Expansion Draft Preview: Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings are in full-on rebuild mode.

The team hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2016 and has spent the past few years stockpiling draft picks to load their farm system up with talent.

As a result, Detroit shouldn’t have a difficult time getting around the expansion draft. They have a handful of young players on entry-level deals who will be exempt so the Steve Yzerman and Co. only have a couple of difficult-ish decisions to make.

Eligible Forwards

@Dylan Larkin, @Frans Nielsen, @Darren Helm, @Tyler Bertuzzi, @Jakub Vrana, @Valtteri Filppula, @Robby Fabbri, @Richard Panik, @Vladislav Namestnikov, @Luke Glendening, @Bobby Ryan, @Adam Erne, @Michael Rasmussen, @Evgeny Svechnikov, @Sam Gagner, @Taro Hirose, @Hayden Verbeek, @Dominic Turgeon, @Givani Smith

Eligible Defencemen

@Marc Staal, @Danny DeKeyser, @Troy Stecher, @Christian Djoos, @Dennis Cholowski, @Alex Biega, @Filip Hronek, @Joe Hicketts

Eligible Goaltenders

@Thomas Greiss, @Jonathan Bernier, @Calvin Pickard, @Kaden Fulcher

Exempt Players

@Henrik Zetterberg, @Joseph Veleno, @Filip Zadina, @Lucas Raymond, @Moritz Seider, @Eemil Viro, @Filip Larsson, Jonatan Berggren, @Donovan Sebrango

What should they do?

Goaltending and defence are easy, so we’ll start there.

The only NHL goalie the Red Wings have signed into next season is Thomas Greiss, as both Jonathan Bernier and Calvin Pickard are free agents. Greiss is an automatic here.

On the blueline, Detroit has a pair of young defenders in Dennis Cholowski and Filip Hronek to protect. That leaves them one open spot for a veteran defender. Troy Stecher has been solid and is on a cheap deal, so he makes more sense to protect than Danny DeKeyser.

Finally, we have Detroit’s forwards. This is the only area with anything close to a difficult decision involved. The obvious forwards to protect are Larkin, Bertuzzi, Vrana, Fabbri, Erne, and Rasmussen. That leaves Detroit with one spot. They can use it either on a veteran, such as Richard Panik or Vladislav Namestnikov, or a young guy, such as Evgeny Svechnikov or Givani Smith.

You can make a case to protect any of those players. Svechnikov has the most upside but the other two are decent depth veterans. Regardless, it won’t be a huge loss for the Red Wings.