MLive’s Ansar Khan found a set of comments from Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s morning press conference which summarize the GM’s outlook for the 2025-2026 Red Wings team:
“I see progress in the organization,” Yzerman said Wednesday while addressing the media on the eve of training camp in Traverse City. “I look at the young players coming into the organization — I look at the young players playing on the Detroit Red Wings today — I’m hopeful that maybe one or two of them, at some point, if not at the start, get into our lineup. So, at some point during the season we continue to build a young core that eventually is here for a long time and competes on a regular basis to make the playoffs.”
The Red Wings return with much the same roster that finished 39-35-8 (86 points), five points out of the final playoff spot, due to a thin free-agent market and, according to Yzerman, limited trade opportunities.
Their biggest upgrade is in goal, acquiring John Gibson in a trade with Anaheim. They also added depth wingers James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton and third-pair defensemen Travis Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker.
“Hopefully with a combination of John and Cam (Talbot) we can improve (their save percentage),” Yzerman said. “I look at our D corps with Simon (Edvinsson) going into his second full year. Albert (Johansson) quietly had a very steady year. Hopefully, both take another step. Marco Kasper playing more minutes down the stretch and performing very well. We’re hopeful he can continue that trajectory. Even the (Moritz Seiders and Lucas Raymonds) I consider still really young, and their career path is on the rise. And then I think at the bottom of our lineup I expect to get a little bit more production which will help us five-on-five. Penalty killing (which ranked last in the league), we have to improve that area.
“We know what to expect out of our veteran group (led by Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane). These guys are all well-conditioned, very professional. I don’t expect any drop-off in them. So really it comes from our younger guys improving.”
Continued (paywall)
