The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn offers a list of the teams which he believes have improved the most over the course of the short 2021-2022 offseason, and the Red Wings rank highly on his list, not only for their additions, but also their subtractions:
From New Jersey to Arizona, a look at which teams have improved the most and least this offseason: https://t.co/iAxfddJCA6 pic.twitter.com/wBIKnn3rDA— dom at the athletic (@domluszczyszyn) August 5, 2021
7. Detroit Red Wings
Wins Added: 2.2 wins
Salary Added: $5.8 million
In: Alex Nedeljkovic, Pius Suter, Nick Leddy, Jordan Oesterle, Mitchell Stephens
Out: Jonathan Bernier, Richard Panik, Dennis Cholowski, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm
One massive addition is driving Detroit’s standing here and that’s potential goalie of the future Alex Nedeljkovic. He was lights out in 23 games last season and Carolina’s loss is Detroit’s gain between the pipes. There isn’t a lot of data to go off, but based on what he’s shown to date (and a heavy dose of regression) the model is a big fan of Nedeljkovic. He’s projected to be a pretty sizeable upgrade over Jonathan Bernier.
The rest isn’t much, but they’re all upgrades to the team’s depth. Nick Leddy had a nice bounce-back last season and provides a boost to Detroit’s defence, while Pius Suter proved in his rookie season he can be a responsible middle-six center. In addition by subtraction news, losing Luke Glendening and Darren Helm also helps.
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