Red Wings Top 10 Question Marks Heading Into the Off-Season
By Evan Mead
The Future of the Detroit Red Wings is in Question
The Detroit Red Wings gave multiple prospects chances last season. Between, Michael Rasmussen, Joe Veleno, Taro Hirose, Moritz Seider, and Lucas Raymond, the Red Wings proved that theyhave prospects ready to play and compete. The problem is, they will need more prospects to be NHL ready sooner rather than later.
When looking at Capfriendly.com, the Red Wings roster is looking rather bleak and thin. By that, I don’t mean that they don’t have players, but the fact that in the two seasons, the Red Wings are going to have a lot of contracts expire.
Now, I feel they have every bit of faith they could give in Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, but this game you can’t rely strictly on just a couple players. This is a game where you need everyone to contribute. Even your fourth-line needs to bring something to the table if you want to win in this league.
There are so many talented teams. I mean, the Rangers, Lightning, Avalanche, Blues, Oilers, they all have three/four lines that can be out there and I feel every team is liking their chances. That’s what the Red Wings need as well if they want to compete in this league.
In the current off-season we are in, the Red Wings have 11 contracts expired. Some of the notable players that don’t have a contract this season are: Filip Zadina, Mitchell Stephens, Sam Gagner, Marc Staal, Danny DeKeyser, Jake Walman, and Thomas Greiss. There are a few more names, but those are the most notable ones.
Now, having 11 names not under contract for the coming year is not good. But then you take a look at next years free agency and they are losing out on even more players potentially. Excluding the current 11 players with expired contracts this year, there is an additional 11 players with expiring contracts next season. Some of the notable names that are free agents next year are: Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Pius Suter, Oskar Sudqvist, Adam Erne, Joe Veleno, Gustav Lindstrom, Jordan Oesterle, and Alex Nedeljkovic.
As you can tell by the list of names that are free agents, the Red Wings roster is very bleak in the coming years. That being said, the Red Wings will have a lot of decisions to make. Do they want to attack free agency to fill some of their voids or do they feel confident enough to call up some of their top prospects?