Yet another set of tiered rankings from The Athletic

The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe ranks the NHL’s 32 teams by “tiers” (have we heard that before from The Athletic over the last couple of weeks? Regarding players? Prospects? Teams?) and predicts the NHL’s “order of finish”…sort of…and when it comes to the Red Wings, it sure feels like The Athletic has to take a mandatory shot at the Wings’ rebuild every time the team is mentioned:

The Middle-of-the-Pack Division

It’s not a bad place to be as long as you’re passing through. Get stuck here for more than a couple of years, though, and the future starts looking mighty bleak.

Detroit Red Wings

Last season: 41-32-9, +2, fifth in Atlantic, missed playoffs on tie-breaker.

Their offseason in six words: Tarasenko in, Perron out, kids extended.

Why they’re here: Because they’ve pretty much always been here, ever since Steve Yzerman arrived and started the world’s slowest rebuild. That’s not exactly a compliment, but it’s worth noting the Wings do keep shuffling forward, which is better than some other rebuilds we’ve seen over the years. Last year they came as close to the playoffs as you can without actually making it, so another few baby steps should get them in… assuming they don’t get leap-frogged by someone who’s moving quicker.

Continued (paywall); yes, there is real pressure for the Red Wings to not be “leap-frogged” by the Senators or Canadiens at this point, with the Sens and former Wing David Perron staring down the barrel of a budding rivalry’s gun against Detroit…

But none of us expected that Yzerman and the Wings’ management group would have to tear down so much of what Ken Holland had baked into the declining Wings before starting a rebuild from scratch.

Realistically speaking, if Detroit is to rebuild itself into a playoff contender, they’re somewhere around two thirds of the way there, with some key prospects, attractive free agents and trades left to draft/make/sign before this team both makes the playoffs and wins playoff rounds on a regular basis.

This year, the team wants to earn a playoff spot and see what happens. Throughout the season and seasons to come, internal improvement is essential from the Wings’ prospects and young stars, and continuing to draft, develop and sign players (and, again, possibly trade for them) will be big components of the rebuilding machine.