Daily Faceoff argues that the Red Wings have been the “most mediocre team” of the past 10 seasons, with DFO’s Scott Maxwell suggesting the following:
Detroit Red Wings
Playoff appearances: 0
Playoff series wins: 0
Top-five draft picks: 1 (Lucas Raymond, 2020)
100-point seasons: 0
Points percentage: .470 (30th)Was there any doubt the Red Wings would top this list? They’re the only team not to make the playoffs at all in the last 10 years, resulting in zero regular season success. But then they’ve also struggled to truly tank and acquire game-breaking talent. While they have the second-most top 10 picks in the last 10 years, they only drafted into the top five once. To be fair, the lottery screwed them over frequently (nine teams below them in the lottery moved up during their 10-year drought, and they were pushed out of the top five twice) and the one player they did get in the top five is very good (Raymond). But most of Detroit’s run of mediocrity came from their own doing.
For starters, they struggled in the draft, especially with some of their top picks. While they did get talents like Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson, they also blew top picks on Michael Rasmussen and Filip Zadina early on in the rebuild, and the jury is still out on Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Carter Bear. On top of that, now-former general manager Steve Yzerman jumped the gun and spent a ton of money in free agency on middling players like Ben Chiarot, J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp and Justin Holl, giving the team a higher floor than they needed at the time, but not a high enough ceiling to make the playoffs. As a result, they are still stuck in the murky middle and struggling to make the playoffs. Now that captain Dylan Larkin wants out, Detroit looks poised for several more miserable years.
Continued; there’s no doubt that the “Jump the Gun” offseason arguably set the rebuild back, but I have to believe that there’s going to be urgency for the next administration to end the “misery” ASAP. This team has a solid talent base and it has a fan base that’s spending a lot of money to watch mediocrity. Those factors do not mix.
