Bleacher Reports’ estimable Joe Yerdon pondered “1 problem to solve for each NHL team” as the 2024-2025 season approacheth, and here’s what he suggested the Red Wings need to do:
Detroit Red Wings
Win…Or else
Is it a cop-out to say that the one problem the Detroit Red Wings have to address is just winning? Perhaps, but that’s what all of it boils down to for GM Steve Yzerman now.
The team he’s put together is his project and this is the vision he’s set forth and they’ve got a lot of excellent players to make it work. Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider…they’re all outstanding. Their depth of veterans has all been there, seen and done it elsewhere to varying levels of success, and their younger players have grown into this setting.
We could highlight how their possession numbers or scoring chance quality has to be better and the goaltending in general must improve. But they showed for a good part of last season that they can perform at a playoff-caliber level and get back to the postseason for the first time since 2016, but their inconsistency later in the year crushed them and despite a valiant attempt to get back into it late in the year, they fell short again.
The Red Wings have to adopt the old Al Davis saying: Just win, baby. Because if they don’t, the offseason could get really uncomfortable.
Continued; I don’t think that making the playoffs will be the success-or-failure metric for Yzerman and the Red Wings’ management team this upcoming season, but it will factor into the overall assessment as to whether the Wings made forward progress.
Between the salary cap’s likely substantial rise next summer and the fact that the roster begins to open up in terms of free agent slots (if you check out PuckPedia), there is potential for substantial change should the Wings not perform up to their fan base’s expectations.
