The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood asks, “How long until the Red Wings get aggressive in their rebuild?” today, and I’m afraid that the answer is “they won’t.” I don’t expect Steve Yzerman to be anything less than methodical and patient with the Red Wings’ slow-but-steady growth as a team, regardless of how much cap space he has to play with.
Here’s Eargood’s argument:
The 2026 offseason projects to see a paradigm shift for the Red Wings’ approach. In that offseason, Yzerman has set himself up with a blank canvas on his cap sheet with a number of prospects ready to join the fold as NHLers. The table is set for this offseason to be the one where Detroit can swing for the fences, where the rebuild shifts into the contention window.
The biggest reason 2026 is the turning point is sheer cap flexibility. Just five current forwards — Larkin, DeBrincat, Copp, Compher and Rasmussen — will still be under contract by then, while RFA Lucas Raymond is likely to join them with his upcoming extension. On the blue line, the only defensemen under contract will be Moritz Seider on his upcoming extension and Simon Edvinsson as an RFA that offseason. In net, Yzerman doesn’t have a single contract extending past 2026.
Such a clear cutoff date for so many contracts might point to instability in the long term. Having a cohort of just six to eight players under contract for more than two seasons shows a lack of longevity for the current roster, a sign of immense change to come. But that’s all fine and well for Detroit, because the current roster isn’t one it’s planning to rely on down the road. The open contract situations of 2026 lend themselves to the construction of a more long term roster, where the Red Wings can pick and choose who they want to keep around to surround the arrival of some high-upside prospects to the NHL fold.
he maturation of prospects by 2026 projects to fill a lot of the open roster slots, if all goes according to plan. By leaving so many spots open, Yzerman has left paths for prospects like Jonatan Berggren, Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur to become contributors and earn their place by unseating established veterans. The Red Wings should also get more recent picks like Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard into the lineup by 2026, too, again bringing them along on their own timeline by forcing players to beat out established vets. In net, goaltender Sebastian Cossa should be in position to play NHL games by then, and the lack of goalies under contract allows Yzerman to decide whether to make him the starter or bring in some help.
Continued; I won’t deny that a $92 million-estimated salary cap will help the Red Wings, as will the maturation of their top prospects…
But I don’t see the Red Wings’ management stopping adding veterans who they believe are necessary to the rebuilding process just because 2026 seems like the date by which most of the Wings’ prospects will fold into the NHL roster.
For better or worse, Yzerman gets a little overly aggressive when free agency hits, sometimes to roster flexibility’s detriment, and until we know who’s available to “swing for” in the summer of 2025, and whether the Wings land their big fish or have to move on to Plans B or C, like they did this summer…
I’m not willing to make the kind of admirable predictions that Eargood is willing to suggest. I’m more conservative about that sort of thing, and that’s just me.
