2024-25 Season Preview: Detroit Red Wings

The 2024-25 season will start on Tuesday but the Detroit Red Wings won’t start until Thursday when they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins, they will face all but two teams in their division four times, and the two teams they will face three times are the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. They will face all the Metropolitan Division three teams and each Western Conference team twice at home and once on the road. The Red Wings finished last season tied for the final wild-card spot with 91 points on a 41-32-9 record but due to tiebreakers missed the playoffs, as they scored a goal to force overtime and keep their season alive the Washington Capitals scored to secure their win, and clinch their spot. The Red Wings finished 15-7-4 with 34 points against the Atlantic Division in 2023-24. The Red Wings this offseason went out and looked to add pieces to their core that GM Steve Yzerman has talked about the past few offseasons.

Additions:

G – Cam Talbot – Free Agency/2-years
D – Erik Gustafsson – Free Agency/2-years
G – Jack Campbell – Free Agency/1-year
F – Tyler Motte – Free Agency/1-year
F – Vladimir Tarasenko – Free Agency/2-years
F – Patrick Kane – Free Agency/1-year

Subtractions:

D – Jake Walman – Trade to San Jose Sharks
F – Robby Fabbri – Trade to Anaheim Ducks
F – David Perron – Free Agency/Ottawa Senators
F – Daniel Sprong – Free Agency/Vancouver Canucks
F – Zach Aston-Reese – Free Agency/Vegas Golden Knights
D – Shayne Gostisbehere – Free Agency/Carolina Hurricanes
G – James Reimer – Free Agency/Buffalo Sabres

Roster

Forwards

Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Vladimir Tarasenko – J.T. Compher – Patrick Kane
Michael Rasmussen – Andrew Copp – Christian Fischer
Jonatan Berggren – Joe Veleno – Tyler Motte

The Red Wings looked to replace the offense production of Fabbri, Perron, and Sprong which equates to 122 points with 53 of those coming on goals. So, they brought back Patrick Kane, then added Tyler Motte and Vladimir Tarasenko who combined for 111 points with 49 of those points coming on goals so the replacements are an 11-point dip and a four-goal dip, but it’ll be a full season of Kane who only played in 50 games last season after he signed in late November last season. The top two lines of the Red Wings will be exciting but it’s the bottom six with the question marks and we could likely see the kids get a chance in Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper, and more. They also now have their core locked up with Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, and Lucas Raymond all Red Wings long term.

Defense

Ben Chiarot – Moritz Seider
Simon Edvinsson – Jeff Petry
Olli Maatta – Erik Gustafsson

The Red Wings lost a big body in Shayne Gostisbehere on the blue line, but they will likely get a full season of Simon Edvinsson and bring Erik Gustafsson who brings in 31 points last season and a career 134 points. The Red Wings made sure they also locked up their key blue line piece as they signed Moritz Seider to an extension making him apart of the core for the long term.

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Power Play

Lucas Raymond – Dylan Larkin – Patrick Kane – Alex DeBrincat – Moritz Seider
Joe Veleno – J.T. Compher – Vladimir Tarasenko – Jonatan Berggren – Erik Gustafsson

The power play last season for the Red Wings ninth in the league with a 23.1% which was up two percent from 2022-23. Now they add Tarasenko, Gustafsson, and Berggren to this unit which should make them better in 2024-25.

Goalie

Cam Talbot – Alex Lyon – Ville Husso

The goalie question for this team is a fascinating one, the starting spot is still wide open. Ville Husso suffered an injury last season opening the time up for Alex Lyon who took the job and ran with it, now they brought in Cam Talbot who in his 11 year NHL career is 245-176-42 with a 2.63 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage, he was also a top five Vezina winner in 2016-17 when he finished fourth and he helped lead the Los Angeles Kings to the playoff last season when he went 27-20-6 with a .913 save percentage and 2.50 goals against average. Expect the season to start with a rotation of Talbot and Lyon with Husso in the role that Lyon had last season.

Wrap Up:

The Detroit Red Wings will look to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. They just missed making it back last season so the expectations for this season are to get back and get the young guys experience before the run goes. The real question mark will be how will the blue line perform, this Red Wings team will score goals, but can they keep opposing teams out of their zone?