The Detroit Red Wings need to find a way to put themselves into the 2025 NHL Playoffs, and it means general manager Steve Yzerman needs a perfect summer that, in hindsight, doesn’t contain any mistakes. Okay, that might be too much to ask, as Yzerman and the other 31 NHL general managers will make at least one mistake regardless of the offseason, so a more appropriate wording would be: The mistakes must remain at a minimum.
How minimal? Let’s just say he must know who to bring back to the organization for at least another season, who to cut ties with, and yes, those blockbuster trades must continue. Last season, it was for Alex DeBrincat, and this year, there is one particular position that every Red Wings fan across the globe would like to see Yzerman address.
Not doing so would already put him and the Red Wings behind the eight-ball heading into 2024-25 and make what has to be a warm seat even warmer, if not hot.
Steve Yzerman must get the Red Wings into the playoffs next season
His Red Wings already put the NHL on notice, so it’s time to capitalize on and parlay that notice into a playoff appearance roughly 365 days from now. This might mean keeping most of the prospects in the lower leagues, something that didn’t sound like a good idea before the Wings came so close to earning their first postseason trip in what feels like forever.
But it’s time to ensure his team wins now and with mainly the group he’s put together. The Red Wings seemed to take two steps forward at one point in the season before the injury to Dylan Larkin struck, but they never quite got it together in the end. That said, let’s talk about a few mistakes Yzerman cannot, under any circumstances, make between now and the end of summer.