Detroit did not have a strong summer
The Red Wings have been fairly quiet since the entry draft and free agency. Apart from Dylan Larkin’s Olympic invite and announcements regarding the team’s 100th anniversary, not much has been happening in Detroit. This isn’t the offseason that fans were hoping to see after the team missed the post season for the ninth straight year.
The addition of goaltender John Gibson may stand out as the most important roster add for Steve Yzerman this year. The team wasn’t able to find or acquire a top forward or defenseman in a sparse and competitive market. While some new faces may bring a potential boost, it doesn’t seem like the team has improved in any significant way. That is going to make life in the Atlantic Division extremely difficult for the Red Wings.
The Red Wings may be better, but not good enough yet
There are multiple areas of potential improvement heading into the year. Simon Edvinsson will be playing his second full season, Coach Todd McLellan has had an entire summer to work on the team’s systems, including a league worst penalty kill. Prospect Nate Danielson seems to have a lot of enthusiasm behind him, and could break out for Detroit. The team is seeing the draft and develop model add to the core, and that is the heart of the “Yzerplan”.
In another setting, these incremental growths may be enough to see greater success in the regular season. The Atlantic Division now boasts four Stanley Cups in the past six years, and the top teams don’t seem to be going anywhere. The top three spots seem to be reserved for the Florida Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafsand the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are dealing with an aging core and may be headed to a reset, but for now they seem to be a post season lock. The chase for a wild card spot sees three rebuilding teams all in the thick of battle. Detroit lost out to both Ottawa and Montreal last year, and it’s hard to see either of those teams slipping this season.
The Atlantic Division may be the strongest in the NHL
Five teams from the Atlantic Division made it to the post season last year. The Metropolitan Division was unable to secure a spot beyond the three guaranteed places. If that changes, Detroit will be battling with both Ottawa and Montreal for a single wild card spot. This is the heart of the issue that the Red Wings may not be able to overcome.
If Steve Yzerman is unable to find a way to reinforce the defense in particular, the blue line is just not equipped to compete yet. Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson seem to be the only enthusiastic locks for top four service. The rest of the defensive roster, at this point, would be battling for bottom pairing duty on any competitive team in the NHL.
All eyes will likely be on Axel Sandin-Pellikka in just over a month. ASP’s offensive abilities have been well documented. The question of how quickly ASP can be ready for an NHL spot will likely be answered during the pre season. For now, the defense remains largely unchanged for last season. That could be the deciding factor in Detroit’s success or failure.
Don’t understand what Yzerman’s vision for this team is. He came here with such high praise and expectations, and has failed to deliver. How much longer will they stick with him?
I don’t think most of us, myself included, thought every player but one from opening night 2019 would be gone. This was as much a start from scratch as I’ve ever seen. Larkin, Rasmussen and Berggren are all that are left from Holland, (Ras and Burgers were in GR in 2019). I have no idea where ownership is at, but I think it’s more patient than the rest of us at this point.
It is the same old problem as last summer and the summer before, there has not been a move to acquire a top 4 D-man. It would boost this team and keep the goaltenders from becoming cannon fodder and suffer from PTSD in the last 1/3 of the season. Acquiring D-men that could not nail down a roster spot on previous teams is only a solution for depth…depth as a 6-7 defender and being a press box minute muncher is not much help for the team.
The second issue is to gain more 5 on 5 scoring. The PP saw the majority of scoring …OK, but a more balanced attack is necessary, JvR and Appleton and Leonord are not scoring machines.
The 3rd issue that needs to be addressed more is the PK. The PK was dreadful last year and the only player acquired to help that this summer was Appleton. Coaching and the system implemented needs to change also.
Yeah, the D and the PK especially. Historic league worst on the PK. I had a recent back and forth where the “devil’s advocate” was a weak market and free agents not wanting to come to Detroit. The free agent signings have been awful, almost across the board. The D in particular. I acquiesced that free agents don’t want to come, but that is also on the shoulders of the current rebuild. The environment is very welcoming. I think some things will be incrementally better (JVR could help depth scoring at even strength, Gibson has been cool under pressure in the past) but the team needed a big step forward with this Division. If they pull off a miracle deal before the season, that would help for sure.
At the end of the day, in order to seriously contend, the division would need to invert and we need to completely stack this team. We have some really good kids germinating in the “A”, in college, and across Europe. Development is, of course, critical, and time frankly is our enemy: Our fan-base is demanding and will want heads on pikes if the drought continues. I think the players feel that as well.
This off-season was really odd to watch: Guys all over the place in the news, available, not available, huge offers pending…..then the bottom dropped out with the guys not even taking The Captain’s calls. That’s not overly wild, but would think at least someone would have picked up the phone. I get it; why listen to a team that’s been in the dregs of the league for 9 years and isn’t a true SCPO contender let along SCF contender/ Makes sense. But something good’s growing in the team and down on the farm. And I’m surprised someone wouldn’t want to be part of building, or RE-building, the legacy that is HockeyTown.
We have some studs growing and starting to make waves. I think Mazur may well be breaking bread with the Big Club, and wouldn’t be surprised if MBN is lacing them up on game day starting just after Thanksgiving. ASP has a bit of growing to do, but something feels kinda Mo ‘Sides-like with him….At the end of the day, many of these kids are going to come up during the breaks we have coming up this season……and some of them are going to plant their flags and stay. This MAY be the season that, because of the breaks and associated injuries, etc…, we actually make the SCPO. I’d offer there’s a better-than-average chance, honestly. Now, do I think we’ll rock it out? No. No way. Our division is stacked and until the inversion happens, we’re going to struggle to make a deep run.
Genborg. Watch this kid. I was looking at some video of him…..he’s just nasty good. Pair him with Bear a few years from now and watch sparks fly, especially in GR. And listen, GR stunk the place up last year in the play-offs. But they’re showing some serious growth and have an insane amount of studs carving up the ice. And, to me, GR is kinda the Key to the Kingdom. Once they hit and some of those kids grow and move on, we have a pretty deep lower league batch to come up and keep the ball rolling. The coaching staff down there has it going on, and I honestly think that having Lashoff there is going to help the D-kids growth more than we know. And Julien has a really good hockey mind. The key is flipping these kids to being NHL-ready, and I think Watson and staff are the ones who can readily push them to the next level.
Getting excited as camp rolls around. We’ve got around 20 nationally-televised games this year, which will help next year’s UFA guys see some of what’s brewing on HockeyTown…. How wild would it be to have McJesus say “Dang, y’all….those Red Wings are taking flight. Heck yeah I wanna be part of that! I know we say it every year, but the UFA crop for next season looks really enticing, and we truly need to land someone big to help us flip the switch.
Good things are coming, patience is wearing thin, but we need to remind ourselves that the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a freight-train………..
I think Kasper breaking through last year was a huge plus for rebuild. He was able to push his way into the top 6 and stabilize that second line. I do think Mazur will be able to grab a bottom 6 spot. I’ll be posting this soon, but I think Danielson and Lombardi will have the opportunity to follow Kasper’s example. Danielson, in my opinion, has the edge right now. Probably start as a winger and then serve as a centerman when the time comes. His 200 ft game may get him that look next to Larkin. It’s going to be a rough year. A lot of fans wanted the team in the post season last year. This climb is a lot rougher than people thought for sure. Good to see you Mike!