Pro Hockey Rumors’ Josh Cybulski takes a “deep dive” into the Red Wings’ player personnel this morning, wondering aloud whether the 2025-2026 Red Wings team can make the playoffs as it’s currently constructed:
The Red Wings haven’t made the playoffs since the 2015-16 season and are hoping to break their nine-year drought this year. They came close to snapping the streak in 2023-24, finishing fifth in the Atlantic Division with 91 points, but took a step back last season, falling to sixth in the division and 86 points. This summer, they identified goaltending as an area of concern and quickly traded for veteran netminder John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks.
Detroit also made a series of depth signings that they hope will close the gap between missing the postseason and making it. It’s hard to say whether general manager Steve Yzerman did enough to get the Red Wings over the hump, but it’s fair to say he was conservative in his approach, opting to steer clear of the heavy bidding in free agency for top-end talent. Whether that was by design or a case of circumstance is unknown, but Yzerman wasn’t able to land any big names, despite a great deal of cap space available.
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In terms of roster losses, aside from Tarasenko, the Red Wings didn’t lose much, as Alex Lyon, Jeff Petry, Craig Smith, and Tyler Motte left town. The team can easily replace these departing veterans with plenty of young talent and new faces ready to take over the roles those players held. While this summer can hardly be called a failure, it wasn’t exactly a home run either. Detroit improved its goaltending, but Gibson isn’t a guarantee, and the defense in front of him isn’t much better than last year’s. Yzerman is counting on significant growth from young players this season, but that might not be enough to push Detroit to the next level.
Red Wings fans were probably disappointed by the lack of a high-profile signing this summer, but Detroit still has nearly $12MM in cap space (as per PuckPedia) and can make a move if it chooses to. All that to say, Yzerman not managing to lure one of the top free agents to Detroit will be seen as a failure if the team misses the playoffs again, and it might even cost him his job if necessary steps aren’t taken in the right direction.
Continued (at length); again, I do not believe that there is any real heat under Steve Yzerman’s seat as long as Marian Ilitch and Christopher Ilitch own the team. He’s the GM for life, or at least until he decides that he’s had enough…
And the Red Wings definitely need to try to add a top-six forward and top-four defenseman to improve their roster as compared to last year, but as I’ve been saying, with trade prices sky-high this summer, the Wings may not be able to do so until the regular season begins, if not closer to the 2026 trade deadline.
That’s not an exciting answer for fans expecting more from a team that raised its ticket prices, but for now, it’s all about getting more out of the players who are already on the roster via a full year’s worth of coach Todd McLellan’s guidance.
Steve Yzerman is most likely not going to do anything with the roster until he and Mclellen have a better feel for who they have after camp and pre-season games. What prospects can make it and who cannot. I think he might even wait a month to see what shakes out around the league.
That’s completely logical…
There have been multiple reports that the Wings offered Aaron Ekblad $8M per season. He signed with the Panthers for $6. For those who doubt Yzerman, I ask this question: have any of his first round picks been a bust? The Wings have 7 blue chip prospects currently, not on the team.
The issue is that the Wings never got to offer Ekblad that contract. He re-signed with the Panthers before free agency, so Detroit was snubbed there.
And Yzerman has drafted quite well.