Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a list of “5 concerns” regarding the Red Wings’ most recent 3-game losing streak as part of a subscriber-only article, and among them are the following:
No Defensive Improvement: In these three losses, the Red Wings gave up 17 goals. The Red Wings now rank 27th in the league with a goals-against-average of 3.43 goals per game. They have given up five or more goals 10 times in 28 games. Detroit is at the bottom with teams such as Arizona, Buffalo and Ottawa. That’s not the company they want to keep.
With Marc Staal on the COVID-19 list and Gustav Lindstrom on the injury list, the Red Wings’ poor depth on defense has been further exposed.
No defenseman escaped with better than a -3 plus-minus over those three games. Moritz Seider and Danny Dekeyser were both -5 over the first two losses before going +1 in the Colorado game. Dan Renouf was -5 on the two-game road trip. Nick Leddy and Filip both ended up -3 in the three games and that came in the game against the Avs. Jordan Oesterle was -4 in the three loses.
The Red Wings need another seasoned defenseman and I’m told Steve Yzerman has been looking for that player in the trade market.
Continued (paywall); another defenseman wouldn’t hurt at this point, and the Wings have the cap space to add someone who isn’t a good fit somewhere else. I’m not sure that the reinforcement route is the way I’d go–I believe in “sink or swim” to some extent when it comes to this year’s team–but if the GM feels that adding to the roster is best, we’ll see what happens.
