The Red Wings are staring at a season that has less to do with polish and more to do with direction. The roster has holes in all the usual places - center depth, the bottom six, the middle defensive pair, even the backup goalie spot - but the bigger problem is harder to chart on a depth chart. Right now, this team doesn’t seem to have an identity.
That’s the issue hanging over everything. The Red Wings aren’t built like the Florida Panthers, who lean on size and physical force.
They’re not set up like the Carolina Hurricanes, who bank on depth and trust. Instead, Detroit is trying to be a little bit of everything at once: fast, skilled, responsible, tough.
The result is a team that winds up short in every lane.
That’s why the next season has to be about building something real, even if it doesn’t look pretty. It won’t happen in a week, and it won’t happen in one offseason.
This is the kind of thing that takes an 84-game season and more time after that to shape properly. But the process can start now, especially with all the upheaval around the organization.
There is at least reason to think the roster could get younger and more interesting fast. The Red Wings have multiple prospects who could push for NHL jobs this season, including Nate Danielson and Carter Bear. There’s not much downside to giving those players a shot, especially with so many teams in the Eastern Conference making improvements and the Atlantic Division getting a major talent boost.
The next general manager also has to be realistic about where this group stands. The Red Wings, as constructed, are not ready to be a playoff team next season.
That doesn’t have to be treated as a failure. In fact, it may be the cleanest way to approach this phase of the build.
What Detroit needs now is a season of turnover. That means moving out older players who haven’t delivered and replacing them with fresher talent that can help reshape the team’s outlook. The pressure to chase the playoffs will still be there, but the expectations should change along with the roster.
And the goal doesn’t have to be perfection. It just has to be progress without repeating the same old mistakes.
The names that appear safest are the young core pieces. Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson are expected to remain part of the foundation.
Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson have shown they can hold roster spots, at least for now, with Kasper set up for what should be a big season. Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard also fit into the long view, unless they are moved at some point in a deal for star power.
The list of likely exits is much longer. Nearly all of the pending unrestricted free agents are expected to move on.
Justin Faulk, Mason Appleton, Jacob Bryson, Daniil Tarasov and John Gibson are viewed as as good as gone, and many of them could be flipped for picks. Andrew Copp is a different case; he’s a solid middle-six center and could possibly stay on for another year or two, though his future role remains unclear.
Then there’s Alex DeBrincat, who sits in a more complicated spot than anyone else. He could become one of the top trade chips available to a new GM if the team decides to cash him in for a strong return.
But he also has a case to stay in the long-term picture. He’s 28, still in his prime, and if Detroit signs him to a seven-year deal, there should still be plenty of scoring left before that contract runs out.
The only real question is whether the Red Wings are willing to pay him what he’s worth.
In Other News...
Dylan Larkin Just Got Pulled Into Trade Chatter Red Wings Fans Hate
Offseason trade talk has a way of grabbing hold of every big name on the board, and Dylan Larkin is the latest to get caught up in the swirl. The discussion around the Edmonton Oilers has already ranged across a handful of high-end players, from Quinn Hughes to Connor Hellebuyck to Chris Kreider, with cap space, team needs and player preferences all part of the calculation.
For Red Wings fans, the mere fact that Larkin is being mentioned in the same breath as trade chatter is enough to make the summer feel a little less quiet. The noise around Edmonton may keep building as the market sorts itself out, but this is also the kind of situation where one front office decision can change the whole conversation before anything ever gets close to serious. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Prospect Return Brings Relief And One Big Offensive Question
Eddie Genborgs return to the ice offered the kind of update Red Wings followers were hoping to hear after a quiet summer around one of the organizations more intriguing prospects. His preseason appearance in the Swedish Hockey League pointed to a player moving past the undisclosed injury he picked up in the AHL playoffs, and it also suggested he should be ready when the SHL regular season opens. For Detroit, that matters because Genborg has been viewed as a possible physical presence in the prospect pool, the sort of player who can make shifts more difficult for opponents.
The bigger question, though, is whether that blend of size and edge is enough for a system that still needs more offense from its pipeline. Genborg is not at Red Wings training camp, so there is no immediate chance to see how he stacks up against the organizations other young forwards in camp settings. His progress is encouraging, but Detroits long-term outlook still turns on whether enough of these prospects can do more than just play hard and win space. [Read more 🡒]
Max Plante Just Gave Red Wings Fans A Bigger Reason To Watch
Max Plante is adding another line to his hockey resume, and it is the kind that Red Wings fans can file away for later. The 2024 second-round pick has been named captain of the University of Minnesota Duluth for the upcoming NCAA season, a notable step for a player who already owns a Hobey Baker Award and has become one of the more interesting long-term pieces in Detroits prospect pipeline.
For the Red Wings, the appointment is less about the letter on his sweater than what it says about his trajectory. Leadership roles at the college level can matter as much as raw skill when a young player is trying to show he can handle the next level, and Plantes path will keep drawing attention as the season unfolds. The only real question now is how soon Detroit decides to bring that development under its own roof. [Read more 🡒]