The Athletic’s Corey Pronman examines non-playoff teams to rank 16 rebuilding teams in order of their likelihood of winning a Stanley Cup in the next 10 years.
Pronman includes the Red Wings smack dab in the middle of his rankings, but he isn’t certain whether the Wings’ prospect pool alone can guarantee a return to contending status:
8. Detroit Red Wings
Detroit’s rebuild has been frustratingly slow for fans, but the Red Wings have steadily built one piece at a time in the first round. They aren’t picking in the top 10 as often, but the NHL team hasn’t improved that much. They have a bunch of high-quality prospects, although none who project as true impact types. I see a way for this team to be a consistent playoff contender in time, but there may not be enough elite players to go the distance.
Continued (paywall); it’s very hard to draft superstars if you’re drafting outside the top 10 picks (or top 5, really), so the Wings’ draft lottery luck has not helped the cause…
But absent elite game-changers, the Red Wings need to both make sure that the prospects who do pan out drive play and exceed expectations for the Wings’ “type” of player, and the team needs to get more aggressive in terms of importing star players via free agency and/or trades.
It’s going to be difficult for the Wings to continue amassing superb prospects as they get closer and closer to playoff status, and GM Steve Yzerman just isn’t the type of GM to sacrifice prospects and first-round picks for star players…
But he’s got to become a more aggressive GM as the team naturally finds itself more likely to make the playoffs and/or make deeper playoff runs.
The Wings also obviously need their coaching staff, special teams and supporting cast of players to maximize their performances, and as I’ve been saying over the past couple of days, it’s imperative that, starting with the 2025-2026 team’s training camp, Detroit needs to get its team rowing in the same positive direction at the same time.
I don’t know whether the Wings will win a Stanley Cup in the next 10 years. I hope that they do, but many things must break the right way for the team to do so, from drafting and developing to adding the right free agents, getting great coaching and building a strong cast of support players.
We’ll see. I’m hopeful and optimistic, but this is a hard league to win in, and some luck’s going to have to break the Wings’ way, too.
