Red Wings Offseason Outlook: What’s next after another disappointing collapse?
The Red Wings finished outside of the playoffs for the tenth consecutive season and took over Buffalo's title for longest active playoff drought in the NHL as they hit the ignominious decade mark for it in their centennial season. While the team improved their place in the points standings, it's hard to say the team really progressed this year as Detroit suffered another March slide, and the bottom half of the roster seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth for the back half of the season.
Goaltender John Gibson, brought in from the Anaheim Ducks, was perhaps the team's only saving grace from December onwards, carrying a 29-22-4 record while starting in 57 games. Gibson kept the Red Wings in a lot of games, and while the Red Wings didn't make a big swing at the trade deadline, the Gibson deal, which really only cost the team Petr Mrazek, proved to be the steal of the season long before the phone lines were shut down.
Head coach Todd McLellan did manage to keep the Red Wings from going back to back nights without a point for 28 straight games, but the last month and a half of the season saw the former Sharks bench boss scratching his head trying to figure out how to motivate his team to play competitively night-to-night. With his first full season now under his belt as the Red Wings field general McLellan should have a better go at re-molding the team in his image in the offseason, though patience from fans for the men up top and the product on ice is certainly growing thin.
Red Wings 2025-2026 Season at a Glance
- General Manager: Steve Yzerman
- Head Coach: Todd McLellan
Final Standings: 6th in Atlantic Division, 92 Points
Post-Season Result: Missed Playoffs
Projected Cap Space: $11,154,366
Draft Capital: No 1st or 4th round pick this year.
The Core: Detroit's Best & Breakout Players
Who stays long term?
The Red Wings already have half of their core inked to long-term deals. Mo Seider, Lucas Raymond, and Dylan Larkin are all locked in for for the next three-plus years. However, Detroit's top goal scorer, Alex DeBrincat becomes contract eligible this offseason, as well as young defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Signing those two to long term deals should be Detroit's top priority.
Raymond, Edvinsson, and Seider are both still under 25 while DeBrincat and Larkin are approaching 30, meaning that the Red Wings core already has some veteran leadership in addition to the likely new guard in the coming years. Edvinsson has had a solid showing so far in his time with Detroit, likely earning him a top of market or near top of market deal. DeBrincat has performed perhaps beyond expectation, reaching the 80 point mark for the second time in his career while becoming the Red Wings first 40 goal scorer since Marion Hossa in 2008-09.
After that, the Red Wings should be, and likely already are, prioritizing re-signing Patrick Kane. He and DeBrincat carried much of Detroit's offense in the back half of the season, though in the latter half of his career, Kane has taken to taking things year by year with his contract..
The Breakout Stars
Axel Sandin-Pellikka had an excellent rookie season, though he did find his minutes decreasing towards the back half of the season, and was briefly sent down to Grand Rapids during the regular season before joining them on their playoff run. The Swedish blueliner showed all the tools necessary to be a top four defenseman in this league in flashes, and will hope to build on his rookie point total of 21.
Detroit will also likely be looking for some solid growth after another solid, though injury riddled year from "Big Ed". The 6'6" blueliner was the only other Red Wings defenseman to finish the year with a double-digit net positive rating, and as Seider's usual partner on the ice, Detroit's top four has the potential to suffocate and outscore the opposition's top players on a given night.
Balancing Act: Salary Cap & Contract Efficiencies
Most Valuable Contracts
Detroit's top goal-scorer Alex DeBrincat has another year on his current contract with an AAV of 7.875 million dollars, though the wily winger is extension eligible this summer. Mo Seider's 8.55 million dollar AAV carries through until 2030, and the stud defenseman hasn't missed a game in his career while leading the Red Wings' blueliners in points this year.
Cap Flexibility in Free Agency
The Red Wings have a little over 11 million dollars available in free agency this year, making addressing some of their top needs in free agency difficult given some of the contract values given out in recent memory for top forwards. The Red Wings are also almost certainly earmarking some of that money for Patrick Kane, who has been on year-to-year contracts since coming to Detroit and has expressed interest in coming back.
Roster Turnover: Pending Free Agents & Glaring Holes
Internal Decisions (UFAs & RFAs)
Detroit's UFA list is limited largely to the oldest players on the roster, including the aforementioned Kane, David Perron, James van Riemsdyk, Cam Talbot, and Travis Hamonic. Of that group, Kane seems to be the only definite internal veteran that the Red Wings will pursue.
Hamonic and Talbot were rarely seen on-ice in the back half of the season, and van Riemsdyk's production fell off significantly after becoming a solid net-front presence for the Red Wings in December. Perron only scored one goal in his return to Detroit after being re-acquired at the trade deadline.
The Red Wings only have one RFA contract to worry about on the main roster this year, with Simon Edvinsson becoming extension eligible this summer. On the bright side, Detroit is now free of the Justin Holl, Erik Gustafsson, and Justin Abdelkader contracts.
The Biggest Roster Questions:
With Talbot gone, the Red Wings will likely be relying on one of their top goalie prospects, though it is yet to be seen whether that is Sebastian Cossa or Michal Postava in net behind John Gibson next year. Detroit should be looking to add another top six forward, primarily a top line left wing, and their bottom six is in desperate need of players who can provide grit and some secondary scoring. The Red Wings have plenty of prospects in the AHL who could step into a bottom six role, however, for many it is a question of whether the team will be trying to plug a square peg into a round hole.
Marco Kasper had the sophomore slump to end all slumps, leading to some questions about the young center's fit on the roster after failing to establish himself as a 2C after being supplanted on the top line wing where he finished his rookie campaign. The Red Wings have plenty of "hard nosed, two-hundred foot forwards", but no one is waiting in the wings with game breaking physicality or scoring ability.
Detroit needs plenty of both for next year if they don't want things to get ugly with the fans.
Pipeline: Plenty of breadth, questionable True Depth
Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings have so far proven themselves more than willing to let their prospects marinate in the AHL before making the jump to the show. The only recent prospects to make the jump directly from their last league have been Emmitt Finnie from the WHL and Axel Sandin-Pellikka from the SHL. Though, both did log some time at the end of Grand Rapids season in 2024-25 with the Griffins. However, this past year has seen several other prospects make appearances, though many were brief. Micheal Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson both made their Red Wings debut, and Carter Mazur joined the main roster late in the season after recovering from another injury. Detroit still also has players like Hobey Baker winner Max Plante playing out another season in the NCAA as well. The question now becomes where do all these players fit, with much of Detroit's roster still locked into contracts for the next two to three years?
Nate Danielson: Where does Danielson fit next year? Danielson played a lot of top line minutes with Grand Rapids when he was in the lineup but didn't have a ton of offensive production for the team. Not to mention, the young forward was in and out of the lineup throughout the year with several injuries. The Red Wings desperately need someone to step up and play a solid 2C game but it is questionable if Danielson has the top end scoring potential for that. Danielson and Kasper looked to potentially be the Red Wings' options at the spot going forward, but down years for both leaves a hole in the top six of the lineup. If Danielson is more suited for a bottom-six role, he'll likely be competing with J.T. Compher for the 3C, and will need to show a little more physicality and durability.
Michal Postava/ Sebastian Cossa: Can Postava supplant Cossa as the Red Wings goaltender of the future? Detroit signed the Czech netminder last season as a UFA, and Postava has shown himself to be more than capable in his first season of North American hockey. Cossa was drafted by the organization, however, and has been developing in their system for the past several years. That may make the Red Wings hesitant to not give him a chance to establish himself at the NHL level. How the Grand Rapids Griffins postseason run plays out will be key to seeing where the winds blow for Detroit's top two prospect goaltenders. Neither has started a game in the NHL, which is somewhat concerning as Detroit hopes to be vying for a playoff spot next year, and can't risk a leaky netminder sinking the ship.
Micheal Brandsegg-Nygard: Brandsegg-Nygard made Detroit's opening night roster, but the young winger was sent down before the end of the first month of the season after not seeing much production in the goal scoring column. The 20 year old Norwegian took the opportunity in Grand Rapids and ran with it, scoring 20 goals and 24 assists for 44 points in 60 games this year and was called back up to Detroit late in the season when injuries began to effect the roster. Brandsegg-Nygard has some real physicality and scoring touch, but its yet to be seen consistently, especially at the NHL level. Next year he has the real opportunity to make the opening night roster again, and if he taps more into that scoring ability, he should be one of the Red Wings most valuable players on the roster.
The Market: External Targets & UFA Options
Detroit finds itself in much the same UFA position as it did last year. The market for a top six forward is thin for the entire league, and the Red Wings have had trouble attracting impact free agents to "Hockeytown" over the last couple of years. Detroit looks to be set on the back end, with all of their defenseman locked in for the next year at least, especially since they re-signed two defenseman to multi year contracts during the season and have Justin Faulk for the next year. They could look to add a veteran goaltender as insurance as well, but Steve Yzerman and Co. should be turning over every stone as they look to reshape their forward group.
The Red Wings don't have this year's first round pick, but the team has several other draft choices over the next couple of years, and with the bevy of prospects in the AHL and beyond, Yzerman could swing another trade to help bring in an outside veteran. Barring a trade however, the top of the market for the Red Wings appears to be names like Charlie Coyle or Bobby McMann, though they could look to take a rehab project this year, barring the potential that whoever that is may block another young Detroit forward from coming up.
In the trade market, there's been a lot of noise around the Red Wings and centers Elias Petersson and Vincent Trochek. Petersson is on the tail end of two down years in Vancouver, but perhaps a change in scenery could help him recover to a higher scoring form. With his 14 million dollar cap hit, Vancouver would certainly be expected to retain some of that salary if the Red Wings hoped to add him to the roster.
Trochek would certainly help round out the top half of the bottom six, and Yzerman was reportedly very interested in landing the 32 year old before he ended up signing with the Rangers last summer. Trochek might also be interested in a change in scenery after the New York's disastrous year, finishing far outside of the playoffs. However prying either center out would almost certainly require one of Detroit's young depth, with Danielson, Kasper, and potentially even
The Verdict: Red Wings Close, Missing "Cigar"
"...approximately."
The Red Wings have a group of four to five skaters in their top six who can contribute on a night to night basis. However, the Detroit, as their captain put it, "gets tight." The team doesn't have a player on the roster or in the development pipeline who can truly overtake a game on the offensive side. The Red Wings just plain need the ability to outscore the opponent on a more consistent basis. It feels like the team is missing a piece, either on the top left wing or in the center of the second line to help drive play before the other pieces fall into place on the roster.
Detroit has fallen behind in the most competitive division in hockey. After free-falling out of a playoff spot in the Atlantic this year, the Red Wings will need to find a way to win in order to keep the boos from raining down.
Best Case vs. Worst Case Scenario
Best Case: The Red Wings re-sign the trio they need to in the offseason, add a contributor to the top six, and have a solid rookie netminder backing Gibson up on the way to the playoffs. Seider Norris Trophy.
Worst Case: The club's top prospects plateau and fail to break through or actively regress, there are no impactful offseason additions, no one is established in net behind Gibson, and the drought hits eleven years. Yzerman likely to have a different job title as everything blows up next offseason.