The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau has been offering estimations as to how the NHL’s 4 divisions will shake out. Today he suggests that the Atlantic Division will include a Red Wings team that falls behind the Panthers, Maple Leafs, Lightning, Senators, Canadiens and Sabres, only fending off the Boston Bruins to finish 7th in the Atlantic Division:
7. Detroit Red Wings
The Hockey News Yearbook Division Rank: 6th
BetMGM Atlantic Division Winner Odds: 41.00 (+4000)
Why I’ve Ranked Them Seventh: It’s been painful to imagine the frustration Red Wings fans feel. This organization was for a very long time the gold standard for hockey organizations, but for the past nine seasons, Detroit has flailed and wailed, and been a non-playoff team. And for the past six seasons, they’ve had franchise icon Yzerman underwhelming in his attempts to build an elite roster.
Thus, the Wings have been unable to consistently compete with actual Cup contenders in the East and the Atlantic. Since 2015-16, the best this franchise has finished is in fifth place (just twice), and every other year was spent in sixth, seventh or eighth place in the division. That’s not an anomaly. That’s what you really are as a team. And that’s why we think Detroit is going to finish in second-last in the Atlantic
Why I Could Be Wrong: Todd McLellan came in as the Wings’ coach last season and had some immediate success. However, that success was short-lived, and Detroit’s players once again proved they weren’t a playoff team. But Yzerman added goalie John Gibson in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks this summer, and the defense-challenged Wings could respond very well to Gibson coming in and providing experience between the pipes.
The high end for this Detroit team is a wild-card spot, and you have to figure Yzerman is desperate to use every bit of his $11.9-million in salary cap space during the season. The Red Wings have some components to like, and the newly rejigged roster might catch lightning in a bottle and emerge as a wild-card team.
Continued; Proteau is a stand-up fellow, so I’m not going to bag on him, but we’ll say that he and I disagree as to where the Red Wings will end up…
While I’m more than ready to admit that we’re going to be reading a ton of previews which instantaneously write off the Red Wings as an Atlantic Division basement-dweller, without the “it could still be positive” framing from Proteau.
As the season previews and prognostications begin to pile up, we’re going to be seeing a significant number of prognosticators suggest that Detroit’s going to bring up the rear of the Atlantic, and it’s up to the Red Wings themselves to prove their legions of critics wrong–with a little help from their GM.
I don’t know about Montreal and Buffalo being better. The Sens have to prove it again. Also, how long before Tampa starts their slide like Boston? Not sure about the Leafs without Marner and they still haven’t improved their goalie situation. All in all, lots of uncertainty in this division.