Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin attempts to discern which non-playoff teams might make the post-season during the 2022-2023 season, and he includes the Red Wings in his column:
Detroit Red Wings: Detroit only spiked its points percentage from .429 in 2020-21 to a modest .451 this past season, but it was still improvement, and what made it particularly promising were the specific players contributing to the rise. Moritz Seider was already one of the league’s best all-round defensemen in his rookie season and won the Calder Trophy in a walk. Slick-mitted Lucas Raymond flashed excellent scoring touch and two-way intelligence. Top-line center Dylan Larkin had one of the best seasons of his career.
And GM Steve Yzerman evidently decided he saw enough promise to reward his young core with some veteran help. In a flurry of early-offseason activity, he traded for goaltender Ville Husso to form a tandem with Alex Nedeljkovic; signed forwards David Perron, Andrew Copp and Dominik Kubalik, and added defenseman Ben Chiarot. It remains to be seen if these were the right players to target for long-term contention but, in the short term, the Wings are undoubtedly better now than they were a year ago – while almost every other Atlantic Division team has gotten worse on paper this summer.
The top dogs in the division are going to have a much tougher time playing Detroit, Ottawa and Buffalo. TB and Florida will have the superior goaltending, but the other two are flawed especially Boston with injuries and Toronto with that goaltending and once again suspect depth on defense and bottom six. As for the Wings Dominik Kubalik is the intriguing player here. If he rebounds you could have a very big and physical Kubalik/Rasmussen/Sundqvist line or a talented Kubalik/Suter/Zadina line. All in all, GMSY did great work in going from being a one line team to being a three line, maybe four line team, while adding younger NHL talent & depth to the defense.