Both the Free Press’s Helene St. James and the Hockey News’s Adam Proteau suggest that the Red Wings’ underwhelming free agency performance has already doomed the team to another season without playoff hockey.

It’s way too early to make that determination in my books, but St. James believes that the Atlantic Division is too stacked for the Wings to make a meaningful move up the standings…

Consider the competition within the Atlantic Division: The Florida Panthers look like they’ll be a playoff lock for years to come. The Toronto Maple Leafs lost Mitch Marner, but are still a playoff team. The Montreal Canadiens have added defenseman Noah Dobson to their rebuild. The Tampa Bay Lightning still have an elite players and Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal. The Ottawa Senators are a team on the rise.

That’s five teams just within the division who project to finish ahead of the Wings in the 2025-26 standings. In the Eastern Conference’s other division, the Metropolitan, the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers all look like they’re capable of making the playoffs.

Things change, of course, and there’s often a team that looks playoff bound only to drop out (like the Rangers last season). But almost everything would have to go right for the Wings to make it: Both Gibson and Cam Talbot stay healthy – in fact, everybody stays healthy – and there’s more growth in the performances of the younger players, like Seider, Kasper, Raymond, Johansson, Söderblom and Berggren.

The harsh reality is that it’s incredibly hard to build a winning team. The Panthers were forged around Aleksander Barkov (second overall pick in 2013) and Aaron Ekblad (first overall pick in 2014) and it wasn’t until 2023 they had enough surrounding pieces to win the Cup. The Wings haven’t drafted that high since their playoff streak ended in 2016, and suffered severe setbacks by the previous administration flubbing on first-round picks in 2015 (Evgeny Svechnikov), 2016 (Dennis Cholowski) and 2018 (Filip Zadina) – all of whom washed out of the organization without any return.

it is a sad outlook for the franchise, but unless Yzerman finds a way to swing a trade for at least one elite player, the playoff drought appears headed for a 10th year.

And the Hockey News’s Adam Proteau feels that the Wings’ personnel is simply deficient as manged by GM Steve Yzerman:

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas discussed the free agency moves made and not made by each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams on Sunday, and, at the 53:02 mark of the latest episode of 32 Thoughts, they address the Red Wings’ offseason plans…

So, the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker reports the summary of comments made by the Sportsnet duo: Nikolaj Ehlers was never a realistic option; Friedman never had a doubt that Patrick Kane was going to stay; the Red Wings had interest in Viktor Arvidsson and Mason Marchment, who were traded to Boston and Seattle, respectively, so there were some things he wanted to do and wasn’t able to do; James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton were signed for 1 and 2 years, respectively, so Yzerman wasn’t planning on giving term to any of the free agents unless there was a “home run”; he says it’s a hard sell in Detroit, it’s been too many years without the playoffs, but Yzerman still believes in himself, no matter what the doubters suggest, and he’s drafting and developing, and unless it’s an Ehlers, Yzerman is betting his reputation on the young players are coming; even John Gibson is a situation where there’s not a lot of term, and he has to say healthy; the Wings had to move Vladimir Tarasenko, who wasn’t happy in Detroit; and Bukauskas notes that Derek Lalonde praised Detroit’s young core after he was fired.

3 and-a-half minutes of MBN “mic’ed up” during the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp:

CBC Indigenous’s Stefan Richard spoke with Red Wings 1st round draft pick Carter Bear and Montreal Canadiens draft pick Hayden Paupanekis regarding their statuses as Manitoban First Nations picks in this past June’s NHL Draft, and Bear suggested that his work ethic is what sets him apart:

CBC Indigenous asked the players what separates their game from anyone else.

Bear said, “I just want to win every shift. I don’t like to take a shift off at all. I don’t want to be lazy so I think it’s just me not taking a shift off and I wanted to win every battle, every shift.”

Continued; Bear busts his butt on every shift, and that’s a very good characteristic with which to define one’s game.

DobberHockey’s Puneet Sharma discusses the NHL’s mid-range draft picks from the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles today, and Sharma is bullish on the potential of Red Wings pick Carter Bear:

Pick No. 13 – Detroit Red Wings

Carter Bear – LW

Much like [the Philadelphia Flyers], the Red Wings stuck to their identity selecting winger Bear from the Everett Silvertips, a pick that fits Detroit’s blueprint to a tee. Bear was one of the WHL’s most dangerous offensive threats this season, piling up 40 goals in just 56 games before a lacerated Achilles cut his year short. He blends high-end skill with a competitive, hard-nosed game, making him exactly the type of winger Detroit continues to covet. He is a constant threat around the net, is not shy about engaging physically, and shows the instincts of a future top-six forward.

Bear’s ability to play both wing and center add even more value to the pick and with some time to build strength and refine his stride, he could project as a 65-point top-six winger who brings skill, grit, and versatility to a Detroit lineup built on exactly that.

Continued

The Red Wings’ resident “graybeard” goaltender, Cam Talbot, turns 38 today:

HBD, Talbs! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/4hqNa3bHoZ

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 5, 2025

The Athletic asked its NHL beat writers to grade their respective teams’ offseason trade and free agency performances, and Max Bultman gives the Red Wings a surprisingly solid grade:

Detroit Red Wings: B-

It’s hard to quibble with anything the Red Wings did, and in adding John Gibson, James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton, they probably improved the overall roster. The middling grade, though, is because while those moves should help, they’re also not major needle-movers. In a weak market, that’s not totally unexpected, but for a team trying to snap a nine-year playoff drought, it’s also not particularly exciting. — Max Bultman

Continued; in hindsight, the Red Wings could have done worse in the free agency market, and I’m not certain how much better they could have done in attracting marquee free agents to a rebuilding team.

The Red Wings signed 25-year-old defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker to a 1-year, $875,000 contract on July 1st, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted an article in which he discusses Bernard-Docker’s pluses and minuses:

“Just being hard to play against, being annoying and kind of always on guys and trying to be physical when I can,” Bernard-Docker listed as his objective when he’s on the ice.

At the same time, Bernard-Docker admits that when it comes to that element of his game, he needs to find more consistency in his performance.

“That’s another part of my game in the NHL, I feel like maybe hasn’t been as consistent as I want it to be, is just like the physicality aspect,” Bernard-Docker said. “And there’s been some games where I think I’ve shown that I can do that. Other games maybe are where it’s not as apparent.”

Bernard-Docker may also prove of value to the club in another area where the Red Wings came up lacking during the 2024-25 NHL campaign. He’s viewed in NHL circles as being a more than capable penalty killer. Detroit was last in the NHL in that department last season. The Red Wings were successfully killing off just 70.1% of the club’s shorthanded situations.

“I think that’s one area that I was really able to develop and show kind of when I played in the minors and is an area that I think maybe I haven’t shown as much as I’d like to in the NHL yet,” Bernard-Docker said of his work on the PK. “And I think it’s an area that I know is a really strong part of my game. I’m willing to block shots. I think I’m pretty good with my stick.”

Continued

Earlier on Friday, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted an article about Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine’s decision to remain at Michigan State University for at least one more season, and this evening, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan continues the narrative:

Statistics aside, Augustine felt he had a productive season in that he learned to be more under control in net. This coming season, Augustine wants to work on his body.

“That’s huge for career longevity,” said Augustine, who adds developing a consistent approach mentally is also important. “After a negative, how do you respond? Or if you make a big save, and if they have another good chance, you have to be focused again. Whether it goes right for me, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same approach and you have to be ready for the next shot.”

Augustine is also excited about playing another season for [Spartans coach Adam] Nightingale, who Augustine credits with the MSU turnaround. Nightingale has won Big Ten and national coach of the year awards for his work at MSU.

“It’s the culture coach Nightingale has brought in since he got there (in 2022),” Augustine said. “Really, he’s done a phenomenal job of getting good people first and into the building, and that makes it easy to work as a team and go from there.”

Augustine didn’t want to speculate too much about what he’ll do next spring when he’ll be confronted with the same decision about turning pro or returning to MSU. There’s the coming season to prepare for, with the stated goal of winning a national championship. But if everything goes right, next year Augustine will be starting his pro career.

“Ideally,” Augustine said. “(But) I still have to go out there and prove it and make a decision at the end of next season.”

Continued; Augustine’s pretty dang mature for a 20-year-old young man.

New Red Wings goaltender Michal Postava, a 23-year-old Czech, spoke with the Wings’ media corps yesterday, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen compiled a list of the Red Wings’ top goaltending prospects as a result.

Allen suggests that Sebastian Cossa and Postava are arguably #1 and #2 on the Wings’ goaltending prospects list, with Trey Augustine lurking close behind among a sextet (or, if you prefer on July 4th, a “six pack”) of Red Wings goaltending prospects:

Unless the Red Wings sign a third goalie for their roster, Cossa is the team’s No. 3 goalie. He will be 22 when the season starts and his goalie partner Michal Postava, signed as a free agent out of the Czech League, will be 23.

“While we think we know what we have in Sebastian again,” Yzerman said. “As I sit here, I think Sebastian needs more time in the American League and we’re counting on him to play well. Michal played extremely well in the Czech League and we will see how he adapts over here for the first time.”

Today, Detroit Hockey Now views Cossa and Postava as Detroit’s top goalie prospects in that order.  Cossa has shown continuing improvement in his first three professional seasons, while Postava has already won a Czech League championship.

How does the Czech League compare to the AHL? It depends upon who you talk to. However, regardless of how you view the Czechia top league, the fact that Postava was impressive when the [Czech Extraliga] championship was at stake is an important reason why the Red Wings signed him.

Continued