Tis the season to pile it on. Earlier this week, the Hockey News’s Adam Proteau ranked the Red Wings 32nd out of 32 teams because of their front office uncertainty and their offseason moves; today, Daily Faceoff’s Anthony DiMarco declares the Red Wings to be the Eastern Conference’s “Biggest Loser”:
1: Detroit Red Wings
This one was simple, low hanging fruit and honestly, the Red Wings are atop the entire league as the biggest offseason loser. It isn’t particularly close, either.
Their captain Dylan Larkin wants out; Patrick Kane left in free agency; they traded up and coming goaltender Sebastian Cossa for futures; they failed to add any player of significance. The culmination of it all? Steve Yzerman stepping down as general manager, ending one of the most disappointing tenures for an executive we’ve seen in quite some time.
In a division where every other team could be realistically projected as a playoff club, Detroit is clear-cut behind the eight-ball. Their fanbase may not want to hear it after a near-decade of rebuilding, but the Red Wings may need to take a step back before taking one forward.
Look, I’m not gonna say that things are easy in Detroit right now. Larkin does “want out,” Kane did leave in free agency, these are true things.
But Cossa got bumped off the depth chart by Michal Postava and Trey Augustine; Yzerman’s stepping down is seen as a fresh start for whoever takes over the Red Wings’ front office…
And no, Keegan Kolesar, Viktor Arvidsson and Daniil Tarasov are not the moves of a contending team, I still believe that the Red Wings are going to be plucky, that they’ve got three fantastic building blocks in Simon Edvinsson, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, and they’re going to be determined to prove their critics wrong, or at least partially wrong.
If they’re competitive, scrappier and full of heart, I’ll accept whatever happens in terms of results.
