Detroit Red Wings players will gather one last time this spring to clean out their lockers, an annual event coming days after the end of the season.
Some will not, and some should not, return come autumn. Ultimately, the decision on who is who falls on general manager Steve Yzerman, but the team has yet to announce when he will be available to answer for what stands as the most disappointing, embarrassing season in his seven years of helming the franchise. When he was named GM on April 19, 2019, he took over a terrible product, inheriting a club that had flubbed on three of its previous four first-round picks. That bought him several years to revive the club he captained to three Stanley Cups.
Expectations began to rise in the spring of 2024, when the Wings surged towards a playoff berth and only missed out by a tiebreaker. But those expectations have not been met, and after the utter embarrassment that was their season-ending loss, it’s clear the team needs to move on from some players.
In the immediate, players face meeting with Yzerman and coach Todd McLellan on Friday, April 16, at Little Caesars Arena.
“There’s some of that housekeeping to take care of,” McLellan said. “But then we’ll spend important time as a staff talking about our impact on the players. And as I’ve said, it starts with us. We’re responsible for this. We have to look at how we use the players, how we play, structure changes that we want. And that will take a little bit of time.
“Then we’ll step back and breathe and go from there.”
McLellan, in his first full season with the Wings and 17th as an NHL head coach, described what those interviews are like. “I’ve seen them be emotional. I’ve seen them be empty. I go home sometimes and go, well, that was a real good day. We got a lot out of it. And then there’s other years you’re going, why did we even meet?
“The players dictate where they want to go with it. We’ll ask some questions. Sometimes it’s valuable. Sometimes it isn’t.”
McLellan said that roughly 10 hours before the books closed on the 2025-26 season when the Wings let themselves be picked apart by the Florida Panthers, 8-1. McLellan was too upset to talk for more than 44 seconds afterwards, saying everyone should be embarrassed. J.T. Compher said the Wings played “like we didn’t have respect for the game.”
For the game, or for each other?
Don’t people who respect one another work hard for one another? Because to put all of this on Yzerman, or on McLellan, is to let those most responsible off the hook. McLellan has done everything possible to instill mental toughness and game management, and as a class, the Wings flunked their final exam.
On individual levels, Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, the team’s two leading scorers from Jan. 25 (when the Wings had a 12-point cushion inside the playoff picture) to the end, showed up when it mattered. So did Moritz Seider on defense. Captain Dylan Larkin did what he could, playing injured after an injured right leg on March 6 cost him seven games. John Gibson’s goaltending from Thanksgiving through late March was why the Wings were in the playoff race. Justin Faulk, coming in at the trade deadline, looked like a good addition, strengthening the top four of the defense corps.
Rookies Emmitt Finnie, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Carter Mazur and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård don’t have to answer for the season.
That leaves everyone else. It isn’t possible, of course, for a GM to shed half a roster, but there must be some turnover. And there must be willingness to sacrifice a good prospect or a high-round pick – the Wings already used their first-round pick this year to acquire Faulk – to add a second-line center and a skilled forward to play with Larkin and Lucas Raymond. The Wings have too many bottom-six players. David Perron, another trade deadline acquisition, was a low-risk gamble that didn’t pay off, but his contract is up. James van Riemsdyk scored 15 goals on the season, but in an extraordinarily streaky way: one in the opener, 16 games without, 13 in his next 26 games, and then only one in his final 29 games. He, too, is on an expiring deal.
Having Compher (two years left at $5.1 million per season), Andrew Copp (one year at $5.65 million), Michael Rasmussen (two years at $3.2 million) and Mason Appleton (one year at $2.9 million) returning accounts for around $17 million spent on four players who provide more or less the same dynamic. Can Yzerman move one or more?
It’ll be a long off season, and the embarrassment of that last loss should linger, as should being booed by fans at LCA in Saturday’s home finale after the slide towards elimination became official. It was the final emphasis that this lineup needs a makeover.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cleaning out lockers not enough, Detroit Red Wings need a makeover
Reporting by Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
