Detroit capped off an ignominious season in 2025-26, squandering a postseason berth that was well within reach in March. With the Yzerplan seemingly stalled and general manager Steve Yzerman's team booed off the ice in their home finale loss to New Jersey, fans are justifiably out for blood.
Detroit has failed to reach every postseason since a five-game loss to Tampa Bay in 2016. This is Yzerman's seventh year of his rebuild. With no clear path forward in sight, everyone is searching for answers.
As the 2025-26 season wraps up, the Detroit Red Wings have three distinct paths they can take as a franchise entering the 2026-27 campaign. In part one of an offseason series charting their paths, today's article focuses on staying the course. This route prioritizes adding around the margins, graduating prospects and hoping those gains bring the team to the postseason.
The Red Wings already had enough to reach the postseason
Infuriating late season collapses have a way to cause rash decisions. With three years of failure in a row, the margin of error franchise legend Steve Yzerman had to rebuild the Red Wings grows smaller and smaller by the day.
Yes, the Red Wings have stumbled down the home stretch three years in a row, but they have posted 91, 86 and 92 points in that span. We are talking sitting at the margins while having several quality prospects knocking on the door to provide depth in the middle of the lineup.
Alex DeBrincat enters a walk year coming off a 40-goal campaign. Dylan Larkin scored 30 goals yet again. Lucas Raymond was once again around a point per game player. Moritz Seider took a step forward to put up a Norris-caliber season. John Gibson provided the level of play in net the team has been lacking for a long time.
With that core out of the way, it stands to reason that a bounce back season from Marco Kasper, continued growth from Simon Edvinsson, a full season of Justin Faulk and a step forward for Axel Sandin Pellikka can be even more impactful. When combined with the infusion of prospects such as Sebastian Cossa, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson, the Red Wings can shore up the bottom of the roster without needing to overpay in free agency.
While Patrick Kane’s defensive deficiencies are becoming more glaring, he has good chemistry with Debrincat and had 57 points in 66 games. Bringing him back and getting Edvinsson (a restricted free agent) a new contract will probably eat up the majority of Detroit’s cap space anyway.
A few free agents could help
Should Detroit elect to play hardball with Edvinsson’s next contract and not bring Kane back due to his age or lack of defensive play, there are a couple intriguing free agents remaining on the market that could make a difference.
Darren Raddysh is coming off a tremendous offensive season in Tampa Bay at age 30. Victor Hedman’s injury provided him an opportunity to flourish. He took that opportunity and ran with it, exploding for 22 goals and 70 points on the Lightning blue line. While that type of production would warrant a sizable raise from his current $975K cap hit, his likely increase to $7-8+ million on a 5 year contract may keep Tampa Bay from bringing him back.
It may take some roster maneuvering to fit Raddysh given the raise that Edvinsson will likely get the same type of salary jump this summer, but it could bolster the power play further, add another top-four capable defenseman while taking some burden off Seider’s shoulders.
Other options include jack-of-all trades winger Alex Tuch, who offers another goal-scoring option and much better defensive chops than Kane. Having said that, the Buffalo Sabres may elect to extend him, given the season they're having.
Most of the rest of the unrestricted free agent market are either retiring, likely staying put or the exact type of marginal player that often earns an overpay during the offseason. If they wanted to get creative and try their luck with the restricted free agent market, Jason Robertson’s salary demands may squeeze him out of a loaded Dallas roster. Adding a big ticket free agent would again take some roster maneuvering and with an RFA like Robertson, you are also forfeiting a first, second and third round pick in next year’s draft to bring him aboard.
The Red Wings have been close to making the playoffs for the past three years. They have a core that can reliably repeat this year’s production, are likely to enjoy rebounds from youngsters who had a step back this year and have more help on the way from the farm. Those are all reasons to bring this group back and hope they make the leap to the playoffs one more time.
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