Pro Hockey Rumors’ Brian La Rose conducted a mailbag feature in which he answers a Red Wings-related question (and PHR is an unfortunate name for a website that does a lot more than discuss rumors):
rule78.1: The Red Wings had a couple of major issues last season. Their ability to score 5-on-5 and their penalty kill. Do you see any improvement in these areas up to this point for this coming season after their signings?
Let’s look at the offensive moves. They gave up Vladimir Tarasenko and added James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton. On paper, that’s not a lot better although van Riemsdyk was much better than usual at five-on-five last season. But generally, he’s more of a power play specialist (nearly 43% of his goals from 2020-21 through 2023-24 were on the man advantage) so I think the even strength production might drop. At best, I think it’s a wash beyond hoping for some internal improvement and bounce backs.
Before digging into the second question, let’s review the defensive moves. John Gibson is now the starting goalie and as a team that needed to make some defensive changes, they added Jacob Bernard-Docker to replace Jeff Petry. I like the Bernard-Docker contract but that’s not a needle-mover.
But Gibson gives them a shot at improving shorthanded. If we look at Goals Saved Above Expected (per MoneyPuck) at four-on-five, Cam Talbot was one of the worst goalies in the league at -7.1. Alex Lyon was at -2.3 and Petr Mrazek was in that range, also including his time with Chicago. Gibson was still in the negative but at -0.5 which is at least closer to average. All else being equal (and given the skater group, it largely is), even average goaltending on the penalty kill will be an improvement. Appleton has killed penalties in the past as well so he could help. They’ve improved a bit here but it still could be one of the weaker units overall.
Continued; I want to see what coach Todd McLellan and assistants Trent Yawney, Alex Tanguay and video coordinator Jeff Weintraub–and whoever else the Red Wings hire this summer to fill in the bench–are able to instill upon the Red Wings’ player personnel before making any hard-and-fast judgments as to whether the current personnel are “enough” to “move the needle” in terms of even-strength scoring or penalty-killing.
The interplay between coaches and player personnel are essential, starting with what’s taught during training camp and the exhibition season, and we’ve got very little data to go upon save a half-season of coaches McLellan and Yawney working with the Wings’ staff.
Once McLellan hires his preferred lieutenants, then I want to see what the Wings can really do in terms of cleaning up their play and leaning less on the PP to bail out everything else.
