Photo Credits: SecretName101. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Authored By: Adrian Rosati

Whelp, its not every offseason that your star player asks out of town. Or your captain asks out of town. Or your general manager who is a legend in the organization gets kicked upstairs. For Detroit Red Wings fan, blending captain and star player as Dylan Larkin, they have experienced all three. The Red Wings have not made the NHL playoffs for 10 straight seasons. Which means Little Ceasars Arena has not seen any playoff hockey yet in its lifetime. It’s clear the Illitch family doesnt like to lose, but with a history of underperforming sports teams (at least for the last 15 seasons), its interesting to see that their hockey team is the last one to get back into the playoff hunt.

Major Offseason Moves:

Additions:

F Viktor Arvidsson – SIgned as Free Agent

F Keegan Kollesar – Acquired from Vegas

G Danil Tarasov – Signed as a Free Agent

D Jacob Bryson – Signed as a Free Agent

Subtractions:

G Sebastion Cossa – Traded To Utah

F Patrick Kane – Left in Free Agency

D Erik Gustavvson – Left in Free Agency

Evaluation of the Offseason

Safe to say Steve Yzerman was busy before his effective dismissal to assistant to the owner. He brought in a few key adds while losing one key forward and a good young goaltending prospect. Its a mixed bag of moves, but he is no longer at the helm which makes this a little more interesting. The Red Wings still have yet to name a general manager to replace him.

Starting up front the addition of Arvidsson puts him slated to help with second line scoring. He is coming off a season where he put up 54 points in 69 gawmes. That was his best mark in 3 seasons. He has been battling inujuries recently which does make this a bit of a wildcard for Detiot. As I lead in the open though, they really have nothing to lose. He was out 5 games with a lower body injury on top of other minor injuries in the regular season, as well as most recently battling with a broken rib and punctured lung in this most recent playoffs. If he can be available, he can provide the Red wings with 20+ goals, which is kind of weak for that spot but maybe he can find lightning in a bottle and increase those totals.

Kolesar is another interesting and intriguing move.I was honeslty unaware he had moved until I had searched up his stats randomly this summer. I like this Kolesar move for Detroit for two reasons: what you have as a wildcard with Arvidson you dont have with Kolesar bevasue hes been fully healkthy the past two seasons, and he provides a physical presence which could be what they neeeded. Detroit has been really easy the past few years to play against and Kolesar can give them an edge to be a bit of a irritating out. Now I dont see it propelling them into contention, but I do see it helping them be a good team if they can find room next year.

Moving to Kane, Im not sure what went on there. Clearly, without having more info they must have at least matched the Blackhawks offer and he decided to go retire as a Blackhawk. Theyre not good and have $19M of space to spend, so it has to have been that, right? They didnt missmanage those negotiations and make a really stupid decison right? Kane, albiet at the tail end of his career is certaintly better then the forward options they acquired. The fact that they have as much cap space as they still do, this wasn’t a cap casualty.

Sebastian Cossa wasn’t going to help the turnaround right now and someone you can afford to lose. Cossa only played 1 career NHL game where he posted a 2.67 GAA and a .857 save percentage. In the minors he is coming off of two straight seasons with a save percentage above .910. As we have seen with other rookie goalies, they can kind of be voodo. In net, they’re signalling a year of tanking, unless there’s a big move coming regarding Hellebuyck a Michigan Native. No one has rumoured that but with Gibson 1 percentage point above average and Tarasov 5 points about average, just average goaltending is not enough with the team in front of them.

It’s been an interesting offseason. If trying is their goal, I’d say they’ve easily got a failing grade this offseason. If they’re tanking though, top marks.

First 10 Games

The Red Wings open their season on Friday October 2nd against the New York Rangers at 6:30 pm ET. A later start than most. The Red Wings only have two divisional games in their first 10. They play 5 western conference opponents in the first 10, 3 at home and 2 on the road. The remaining are 3 metropolitan division opponents, all of which are at home. That’s 7of 10 games at home. Insane start and a bit of an advantage to have home ice for the opening stretch.

I have them opening the season with a 4-6 record. The opponents I expect them to beat include: Rangers, Jets (especially if Hellebuyck gets traded), one of the games against the Kraken (likely the home game) and the Canucks. The remaining teams are either playoff calibre teams or teams who got good enough from last year to be of that ilk. The only team maybe not included in that is Ottawa, but they’re still marginally better than the Red Wings where they will cause them havoc.

My Prediction

I have the Red Wings as dead last (8th) in the Atlantic Division. My take on this only gets stronger if Larkin does end up getting moved out of Detroit. They top part of the lineup for thinner, with only depth scoring added on. We will see what happens next offseason, but it’s looking grim at this point.