Better luck next year: The pressure is going to be on the Detroit Red Wings
It is time. It is time to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But there are some major flaws that need corrected before that can happen.
Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Detroit Red Wings.
Next season will be Steve Yzerman’s sixth as the Detroit Red Wings general manager.
They have yet to make the playoffs in his first five seasons, and to this point there has been an enormous amount of patience to go with that. And for good reason. When he was hired by the Red Wings in April, 2019, he was inheriting a shell of a franchise that needed a complete overhaul and rebuild following the tail end of the Ken Holland era.
The farm system was non-existent. The NHL roster had little talent and way too many bad contracts. It was never going to be a quick fix, and nobody should have had any delusions to the contrary. He had his work cut out for him and it was going to be a massive undertaking.
To Yzerman’s credit, his team has improved its record every single year he has been the general manager while the talent level has also steadily increased. The 2023-24 season was the best of the Yzerman era to date with the Red Wings reaching the 91-point mark (their first time over 90 points since the 2015-16 season) and just barely missing the playoffs due to a tiebreaker with the Washington Capitals.
They were also pretty fun to watch given how good the offense was at times. They started to become relevant again and there seemed to be an actual buzz of excitement at their games.
When the season began I did not expect the Red Wings to be a playoff team, but I did want to see them at least take a big step and play their way into serious playoff contention. Another year in the 70-82 point range where they do not even sniff the playoffs was not going to cut it, especially given some of the players the roster has.
They did take that step. So I am not going to be overly critical of them for missing the playoffs again when they did exactly what I wanted to see them do and what I thought they needed to do. Overall, all things considered, it was a productive season and a meaningful step forward.
But that might change next season where there is going to be an actual expectation for the playoffs. At least there should be an expectation for it.
They took their big step forward this season, improved by 11 points and became a playoff contender.
Now it is time to take another step beyond that and become an actual playoff team.
As the Buffalo Sabres showed this season in a similar situation, that step is not always easy to make. But if it does not happen, or if they take a step backwards, it might lead to some questions about what Yzerman is doing here and what their current ceiling is. Especially when the team’s needs and flaws are so easily identifiable. They have to be fixed.
Let’s talk about it.
Everything that went wrong
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