In all likelihood, the 25-26 Detroit Red Wings will look much different than the 24-25 iteration, especially on defense and between the pipes. Detroit’s defensive struggles were a significant reason for their late-season collapse, and, after acquiring Petr Mrazek at the trade deadline, the Wings have an overabundance of veteran goalies on their roster.
As general manager Steve Yzerman begins making these decisions, let’s play a few rounds of Keep or Trade to predict what 24-25 Red Wings’ defensemen and goalies will return next season.
Below are groups of three players who are either free agents or failed to meet expectations this year. Our job is to predict who will be kept on the team, who may be traded, and who may be bought out.
Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl, Erik Gustafsson
A common thread across the past three seasons for the Red Wings has been their struggles on the blue line outside of Moritz Seider. Young prospects like Albert Johansson, Simon Edvinsson, and Axel Sandin Pellikka provide some optimism. However, Detroit has struck out on nearly all of their defensemen free agent signings with Chiarot, Holl, and Gustafsson drawing much of the ire.
In 25-26, Chiarot will be entering the fourth and final year of his deal with Detroit. He does not provide much offense and is prone to the occasional defensive lapses, but is a strong leader, physical presence, and energy guy for the Wings.
At this stage in his career, Chiarot is a strong second or third-pairing defenseman
The problems are that his salary ($4.75 million) implies more production than that, and he is forced into the first pairing all too often because of Detroit's lack of defensive depth.
Simply put, Holl and Gustafsson have arguably been the worst free agent signings in Red Wings history. Ignoring his woes with the Toronto Maple Leafs, GM Steve Yzerman gave Holl a three-year, $10.2 million deal before the 23-24 season. The deal aged poorly almost immediately as Holl was a consistent healthy scratch in 23-24. He played 73 games in 24-25 due to Detroit’s lack of depth, but had just eight points and routinely blew assignments in the defensive zone.
To replace Shayne Gostisbehere and Jake Walman, Yzerman signed Gustafsson to a two-year, $4 million contract last offseason. Although the contract is minor, Gustafsson has been yet another horrific signing by Yzerman. He has not had the offensive prowess (18 points in 60 games) that some expected and struggles mightily defensively. Similar to Holl, Gustafsson would be a consistent healthy scratch or AHLer if not for Detroit’s lack of depth.
Of these three players, Chiarot is the easy decision to keep despite his hefty contract. He has the most positive on-ice presence and has only one year left on his deal.
Both Holl and Gustafsson will be hard to trade either of them. For the sake of argument, Gustafsson is likely the easiest to trade because of his smaller salary. Holl also has one of the worst reputations in the entire NHL because of his time in the spotlight with the Maple Leafs, making him almost impossible to trade and much more likely to be bought out.
Petr Mrazek, Alex Lyon, Cam Talbot
With Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine hopefully debuting with the Red Wings within the next year or two, the team will need to offload some of their current veteran goalies.
Lyon is a free agent, so Yzerman will need to decide if he is worth keeping or not. In 23-24, Lyon was a pleasant surprise in net for the Wings, but that did not fully carry over into 24-25.
Across 30 games this season, Lyon went 14-9-1 with a 2.81 GAA and a .896 save percentage. In what started as a timeshare, Lyon eventually became the clear backup to Talbot and was even moved to third on the depth chart after the mid-season acquisition of Mrazek.
Mrazek has one year at $4.25 million left on his contract. He only played five games in Detroit before succumbing to a season-ending lower-body injury, but he was strong in those starts. He posted a 2-2 record, 2.49 GAA, and .902 save percentage.
If not for the injury, it is safe to assume that Mrazek would have been the de facto No. 1 goaltender for the Wings down the stretch.
Mrazek did struggle mightily during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks to start the year. In 33 starts, Mrazek went 10-19-2 to go with a .890 save percentage and a 3.46 GAA. It has to be mentioned that the Blackhawks were a dumpster fire this season, but the struggles along with the injury concerns are worrisome with Mrazek.
Aside from a rough stretch in February and March where he had a .886 save percentage, Talbot was easily the best goalie for the Wings this season. Even with those putrid couple months, Talbot still had a 21-19-5 record, 2.93 GAA, and a .901 save percentage. He also kept Detroit’s season afloat at the beginning and end of the year when the rest of the team dipped in performance.
Talbot has one year and $2.5 million left on his contract
In his two seasons with the Wings, Lyon’s positive vibes and relatively good play has made him a fan favorite. Unfortunately, it seems that his time in Detroit may be coming to an end and it makes the most sense for Yzerman to decline to re-sign him. His performance dipped this season and there just is not enough room for him on the roster.
Mrazek and Talbot are an interesting predicament. Ideally, the Wings would only keep one of them to make room for Cossa, who has had another strong year for the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Talbot had a stronger year than Mrazek and has been healthier over his career. However, Mrazek is younger (32) than Talbot (37). Additionally, Talbot could fetch more on the trade market since he is on a cheaper deal and has been the more consistent goalie.
Unless the Wings receive a huge package for Talbot, they should keep Talbot and trade Mrazek because the former is still the better goalie even in this stage of his career. He is the perfect bridge goalie and can be a great mentor for a young Cossa.