The Athletic’s Max Bultman attempts to discern what the 2023-2024 Red Wings’ roster might look like, and here’s his set-up:
When Anthony Mantha signed his four-year, $22.8 million contract last week, a simple reality of the Red Wings’ future jumped out: With only Mantha signed past 2023, Steve Yzerman is working with an essentially blank canvas.
That’s not to say Detroit’s cupboard is bare — in fact, after years of high first-round picks and a plethora of second-rounders, it’s the opposite. The farm system is now pretty deep, with a couple of potential cornerstone pieces on the way. And even though the organization’s top NHL players aren’t all signed long term yet, most of them are young enough to be in the long-term picture.
But in terms of both flexibility, and the variance inherent to prospects, the Red Wings’ future could still take any number of forms. That makes projecting even a few years down the line a much different exercise than it was just two or three years ago.
This article, though, has been an annual tradition since the early days of The Athletic Detroit. And while it’s coming later than usual this year, we weren’t about to skip over it altogether. The premise is to take a look at how the Red Wings’ lineup is shaping up three years into the future, as a way of assessing the team’s progress in the rebuild, and its possible timeline for contention.
Continued (paywall)
