The Malik Report

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon offers “offseason grades” for the Atlantic Division’s eight teams, and he’s very fair regarding Detroit’s uncertain situation:

Detroit Red Wings

Key arrivals: Viktor Arvidsson, W; Daniil Tarasov, G; Keegan Kolesar, W

Key departures: Patrick Kane, W

Grade: C-

The Wings’ off-season was thrown into chaos when we learned captain Dylan Larkin had requested a trade. Then, just as we were wrapping our heads around how Larkin’s demand might play out, it was announced Steve Yzerman would be coming off his post as general manager and moving upstairs.

Now, with the calendar having flipped to August and the start of training camp basically six weeks away, it just feels as though Detroit is in a giant holding pattern. The GM search has yet to yield a replacement for Yzerman and, as far as we know, nothing the organization does between now and the end of the summer is going to change the way Larkin sees his NHL future.

Add to that the fact burgeoning defenceman Simon Edvinsson needs a new contract and that sniper Alex DeBrincat is entering the final year of his deal, and there’s just uncertainty everywhere you look in the Motor City.

Maybe a new GM will land on the scene and deftly move to address all the issues. But it sure feels like — with the team now 10 years removed from its most recent playoff appearance — momentum is moving the wrong way in Detroit. 

Continued…It’s a fair grade…for now…

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— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 4, 2026

Bleacher Report’s Sara Civian offers a “one word” answer for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams’ offseasons, and she’s not optimistic about Detroit’s moves thus far:

Detroit Red Wings: Welp

It’s been radio silence from the Red Wings since three weeks ago, when they announced a leadership change that took Steve Yzerman out of the GM position. The position remains vacant, but there are several big questions the next guy will have to answer ASAP.

The biggest: How will the Dylan Larkin saga end, and how can the Red Wings start to replace their first-line center and captain if he still wants out?

Continued; the “Radio Silence” doesn’t help at all, but we’re all in waiting mode, and the closer we get to training camp, the worse our worry will become…

But patience is necessary right now.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff ponders “what could be” if former Red Wing Henrik Zetterberg were to move from Sweden to the U.S. Zetterberg currently serves as an advisor to his hometown team, Timra:

Henrik Zetterberg has made it abundantly clear that he has no desire to work in the front office of the Detroit Red Wings. The funny thing is that right about now, the last Red Wings captain to lead the team into the Stanley Cup playoffs is sure sounding like a Detroit GM.

“When you lose a player who scores 30 goals, it doesn’t happen that often,” Zetterberg recently told Swedish website Hockey Sverige. “We’ll have to spread his 30 out over five or six other players instead.”

Zetterberg could easily be talking about the impending departure of his replacement, Detroit captain Dylan Larkin. The perennial 30-goal scorer is requesting that the Red Wings trade him.

He’s not, though. Zetterberg is speaking in his current role as part of the sports council at Timra, the Swedish club he played for before coming to the Red Wings.

Timra will be without 30-goal scorer Jonathan Dahlen next season. They’ve also lost Emil Pettersson, the club’s second-leading scorer from 2025-26.

Much like the Wings, who’ve seen Patrick Kane depart and may very well also be losing Larkin, Zetterberg and Timra are wondering where the goals will come from this season.

Continued

The Athletic’s Harman Dayal discusses teams which could find themselves in the NHL’s “mushy middle” this morning, noting that the Red Wings could struggle to be a not-good-but-not-bad team if the next GM/president of hockey operations falters:

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings have missed the playoffs by slim margins three years in a row with 91, 86 and 92 points respectively, which is a perfect snapshot of the mushy middle. There isn’t a realistic path for them to explode past that ceiling anytime soon, especially with captain Dylan Larkin’s trade request.

Detroit is too weak down the middle, five-on-five scoring still looks like a major issue and they’re stuck in an absolutely stacked Atlantic. And because they’ve flirted with the playoffs over the last few years, they haven’t drafted high enough to land another elite star to their core. If anything, in the event the Red Wings trade Larkin, they may be too bad next season to even be considered mediocre.

Committing to a step back in the short term is probably the wisest decision for the franchise’s long-term health, though. Detroit doesn’t need a full-scale teardown as it has some foundational pieces in Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson, along with a top-10 prospect pool in the NHL, but the worst possible scenario would be to trade Larkin for a win-now package in an attempt to stay competitive and end their postseason drought.

In any case, it feels like a while before the Red Wings will be relevant again. For the sake of their fans, hopefully their next GM accepts this fate, is OK with taking a step back and commits to a path that at least creates some light at the end of the tunnel.

Continued (paywall); I am still optimistic that the Wings can win this season under coach McLellan’s stewardship, but Detroit may very well take a “rest for a minute” approach to this upcoming season, should their prospects not deliver.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith discusses Lucas Raymond’s status as a dominant player over the course of his still-young NHL career, even though Smith sees Raymond’s 50+-assist season as something of a “mixed bag”:

In his age 23 season last year Raymond largely continued on the path that he had set up for himself through the previous four years in the league. After reaching 80 points in the 2024-25 season, the first Red Wing to do so since Henrik Zetterberg, expectations were high for Raymond.

While he performed at close to the same level as he had the previous year, his numbers did dip down to 76 points. He had two fewer goals and two fewer assists than the year before, and he still hasn’t scored 30+ goals since the 2023-24 campaign.

No. 23 also found himself missing a pair of games due to an upper body injury early in the season. That injury seemed to have an effect on Raymond even in the later months of the year, frustrating fans and coach Todd McLellan at times as he seemed gun shy with the puck on his stick.

However, while Raymond’s actual offensive output dropped, his underlying numbers stayed at a solid level. Raymond’s shooting percentage by the end of the season sat at 14.5%, better than the Red Wings’ leading scorer, Alex DeBrincat’s, at 14.2%. Though, Raymond’s xGF% and GF% sit below DeBrincat’s, at 48.81% and 49.49% respectively according to Statpede.

Continued; we all know that Raymond needs to shoot the puck more regularly this upcoming season, but last year, Raymond established himself as an elite playmaker, too.

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye posted a profile/scouting report of Red Wings prospect and Hobey Baker award winner Max Plante.

As Tye notes, the incoming Minnesota-Duluth sophomore played this past season with his brother, Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Zam Plante, and, this fall, 2026 Red Wings draft pick Victor Plante will join the his brothers on the Bulldogs’ roster:

Max was excellent right out of the gate at the NCAA level, posting nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points in 23 games as a freshman before an even bigger breakout this past season. 

As a sophomore, he exploded for 25 goals and 27 assists for 52 points in just 40 games, the most by a Bulldog since 2011-12, earning him National Collegiate Hockey Conference Player of the Year honors and, ultimately, the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in NCAA men’s hockey.

Naturally, fans in Detroit would love to see Plante make the jump to the pro ranks sooner rather than later, and he figures to be part of that conversation at Red Wings training camp. 

However, Plante has already made his plans for this season clear in that he’ll be heading back to Duluth for his junior year, in large part so he can finally share the ice with both of his brothers at the same time, a chance to chase something he hasn’t yet achieved in a national championship.

Plante has stayed in close contact with the organization throughout the process, and Detroit appears comfortable letting his development play out on his own timeline. That leaves the door open for Plante to potentially sign with the Red Wings following the conclusion of next season’s NCAA campaign, with a scenario where he joins Detroit down the stretch, possibly in the middle of a playoff push, well within the realm of possibility.

Continued; my best guess about Max Plante is simple; I’d imagine that he will remain with Minnesota-Duluth for a long NCAA playoff run, and then it’s 50-50 as to whether he actually “turns pro.”

The Hockey News is ranking NHL teams by their perceived 2025-2026 season and then offseason performances, and Adam Proteau has the Red Wings ranked last in the league, at #32:

They went 31-16-4 through Jan. 21, and as they headed to the Olympic break, they were among the front-runners to win the highly competitive Atlantic Division. 

But from that point on, the Wings went 10-15-6, falling out of the playoff picture completely.

Adding insult to injury, the Red Wings’ captain, Dylan Larkin, requested a trade at season’s end. That was the low point in Detroit’s terrible off-season. This is why the Wings are dead-last – 32nd overall – when it comes to TheHockeyNews.com’s brand-new off-season rankings.

Moving in reverse, we’re ranking every team’s off-season, focusing on arrivals, departures (including coaching and management members), free-agent and trade moves. 

The Red Wings didn’t get better this off-season. To the contrary – they now seem like the only team in the Atlantic that will not be competing for a playoff spot in 2026-27.

Continued; this is a depressing and sometimes infuriating read, and I believe that’s the point of it all…

Sports Illustrated’s Nathan Smith compiled a list of the “3 Best Case Scenarios” for the Red Wings’ 2026-2027 campaign, and I’d argue that his second point of emphasis is the most important one:

Several Red Wings Prospects Make an Impact at Highest Level

Right now, the Red Wings are a team that lacks elite-level talent beyond a few names, and with none incoming through trade or free agency, this is a team that needs to rely on the draft and their own prospects.

While the team doesn’t have a clear-cut superstar like Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg waiting in the wings, the team has a very intriguing prospect group, with several names potentially ready to make the full-time leap to the NHL in 2026/27.

The majority of those prospects are either in net or up front, and with only so many spots to fill, it’s unclear just how many of them will make that jump, but if the team takes a futures-based deal on captain Dylan Larkin, spots should continue to open up for them.

Ultimately, fans in Detroit are frustrated with the lack of success and that may force the new front office into a win-now move, but if the team can exercise patience, this is a prospect pool that’s ready to impact winning in the NHL.

Continued; if the Red Wings are to “run lean” and let the prospects learn over the course of 2026-2027, it would be fantastic if a couple of them “break out” as players with offensive potential, physical acumen or strong play-driving skating skills.

If this is going to be a long season via trading Dylan Larkin for “futures,” at least the future should be on the ice at Little Caesars Arena, too.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills chronicled a recent Tigers game in which the recently-retired Paul Woods threw out the first pitch:

Proudly sporting the iconic Old English D, Paul Woods threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Detroit Tigers hosted the Baltimore Orioles at Comerica Park last Wednesday afternoon.

“It was amazing,” Woods recently told DetroitRedWings.com. “It’s humbling, and to be able to share that with my son and daughter was really something. Being out there and looking in at the crowd at Comerica Park, it was just such a special moment. I’m very thankful that it happened.”

The 71-year-old — who was born in Hespeler, Ontario, roughly three hours from Detroit — is a lifelong baseball fan. Woods has plenty of memories from his Little League days, when he spent time on the mound as a pitcher himself. So, to ensure he could execute the proper mechanics he knows so well, Woods took extra care of his throwing arm in the weeks leading up to last Wednesday’s game.

“I sort of hurt myself about a month ago,” Woods said. “My shoulder was bad, kind of my right arm, which I use to throw. I’ve been babying it for the last month just trying to make sure that I could get through to that date. It was just one pitch, so thankfully it all worked out. I pitched a lot as a kid, so it was important to me to do a good job.”

Continued…