The Buffalo News’s Mike Harrington is examining the Sabres’ Atlantic Division rivals this week, and today, he discusses the “rebuilding” Red Wings, Senators and Candiens. Harrington has this to say about the comparisons and contrasts between Buffalo and Detroit’s respective rebuilds have gone along thus far:
If you’re looking for [Buffalo Sabres GM] Kevyn Adams’ biggest rival in the Atlantic Division, you could easily make the case that it’s Steve Yzerman.
The Sabres are building through drafting and development and have carefully chosen players in the trade and free agent market who were willing to come to Buffalo to be part of the solution in the post-Jack Eichel era. The playoff drought is at an NHL-record 12 years and simply has to end in the spring of 2024.
Yzerman has gone a vastly different route as the GM in Detroit. The Red Wings legend came back from Tampa Bay and has made head-first dives into trades and free agency in an effort to end seven consecutive years out of the postseason, which ties the franchise record. This year’s big additions are Alex DeBrincat (trade from Ottawa) and former Sabres prospect J.T. Compher (free-agent signee from Colorado).
Which method will win? That’s going to play out in the 2023-24 season. If a new team from the Atlantic Division is going to crack the playoff mix, it stands to reason that it will be either the Sabres or the Red Wings. The Sabres finished 11 points ahead of the Wings last season, and outscored them, 26-16, in winning all four meetings.
Here’s what Harrington has to say about the Wings’ summertime roster machinations:
Analysis: Heading into last season, Yzerman added David Perron, Andrew Copp, Olli Maatta and Ville Husso. The Wings never seemed like much of a team. They seemed like a bunch of parts brought together, and the same concern has to surround this group, although the talent level is higher.
DeBrincat, who had 27 goals and 66 points in his lone season in Ottawa, is a suburban Detroit kid and he immediately signed a four-year, $31.5 million extension with the Wings after the trade. Compher signed a five-year, $25 million deal just more than a year after winning a Stanley Cup in Colorado. Sprong signed a one-year deal after a 21-goal season in Seattle. Gostisbehere will help the defense, but Holl, who became a pariah in Toronto, somehow got a three-year, $10.2-million deal in Detroit.
“We need to keep the puck out of our net, we need to be better defensively, and we’d like our special teams to be better,” Yzerman said after his free-agent signings. “I’m counting on collectively the entire group, the roster that we have, everybody to chip in a little bit on the offense, which will help us score more.”
Ultimately, the Wings have to figure things out in goal. Husso was at just 3.11/.896 in 56 games last season. Lyon had a great late-season run in Florida while Reimer is now 35 and was at just 3.48/.890 last season in San Jose.
Continued; many of the Sabres pundits laud Kevyn Adams’ patient approach as the Sabres’ GM, and pan Yzerman’s forays into free agency, ignoring the fact that Buffalo has had many more #1 and top-five draft picks. They seem to think of the Red Wings as a “weaker sister” team.
Do you agree with them? And do you see the Sabres or Senators as the Wings’ biggest “rebuilding” rival? Let me know in the comments section!
Harrington espoused a bunch of BS in his article, claiming the Sabres have built the team from within. Many of their top guys came through trades or free agency: Thompson, Skinner, Tuch, Jokiharju, Comrie). While the Wings have been busier than the Sabres in acquiring players, our core was raised from within the system (Larkin, Raymond, Seider) plus homegrown prospects in Kasper, Bergerren, Edvinnson. Sabres goaltending is a point of weakness, too.