What is a dream offseason for the Red Wings?
The Detroit Red Wings are a team looking to end a long streak of futility. So, what do they have to do to finally turn things around?
The Red Wings have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 10 straight years. From simply being a bad team to having four consecutive seasons where the team has fallen off the cliff in March, the team has found ways to have its seasons end prematurely.
General manager Steve Yzerman has been facing plenty of criticism for his inability to put together a roster that can finally get over the hump and make it into the postseason. Heading into another long offseason, he has plenty of work to do to fix the team he once rejuvenated decades ago.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Max Bultman of The Athletic joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss the perfect summer for the Red Wings.
Max Bultman: The two biggest needs are a top-line left wing and some toughness in the bottom six. So, I look at that right off the top. Michael McCarron is from Grosse Pointe, just outside the city of Detroit. That would be a great ad for their bottom six, add a little bit of toughness at a guy who played a big role for the Wild in the playoffs. I like Bobby McMann as a top-line left wing for them. Bring some speed, he can play that at 20-plus goals next to Larkin and Raymond.
I think for Red Wings fans to be excited, there’s going to have to be a splashy name, and I know that Elias Pettersson doesn’t have the shine that he did two years ago, but he is the guy that I kind of have circled. I don’t know if it’s going to be as simple as a change of scenery for him, but I specifically think Detroit could be a good place for a change of scenery for me, pair him with a Lucas Raymond, who I think would be one of the premier playmakers in the league. Let him weaponize that shot a little bit, take a little bit of pressure off him. He doesn’t have to be the number one center. You got Dylan Larkin there. I think the fit all around actually would really benefit Elias Pettersson.
There’s obviously the question about his health, his mobility, I mean, the knee and the status of that. I mean that that has to be a factor in the conversation when you talk about the diminished points, but I still think this is a guy that can get back to being like a 70-point center, and if he’s that, who cares if you’re overpaying? Especially since you got such good deals on Seider, such good deals on Raymond and Larkin, you can afford to overpay a guy. I think if you added those three names, all of a sudden, I think you go into the year expecting to be a playoff team.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…