The Detroit Red Wings missed the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Playoffs on the last day of the regular season. The Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime to eliminate the Red Wings. This was the closest that the Red Wings have come to making it to the playoffs since they last made it seven seasons ago. With the continued absence of defenseman Moritz Seider and right-winger Lucas Raymond, do the Red Wings have enough firepower on their roster to make it back to the playoffs?
Head coach of the Red Wings Derek Lalonde has repeatedly said that he is not worried about general manager Steve Yzerman eventually getting a deal done with both Seider and Raymond. At a recent “Street Hockey in the D” event Lalonde was asked if he could provide an update on the negotiations. Lalonde and Yzerman have a relationship going back to the two of them being in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. Expectations for Lalonde have risen as he enters his third season as head coach of the Red Wings.
“Not a whole lot…This is exactly why we have the GM layer, the agent layer…I’ve talked to them two, three times throughout the summer, and we don’t even talk about the contract. That’s between Steve and them, Steve and the agent. With us, it’s just the same message for all the guys: We wanna progress, we wanna keep building this, we want a little bit more from last year. Obviously, those two guys are a big part of it.”
Yzerman has a reputation of being a hard negotiator going back to his time as general manager of the Lightning. Yzerman and the captain of the Lightning, Steven Stamkos, could not agree on a contract going into the final year of his second contract with the team. Julien BriseBois, who replaced Yzerman as general manager of the Lightning, could not get a contract extension either, causing him to sign a four-year, $32 million contract with the Nashville Predators. This was shocking as Stamkos is seen as one of the faces of the Lightning.
One player that Lalonde will have on his roster is right-winger Vladimir Tarasenko. The 32-year-old from Yaroslavl, Russia, signed a two-year, $92 million contract with the Red Wings during the offseason. In 76 games played for the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers during the 2023-24 season, Tarasenko scored 23 goals and added 32 assists. While Tarasenko is past his prime, he does add much-needed scoring to the Red Wings’ lineup.
At 6’1” and 228 lbs., Tarasenko will add much-needed size to the right of the Red Wings’ forward group. Both Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat, two of the right-wingers on the Red Wings, are under six feet tall. That is not to say that these two are not talented hockey players. The question is whether they can make it through an 82 game NHL season. Kane has seemingly recovered from hip resurfacing surgery that he underwent before joining the Red Wings. I have previously written that the Red Wings will rely on superstars who are past their primes to make it back to the playoffs.
Whatever the Red Wings’ roster looks like on September 25th will have the pressure of not making the Stanley Cup Playoffs for seven seasons in a row. Lalonde will be coaching the team for the third season. The bottom line of the business of the NHL is that a team needs to show positive results on the ice or it risks fans falling out of favor and not showing up to games. If the team’s playoff drought continues, questions may need to be asked about Lalonde. Training camp begins for the Red Wings on September 19th.
