DobberHockey’s Brennan Des discusses the Red Wings’ offseason moves from a fantasy hockey perspective, suggesting that the Red Wings have slipped down a peg due to the offseason departures of David Perron, Shayne Gostisbehere, Daniel Sprong and Jake Walman…
It’s hard to get too excited about Detroit’s offseason additions because they mostly offset their offseason losses. The Red Wings narrowly missed the playoffs last year, finishing 18th in league standings. They were carried by an offense that ranked ninth in the league with 3.35 goals per game but sunk by a defense that allowed 3.33 – ninth most in the league.
To address their defensive deficiencies, they brought in… Cam Talbot? Although the 37-year-old netminder posted solid results behind a defensively competent Kings team last year, he’ll be hard-pressed to repeat that performance behind a much more questionable defense in Detroit. The Red Wings struggled to keep the puck out of their net last year because they didn’t defend well enough, allowing the 8th most expected goals across all strengths. They lost a promising piece in Jake Walman and made a somewhat lateral move by swapping Shayne Gostisbehere for Erik Gustafsson. Unless youngster Simon Edvinsson takes massive strides this year, the team’s blueline seems slightly worse off than it was last season – which obviously isn’t good news. Although new forward addition Vladimir Tarasenko can help the team’s offense, he doesn’t have a great defensive reputation, which could make their biggest issue even worse.
Lost in any excitement about what Tarasenko brings to Detroit’s offense is the reality that they’ve lost a fair bit of scoring this summer. Key departures – Gostisbehere, Perron, Sprong, Fabbri, and Walman – scored 75 of the team’s 275 goals last year (27%). Sprong and Fabbri each flirted with the 20-goal mark despite skating just 12-13 minutes a night, so the team’s depth scoring seems to have taken a hit this offseason.
But the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood offers a counter-point, at least regarding the Red Wings’ forward lines:
“We did a good job addressing some holes,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “It feels like guys may be slotted going into the year a little bit. I think we did a good job addressing some loss offense, which is very important. It’s just exciting. All I’ve known here, since I’ve come here, is progression. Moving in the right direction, year one to year two. We did it going into the second year, obviously, and now we need to keep building.”
A well-built team has to be constructed from well-built lines. With this summer’s changes to the roster, Lalonde doesn’t have to build lines with the wrong parts. That’s a major progression for his team, even if the lost offense seems like a step backward on paper.
In reality, this advancement addresses an aspect of roster depth that is often ignored. Usually when talking about a team’s depth, the focus goes to scoring depth. Checking depth is often ignored for the flashy allure of goals and point totals. But, having players who can succeed in crucial defensive roles is an equally important aspect of depth, especially when goals are hard — and expensive — to come by.
Detroit would benefit from more scoring depth, sure, but Lalonde’s glass-half-full perspective also lends itself to the stylistic changes that he wants to make anyway. His marching orders at the end of last season called for him to make the Red Wings a better defensive team to make its scoring matter. Lower the goals against, and they don’t need as many goals for to make up for them. That’s what both Lalonde and general manager Steve Yzerman laid out at their closing press conferences, and it’s what they’ve maintained all summer long.
So far, Lalonde has been given the right players in the right spots to complete the job. Now, the task becomes putting them to good use once the season starts.
Is the truth somewhere in between? I’m not certain yet. We’ll have to see how the team performs during training camp and the exhibition season, as well as the first dozen-or-so games of the regular season.
