendening scored this past season were the second most in his career. His previous career best was 12 goals in the 2014-15 season. Zetterberg and Martin Frk each scored 11 goals also.
83 -- Although he played just 69 games, Glendening finished sixth on the team in blocked shots with 83 but led all forwards in that category. Trevor Daley and Danny DeKeyser were first with 125 each, Niklas Kronwall had 107, Nick Jensen had 88 and Ericsson had 84.
