Two “list stories” in which article authors utilize the NHL’s 32 teams to make points appeared earlier this afternoon, with EP Rinkside’s J.D. Burke discussing the offseason storylines which have yet to materialize for NHL teams…
Detroit Red Wings: What’s next?
This one isn’t a matter of whether they’ll do something but what exactly they’ll do. Because we know GM Steve Yzerman isn’t done tinkering with his roster yet. He’s got just more than $20 million in available cap space, and while pricey contract extensions loom for Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, they’re not getting all of that money.
We know the Red Wings have been linked to Gibson this offseason. We’ve also heard a lot about their efforts to acquire Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers, though that seems to have quieted down a bit of late because of his reluctance to waive his no-trade clause.
Will Yzerman be able to reel in either of these big fish? And if not, then what? Failure to meaningfully improve on last year’s roster could make for a ninth season on the outside looking in at the playoffs.
The Red Wings definitely need to add a right-shooting defenseman of the shut-down variety to their blueline to spell Moritz Seider, but I’m not certain whether Steve Yzerman will dip into his deep pool of prospects to acquire that player this summer. It may take until next year’s trade deadline for the team to address this glaring need.
Also: Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell discussed the “suffering level” of the NHL’s 32 fan bases, and the Wings’ fans don’t get any slack:
21. Detroit Red Wings
Colton’s rank: 19th
Hunter’s rank: 13th
Matt’s rank: 21st
Scott’s rank: 19th
Shane’s rank: 21st
Tyler’s rank: 25thMatt [Larkin]: It would be a stretch to say we feel sympathy for the Detroit Red Wings fan base in the modern era. This group enjoyed Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008, after all, not to mention a 25-year streak of playoff berths. But that streak has given way to an eight-year playoff drought, the second longest active one in the NHL. It feels like a twisted nightmare to see one of your franchise’s all-time heroes, Steve Yzerman, driving the bus and coming closer to taking it off a cliff than to the promised land. Something feels wrong when an Original Six franchise seems so irrelevant. Will that change soon? I’m not totally convinced. Yzerman blinked too early in the rebuild and has spent several summers weighing down his roster with mid-tier veteran signings.
I’m not delighted that the Red Wings signed Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot and traded for Ville Husso two summers ago, and this summer’s free agency take wasn’t overwhelming, but I don’t believe that those signings are “weighing down” the Red Wings’ roster, and I don’t believe that the organization is being driven off a cliff.
There’s no doubt that the Red Wings are still in the middle-to-end of what is probably a 10-12-year-long rebuild, but that’s the reality of the situation for most NHL franchises in terms of building a prospect base and seeing returns in terms of bolstering the roster with meaningful free agent signings.
The Patrick Kane signing was supposed to turn the tide, but as it happens, the Red Wings are not yet a “destination,” and when other teams sign the “Grade A” free agents, you can’t simply stand still and pretend that you’ve improved.
The organization has done the best it can with the assets it has been able to accrue, and it’s still in progress in terms of turning a very big ship slowly around.
