The Score’s John Matisz is ranking NHL teams by “tiers,” from 1-8, and he assesses the Red Wings to be in the 5th tier, which he describes as being in “Standings purgatory,” suggesting that it will take “the stars aligning” for the teams in Tier 5 to make the playoff cut:
Detroit Red Wings
This is a massive season for the Red Wings, who haven’t competed in a playoff game since 2016. Fans have grown impatient with GM Steve Yzerman.
It’s true, the so-called Yzerplan has involved a long list of questionable transactions, especially over the past few years. But June’s acquisition of John Gibson from Anaheim was a win. A Gibson-Cam Talbot tandem should make goaltending a tangible strength for a club that’s banking on sizable jumps from early-20s skaters like Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Marco Kasper, and Simon Edvinsson in order to snatch one of the East wild cards.
Todd McLellan, who’s entering his first full season in Detroit, is a solid coach. Bonus: Yzerman has $12 million in cap space to spend on reinforcements.
Continued; it certainly doesn’t appear that the Red Wings will make any offseason acquisitions, given the high prices for tradable assets, but my hope is that the Wings use that extra cap space over the course of the regular season, leading up to the 2026 trade deadline.
