Okay. It’s the evening of July 1st, Canada Day, and the Red Wings haven’t accomplished very much in terms of shopping for free agents, among a weak free agent class.
The team’s signed James van Riemsdyk to a 1-year, $1 million contract, it’s signed wild card defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker to a 1-year, $875,000 contract, and Grand Rapids Griffins-bound defenseman Ian Mitchell and left wing John Leonard to $775,000 contracts.
Now the Wings have admittedly sit on the sidelines as several teams have landed free agent forwards with offensive panache or physical bite for fairly modest terms, but the Wings also sit with $15.33 million of salary cap space, with only restricted free agent Elmer Soderblom to re-sign.
It is highly likely that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman will at least pursue potential trades over the next couple of weeks, too, and as such, it’s very hard to give the Red Wings a “free agency grade” while the team is still actively attempting to improve its roster.
Nonetheless, writers are already doling out free agency grades, and Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin has deemed the Red Wings to be a “loser” due to their inactivity:
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings improved a lot offensively in 2024-25 after Todd McLellan took over as coach, finishing with a top-four power play in the NHL. It’s almost forgivable if re-signing Patrick Kane and bringing in James van Riemsdyk for a second tour of duty are the only major moves at forward for GM Steve Yzerman. But it’s a disaster to be this far into the offseason without having fixed a woeful blueline. It’s not necessarily Yzerman’s fault that Dobson was traded elsewhere, that Ekblad and Provorov re-signed or that Gavrikov went to Manhattan. But it doesn’t make Detroit any less of a loser this offseason. Nine years into its playoff drought, this team seems to be falling further behind rather than making ground in the Atlantic Division. The Ottawa Senators and Canadiens were in the same tier as Detroit a year ago and are definitively better now. There simply aren’t many available upgrades left on defense league wide, so it will be difficult for the Wings to emerge from the summer market having addressed their needs at this point.
I’m worried about the Red Wings’ blueline, too, but I’m holding out hope that the Red Wings dodged a bullet by not getting involved in the K’Andre Miller sweepstakes, and he can’t control the course of unrestricted free agents, other than to offer his best compensation and hope for the best.
This team still has potential, it has cap space, it has draft picks, and it has the impetus to make a trade or two in order to address the defensive depth that needs bolstering.
It’s just not, in my opinion, time to deem the Wings “losers” for the entire summer because they didn’t shake the earth on July 1st.
