MLive’s Ansar Khan offers his take on the Red Wings’ free agency needs this evening, noting that GM Steve Yzerman offered the most succinct take on Detroit’s roster holes during his end-of-the-regular-season press conference:
“The reality is we need to score more five-on-five,” Yzerman said on April 23. “That requires talent and scoring ability. We need to be a harder team to play against. We hear our players talk about that and my message to them would be … in order to do that, you guys got to be harder to play against. So, either that or I got to get ready and bring in other guys.”
The Red Wings ranked 30th in the league in five-on-five goals with 142 and 22nd in goals of any kind with 239. Larkin scored 34 goals. Patrick Kane, an unrestricted free agent who’s signed one-year deals with Detroit on the eve of free agency in each of the past two years, remained unsigned as of late Tuesday afternoon. Losing Kane would be a further blow to the offense.
Alex Ovechkin, who’s either going to re-sign with Washington or retire, and Anthony Mantha, who Yzerman traded in 2022 and isn’t likely to return, are the highest-scoring free-agent forwards with 64 points each, followed by Kane with 57.
The Red Wings’ main target could be Viktor Arvidsson, coming off a 25-goal, 54-point season with Boston. Other available forwards with some offensive ability include Mats Zuccarello (Minnesota), Mason Marchment (Columbus), Anders Lee (Islanders), Michael Bunting (Dallas), Erik Haula (Nashville) and Jack Roslovic (Edmonton).
The Red Wings also need scoring and grit from their third and fourth lines.
“I’d like in our bottom six some production as well,” Yzerman said after the season. “And also, some definition, maybe a true checking line or shut-down line. And then depending on what you have in your top nine, you build your fourth line a little bit of around that. If you don’t have enough production, then you got to get some production on that fourth line. If you’re not big enough and hard enough, then you need that. We need a little bit of all of that.”
Continued (paywall); the above comments are why I’m expecting the Wings to focus on their “bottom six” forwards and perhaps some back-up goaltending.
Right now, Detroit just isn’t a destination for top free agents, and the free agent marketplace is thin in terms of scoring…But there are always young, hungry grinders who are willing to play anywhere that they can earn an opportunity to play regularly.
Some of the Wings’ needs will be filled from within as prospects graduate from Grand Rapids, but the team needs some help in terms of size, speed and snarl on those third and fourth lines, and, hopefully, they can find some of those ingredients starting tomorrow at 12 PM EDT.
