It's only April, but it already feels like a long and angsty summer is coming in Hockeytown. After a ninth straight playoff miss, frustrations around the Detroit Red Wings (eased at the start of the new year by the instant success of the appointment of coach Todd McLellan behind the bench) are boiling over once again. With that in mind, here are three questions for Detroit and general manager Steve Yzerman to answer over the most important summer of his tenure to date.
Apr 17, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan watches the play against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Scotiabank Arena. (Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images)
The 2024-25 season saw some significant development success stories from the Red Wings. Simon Edvinsson built on last spring's strong form and continues to look like a serious top four d-man. Marco Kasper delivered on his promise as a uniquely mature and responsible player, while also pitching in some significant offense. Albert Johansson was probably the single biggest beneficiary of McLellan's arrival (in terms of the evolution from his pre- and post-coaching change roles). Elmer Soderblom earned a call-up with excellent form in Grand Rapids and showed serious evolution to his game away from the puck that has him looking like a valuable modern grinder.
However, through all that progress, the Red Wings (even if they re-sign Patrick Kane) look to be one player short in their top six. Specifically, Detroit seems to want for a high-end scoring winger to complement Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond on the top line.
There are pending unrestricted free agents who fit that bill, but each comes with their own set of questions. The headliner is of course Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but as the belle of the free agent ball, Marner will surely come at a steep cost. Larkin is currently the highest paid Red Wing at an $8.7 million AAV. Signing Marner would surely require Detroit to surpass that number and then some, with the $12 million AAV-deal Mikko Rantanen signed to join the Dallas Stars at the trade deadline a decent reference point. He wouldn't help the Red Wings with their objective of getting "heavier," but he would immediately become Detroit's most prolific scorer, at a steep price.
There are other candidates in the UFA pool, though none as alluring (offensively, anyway) as Marner: Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Brock Boeser to name a few. The Red Wings could also look at taking a swing in the trade market or perhaps even getting aggressive with offer sheets, but the shortest path to raising the team's ceiling likely requires an upgrade, and wherever it comes from, that won't be cheap.
Detroit just finished the season with the fourth worst penalty kill in the history of the NHL at 70.1%. Only one other team in that ignominious top (or bottom) 10 played after 1985 (the '20-21 Devils).
Among the curiosities of that disaster is that Detroit's short-handed personnel did not change significantly. The '23-24 Red Wings killed penalties at 79.6% clip: not great, but serviceable. Of the major contributors to that unit, only Jake Walman moved on in '24-25, with Tyler Motte added to the fold theoretically as a PK specialist up front.
In hindsight, a key limitation to the '24-25 team's roster was a bottom six that proved too often listless: unable to chip in secondary scoring, but also struggling to provide (positive) contributions on special teams or to control territorial play at five-on-five, even without scoring. There will be some built-in flexibility in that regard with players like Jeff Petry, Craig Smith, and Motte all pending UFAs.
There is reasonable cause for optimism around internal improvement. Kasper played just 35 seconds a game short-handed during his rookie season, and he has tools that could easily him add value with a bigger PK role. Also, a full training camp under McLellan might help sure up the mechanics of the unit from the jump. Nonetheless, it's obvious that the PK hamstrung the Red Wings to a serious degree, and they won't make the playoffs next spring either if it recurs.
The biggest source of angst for Detroit fans with the 'Yzer-plan' is Yzerman's free agent spending. There are not many GMs around the league who could spend in free agency the way Yzerman has, not even make the playoffs, and remain in good standing with respect to their employment, but obviously, Yzerman has a different relationship to Detroit and the Red Wings than average GM X does to NHL city Y.
However, heading into this summer, it will be interesting to see how much of the nucleus Yzerman has built via free agency periods past he opts to keep together. Players like Ben Chiarot, J.T. Compher, Vladimir Tarasenko, Justin Holl, and Andrew Copp have drawn the ire of Detroit fans, an ire fundamentally linked to the sense that they having lived up to the billings they were signed and paid to occupy. If we want to include an extension Yzerman signed, Michael Rasmussen could fit into that co-hort as well.
It will be up to Yzerman to determine whether those pieces (all of them signed at least through next season) can be part of a winning formula in Detroit. If he determines to keep them, it will be Yzerman's job to put them in appropriate roles. If not, he has to figure out how to flip them for contributors.
