ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton have issued draft and/or free agency grades for the NHL’s 32 teams, and they’re surprisingly bullish on the state of the Red Wings:
Detroit Red Wings
Key players added: G John Gibson, F Mason Appleton
Key players lost: G Petr Mrazek
Remaining cap space: $12,086,628Overall grade: B
Credit to GM Steve Yzerman for finally finding a new home for Gibson. That pre-free agency trade felt like a long time coming and not only gives Gibson a fresh start but also upgrades Detroit’s goaltending situation (which was a clear priority heading into the offseason).
But Yzerman seemed content to let that be the only serious changes to the Red Wings’ roster. He filled in the edges a bit with bottom-six wingers Appleton and James van Riemsdyk, and has another third-pairing defense option in Jacob Bernard-Docker, but beyond that Detroit will (barring any other movement) enter this season much the way it exited the last.
Depth is a good thing to have. But the Red Wings needed a bigger name to boost their back end, and would have also have benefitted from improved top-six scoring potential. Those areas might still need to be addressed.
Continued; I’d argue that Yzerman isn’t exactly content with the way free agency turned out.
There’s no doubt that the Red Wings need a top-four defenseman and/or top-six scoring forward, but I wonder whether those trades might not take place until the regular season, given the circumstances.
In the interim, the Wings’ young players will have to take steps forward, and the veterans will have to exceed expectations as well.
