Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman discussed the team’s underwhelming free agency performance and much more over the course of a 33-minute press conference today, and MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Yzerman’s remarks regarding the Wings’ attempts to score more goals this upcoming season:
He didn’t add a big-time goal-scorer to a roster that finished 24th in the league in scoring. That continues to be the team’s most pressing need, one that was going to be difficult to fill in a thin free-agent market.
He hopes that collectively there is enough offense in several of those acquisitions to boost his team’s production.
“We’d like to score more,” Yzerman said. “I think that’s the general consensus — the Red Wings need to score more. We need to keep the puck out of our net. We need to be better defensively. I’d like our special teams to be better.”
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Unless Yzerman swings a trade for a significant goal-scorer, these newcomers must join with the existing crew to improve the offense.
“I’m counting on the collective group, the roster we have now, everybody to chip in a little bit on the offense, which will help us score more,” Yzerman said. “Getting Robby Fabbri back healthy, Lucas Raymond a year older, J.T. Compher coming into the mix, scoring some goals. Collectively, I expect us to improve a little bit, probably still not where we’d all like it to be. We’ll continue in the offseason to see what if anything, some more free agents still out there or even look at potential trades. Generally, after July 1-2, things start to settle down and teams re-evaluate where they are, what they need to do, and for various reasons might have to make a move.”
