97.1 the Ticket’s Pat Caputo suggests that the Red Wings need to make some real progress under a mature and having-matured Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha:
It’s time for the Red Wings.
Not for championships. Not to make the playoffs.
But for respectability.
Dylan Larkin, recently named captain, is 24. Anthony Mantha, recently signed to four-year contract worth more than $22 million, is 26. They aren’t kids, but vets.
Todd Bertuzzi and Filip Hronek have taken enough lumps. It’s time for recent first-round draft picks Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen to display genuine progress.The Red Wings should be much improved. General manager Steve Yzerman has been aggressive adding veteran players for reasonable length and term. Robby Fabbri, Vladislav Namestnikov, Troy Stecher, Jon Merrill, Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal and Sam Gagner, all Yzerman acquisitions, represent more viable options than those late in the Ken Holland regime.
Continued; we may have to wait a season or two more before the Wings are truly “respectable,” but progress would be good to see for sure.
