Relative just means relative to their own teammates. It's just saying they're much better than the other red wings. The xga is a much better stat to compare players from different teams.
That’s fine. The point of the chart was just the QoC metric, not the relative CF color scale. The players they face have the highest relative CF on their own teams, ie the best players on each team. They face the hardest competition in the league among that list of pairings (and actually in the entire NHL if you plot all defensemen), and manage a good xGA in that deployment. That’s why they are a top pairing in the league.
If the wings had any other dmen above 6/7D, they’d be 10x better. Chiarot is a decent 6D with good physicality. Petry, Holl, Gustafsson are all not NHL level players. Johansson shows promise but Lalonde doesn’t let him play. Raymond, Ed and Seider are the main reason the team isn’t 32nd.
This is why Wings fans still have some hope. Because the players Yzerman have drafted all actually look really good. It’s his FA signings and pro scouting that are truly abysmal. If the trend continues and ASP/Danielson/Cossa/MBN/buchelnikov/augustine + this years pick live up to their potential, we think we can do some damage. But obviously the pro scouting and UFA work has to get way better too. Stevie has definitely shit the bed in that department so far.