The 2024-25 NHL season may be right around the corner, and that means some fans want to focus on the here and now. And that’s okay, as everyone’s entitled to viewing the present over the future. But for the Red Wings, they don’t currently look like legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, even if there’s a chance they’ll play in late April and May.
Anyway, they could be one franchise player away from scaling up and becoming Cup contenders, a franchise goaltender, to be more accurate. And in his “way-too-early free-agent destination” piece, Adam Gretz of Bleacher Report has the Wings listed highly in the Igor Shesterkin sweepstakes for the summer of 2025.
This season, Shesterkin will try and help the New York Rangers end its drought without a Stanley Cup, but with no contract extension in sight, or at least at the moment, the Wings are one of a few teams who could be in contention to land him even if they have a potential franchise netminder in Sebastian Cossa.
Alongside Detroit, Gretz naturally listed the Blueshirts, plus the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Obviously, we wouldn’t want to see him play for a few of these teams, but if Shesterkin came to Detroit next year, oh, the Wings could contend for the Cup for a long time.
Igor Shesterkin would catapult Red Wings into Cup consideration in 2025-26
Earlier this month, the Red Wings extended a pair of young franchise cornerstones in Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, and if you’re keeping track, that’s one defenseman and one forward. They also have an aging dynamic duo of former rivals in Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane, with the former here for the 2025-26 season while the latter is on a year-to-year contract.
The mistake that was Ville Husso and journeyman and fan favorite Alex Lyon will be unrestricted free agents next year while Cam Talbot will stick around, and he could make a great backup to one of the league’s best netminders should Shesterkin wind up in the Motor City.
With a core that includes Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Simon Edvinsson, and Michael Rasmussen, just mentioning a few players here, it would be tough to name a single weak spot on the Red Wings.
So, let’s wait and see if the Rangers manage to extend Shesterkin soon, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Should the Igor Shesterkin sweepstakes open up and if Gretz is onto something, the Red Wings could be one mega-deal away from finding themselves in legitimate Cup contention.