The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn suggests that the Red Wings should “sit out” of the NHL’s free agent marketplace as the Red Wings’ outlook for the 2026-2027 season is that of a “draft lottery hopeful”:
Detroit Red Wings
Timeline: Back to the drawing board
Needs: Franchise forward, middle-six depth, two top-four defensemen
Projected cap space: $21.2 millionHere’s the ugly truth: Even with Dylan Larkin around, the Red Wings would be a lot closer to this tier than any other as the obvious worst team in the Atlantic.
That’s a tough pill to swallow after 10 straight years of futility, but it may be a blessing in disguise if the Red Wings can right the wrongs of 2022 and go back to the drawing board. The Red Wings left the accumulation stage of the rebuild too early and have paid the price for it.
Detroit needs to start re-accumulating, and fast, to time it right with the primes of Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. Otherwise, the Red Wings may end up right back here in five years. They’re not getting out of this jam via free agency and half measures that just lead to 80-point seasons.
Continued (paywall); the Red Wings do have an uphill climb to battle Buffalo, Ottawa and Montreal in the Atlantic Division, but I don’t believe that the Wings are a lottery team that needs to clear the decks and trade Alex DeBrincat, for example.
It’s not that bleak in Detroit.
