A Look at the First Month of the Red Wings Season

Through the first 10 games of the 2024-25 NHL season, the Detroit Red Wings have a record of 4-5-1. The team sits in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with nine points, despite having signed seven different goalies to the roster during the offseason. All six Atlantic Division teams had a win percentage of .500. Andrew Copp has been a pleasant surprise given his four goals scored. Copp has played most of the 2024-25 on a line with J.T. Compher as the center and Patrick Kane on the right wing.

Copp had played eight seasons for the Winnipeg Jets before being traded to the New York Rangers in March of 2022. In the season in which he was traded, Copp had career-highs in goals with 21, assists with 32, and points with 53 in 72 regular-season games played. Copp also had eight goals and 10 assists in 16 games played after he was acquired by the Jets. After this season, Copp signed with the Red Wings in July of 2022. Copp has been reliably available to the Red Wings during his three seasons with the team, playing in 82 games during his first season with the team and 79 the next season.

Lucas Raymond leads the Red Wings in points with 11 in as many games played. This is despite the newly signed left-winger only having one goal scored so far this season. The Red Wings drafted Raymond with the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NHL entry draft. Raymond is on pace to have 82 points during the 2024-25 season, which would be the third time the Uppsala, Sweden native would have accomplished this feat.

I have written that the Red Wings will need to lean on a mixture of veterans and young players to be successful this season. Kane scored 20 goals and added 27 assists in 50 games played for the Red Wings after having hip resurfacing surgery during the 2022 offseason. Kane has scored two goals and added five assists so far this season. Given Kane’s recent comments about the Red Wings playing style one might infer that he is frustrated with the coaching staff. Derek Lalonde is in his third season as head coach of the Red Wings.

Kane signed a one-year contract with the Red Wings during the offseason. His stature within the league would have players in the Red Wings locker room listen when he speaks up. This leads to what he said about the team’s playing style of late. Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider both signed contracts with the Red Wings during the offseason, and these contracts are paying dividends right away.

After a recent game against the Edmonton Oilers, Kane noted that the team needed to play with the mindset of playing with the puck. “We had a great first, nice,” was Kane’s opening assessment of Sunday’s game. “It’s good when we’re playing hungry like that, on top of them. Excited to play with the puck, not thinking about defending. Instead just taking it to them. And we gotta get that more in our game, especially when we have a lead.”

Defenseman Olli Määttä was traded to the Utah Hockey Club for a third-round draft pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft. The draft pick originally came from the New York Rangers. Määttä’s playing time had fallen recently, and this move is a way to get defenseman Albert Johansson into the Red Wings’ lineup. The Red Wings drafted Johansson with the 60^th overall pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft out of Karlstad, Sweden. It is important to remember that not every defenseman is going to have as successful a rookie season as Seider did when he won the Calder Memorial Trophy after the 2021-22 season.

Määttä will be missed by the Red Wings are still on the roster but this is the reality of life in the NHL. “He texted the group and said, ‘Good luck,’ and everything like that,” said Ben Chiarot, who sat next to Määttä in the locker room. “Tough to see a good teammate go. Good pro, a good defenseman. “Sad to see Olli go.” The 30-year-old has played nearly 700 games in his NHL career after being drafted 22^nd overall in the 2012 NHL entry draft. While there are other defensemen that the Red Wings could have moved to remedy the team’s defense logjam, Määttä’s expiring contract makes him the easiest to move.