The Athletic posted, well…Two Athletic-y articles this morning. As you might imagine, the Red Wings do not rank highly on Harman Dayal’s ranking of the NHL’s defensive corps by tiers, with the Wings falling into his 5th tier, “Question Marks”…
Jake Walman–Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot–Jeff Petry
Shayne Gostisbehere–Justin HollOther defense options: Olli Määttä, Simon Edvinsson
Seider was underwhelming in the first half of the season but he started playing like a bona fide No. 1 again once he was paired with Walman, who’s been a revelation for the Red Wings.
Detroit’s second pair could be a little dicey. Petry is well-equipped for that role but Chiarot hurt any top-four pair he was on last year. Chiarot was a huge drag on Seider and had a similarly harsh impact on Filip Hronek prior to the latter getting traded.
The Red Wings’ third pair should be above average as they’re loaded with quality options like Gostisbehere, Holl and Määttä.
Continued (paywall); I don’t see why Chiarot would play with Petry…
And the other Athletic-y article of the morning comes from Sean McIndoe/Down Goes Brown, who’s made another list of all 32 teams’ offseasons as ranked by his “Bizarro Meter“:
The offseason so far: For the second straight year, they were one of the busiest teams in the offseason — and according to the numbers, one of the most successful. Alex DeBrincat was the big addition, but they also added names like J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Shayne Gostisbehere and even James Reimer. They just keep getting better.
But their strangest story was: They keep getting better, but are they good? For a team that’s had two big offseasons in a row, they sure seem to be showing up in seventh place in a lot of Atlantic Division previews.
Bizarro-meter ranking: 4.1/10. I know, I know, we must not doubt Steve Yzerman. And to be fair, I’m not completely sure what more he could have done.
Continued (paywall); you can totally doubt Steve Yzerman these days. It’s in fashion, in fact, to bash the Yzerplan (it was this summer, anyway). But I’m not certain what more the Red Wings’ GM could have done given the free agent marketplace’s depth, or the lack thereof.
