Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin estimates the “Stanley Cup Windows” of the NHL’s Eastern Conference teams this morning, and he has the following to say about the Red Wings:
Window Opening: Detroit Red Wings
A week ago, I would’ve placed Detroit in the Foggy Window section. Their rebuild under Steve Yzerman had progressed in the sense that they were amassing close to a critical mass of young talent to build around: Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson, Sebastian Cossa, Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka and more. But the existing veteran group Yzerman was merging with them looked subpar outside of captain Dylan Larkin. The Wings have been busy the past two summers but have added a lot of middling and/or aging talent: Andrew Copp, David Perron, Ben Chiarot, J.T. Compher, Justin Holl, Klim Kostin, Shayne Gostisbehere, Daniel Sprong…but all that changed with the Alex DeBrincat acquisition and four-year extension, secured last weekend. Detroit finally added a legitimate front-line talent to take the pressure off its younger forwards, and as long as all the veteran depth additions over the past two seasons aren’t playing too high in the lineup, they can elevate Detroit’s floor. The Wings have improved their points percentage in three straight seasons. They still missed the playoffs by a dozen points in 2022-23, but they could cut that deficit to half a dozen this time around, and once you’re that close, anything can happen.
