The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn and Scott Wheeler discuss the “contention cycles” of all 32 NHL teams this morning, suggesting that while the Red Wings‘ present is very middling, Detroit could have a very bright future thanks to its deep pool of prospects. The article heavily draws upon their prospect tier and player tier articles in assessing where the teams are at and where they could be in terms of their respective levels of talent:
Detroit Red Wings
Present Outlook (Rating: 5.4 [out of 10])
The Red Wings are an interesting place given the current malaise around the franchise, right next to the Sabres where the vibes couldn’t be better. What their placement says is that the team’s core is good enough to be playoff-worthy, especially with the leap Moritz Seider took last season. The potential growth of Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson can cement that further. It’s everything else that’s become an issue, a testament to Detroit’s poor draft record during the Yzerman era. Is this the year they start seeing results?
Future Outlook (Rating: 8.2)
The Red Wings have studs in Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson and significant quantity in Prospect Tiers with nine players (!). They’re missing a true superstar up front, though and that’s the difference between a good score here and one that looks like San Jose’s or Anaheim’s.
Path to contention
The challenge with the Red Wings’ mix is that if one of those Tier 4/5 players doesn’t get to Tier 3, you end up with a playoff baseline and not a true contention window. And both I and the league aren’t sure which of those players we’d bet on to exceed their projection. If all of them hit but none of them are home runs, you have to count on a St. Louis Blues miracle where you’re a capital-T Team and everything comes together in some kind of perfect storm.
Continued (paywall)
