2026-27 NHL team preview: Detroit Red Wings

LAST SEASON

Can it get any worse for the Detroit Red Wings? The historic franchise once known for one of the longest playoff streaks in NHL history is now tied for the second-longest playoff drought in NHL history. But despite how close they were to finally ending that drought last season, it feels like they’re further than ever from turning it around in Detroit.

Part of the sting to the Red Wings’ season was how it unfolded. A hot start gave the Red Wings an early 8-3-0 record, and for most of the season, they were firmly in the playoff race. As the NHL paused for the Olympics, Detroit was third in the Atlantic Division with a 33-19-6 record, seven points ahead of the closest non-playoff team (and nine ahead of the Ottawa Senators). Detroit even made a notable deal at the Trade Deadline by acquiring Justin Faulk for blueline depth. The Wings appeared set to finally end their playoff drought.

But unfortunately, that’s not what happened. As the NHL returned from the Olympics, the winged wheels fell off and Detroit collapsed down the stretch. In their remaining 24 games, they went 8-12-4 and finished seven points behind the Senators for the final playoff spot – a 16-point swing from where the two teams were at the break. With the Buffalo Sabres finishing atop the Atlantic Division and ending their 14-year playoff drought, that also gave the Red Wings the longest active playoff drought.

The (lack of) fun didn’t end there either. Two months after the collapse, as the Red Wings prepared for an important offseason, they suffered another blow: captain Dylan Larkin wants out. After 11 seasons with the team, he’s tired of losing, and doesn’t see that ending by staying with the team. Suddenly a team already a few pieces short of contention has to remove another key cog and replace it effectively. Not to worry though, even though general manager Steve Yzerman has had some tough moments of late, surely he has some magic in him to do this right…

And he’s gone, too. After a stagnant offseason, the Wings opted to finally make the move fans had clamored for and moved on from the franchise icon as their GM. Why they waited until after the pivotal offseason events, we may never know. Now, Detroit’s captain is waiting to move on, but he can’t until a new GM is in place — which still hasn’t happened at the time of publishing. Oh, and key defenseman Simon Edvinsson is also without a contract.

Forget asking what the Red Wings will look like on the ice this season; they still need to rearrange their off-ice identity. Can Detroit recover from this past year and position themselves for the competitiveness they’ve been building towards during this rebuild, or are they set to take an even bigger step back?

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Viktor Arvidsson, LW
Keegan Kolesar, RW
Daniil Tarasov, G
Wilmer Skoog, C
Jacob Bryson, D

Departures

Patrick Kane, RW (Chi)
Cam Talbot, G (UFA)
Sebastian Cossa, G (Uta)
James van Riemsdyk, LW (UFA)
David Perron, LW (UFA)
Travis Hamonic, D (UFA)
Erik Gustafsson, D (LAK)

OFFENSE

For a team who were in the playoff race for so long last season, it’s amazing how they lacked any signature trait which made them a competitive team – or at least, one for which the supporting numbers didn’t also tank down the stretch. We’ll get to their defense in a second, but the offense wound up subpar last year, finishing 22nd in goals for per game (2.91), 12th in power play percentage (22.6%) and 19th in 5v5 expected goals for per 60 minutes.

Of course, we can’t quite map out what Detroit’s offense will look like when one of the key cogs, Larkin, may be out by the time the season starts. He’s not their top scorer, but as their only legitimate top-two center, his absence will be felt if he’s not adequately replaced. That said, it is concerning that he’s now 30 and we have yet to see truly elite production from him. But even if he’s an OK first-line center who would better work as a second-line center on Stanley Cup contender, the Red Wings have nothing behind him, at least at center.

If Larkin moves on, Detroit will still have a strong nucleus with Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. Raymond has emerged as a crafty two-way winger in recent seasons, and while he has also yet to have a truly elite production season, he reached the next rung much sooner than Larkin and seems poised to take more steps. Seider already did that last season, as he added offense to the already strong defensive skillset in his game and should have received more love for the Norris Trophy. Add in the streaky but lethal goal scorer Alex DeBrincat, and Detroit still has a few pieces to insulate the players who join the team in the inevitable Larkin trade.

However, beyond that trio (and Larkin), the biggest difference-maker for Detroit’s offense will be who else contributes. They lost 34 goals and 91 points with the departures of Kane, Perron and van Riemsdyk, and while Viktor Arvidsson will make up for some of those losses, they need more from the rest of their lineup. Whether that comes via another 40+ points from the 32-year-old Andrew Copp; the underwhelming veterans in J.T. Compher and Faulk; further steps taken from younger players like Edvinsson, Emmitt Finnie, Marco Kasper and Axel Sandin-Pellikka; or an influx of other youngsters like Carter Bear, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson, the Wings need much more from the rest of their lineup.

DEFENSE

As middling as the Red Wings’ offense was, their defense was not much better. They were tied for 19th in goals against per game (3.1), 23rd in penalty kill percentage (77.1%) and tied for 16th in 5v5 expected goals against per 60 (2.79). However, that doesn’t factor in the impact of Seider on this team. When he was on the ice, the Red Wings drove 5v5 expected goals at a rate of at least 55%. When he was off the ice it was, at best, 45%. He continues to be the defensive crutch of this team, and his smarts and skating make such a difference when he’s playing. It’s why he was fed some of the toughest minutes in hockey prior to this season – Detroit had no one else who could handle them.

However, adding a few more competent defensemen to the Red Wings lineup allowed Seider’s minutes to ease up to a more normal level of difficulty, which showed in his production. Edvinsson has been the biggest help, as Detroit having another smooth-skating and puck-moving defenseman who can handle top-four minutes means the team isn’t drowning “as much” when Seider isn’t playing. It hasn’t shown up in the numbers yet (0.027 5v5 regularized adjusted plus-minus xGA/60 in the past three seasons), but it’s far better than having a defenseman producing similarly poor defensive results along with poor puck movement. This makes re-signing Edvinsson all the more important for Detroit. The same goes for Sandin-Pellikka: the results aren’t there yet (0.133), but the potential is.

Up front, the Red Wings have a few defensive options in various parts of their lineup. Raymond is their only strong defensive player amongst the elite group (-0.075 5v5 RAPM xGA/60), but they have other players making up their middle six like Copp (-0.048) and Kasper (-0.064) and the depths of their lineup like Keegan Kolesar (-0.023) and Michael Rasmussen (-0.03).

The problem is that it still might not be enough to make up for the defensive holes in the rest of their lineup. Anyone expecting Arvidsson (0.029 5v5 RAPM xGA/60) and DeBrincat (0.008) to be defensive specialists at this point in their careers would be fooling themselves, but Larkin’s recent defensive struggles might be the most shocking to some. Despite his reputation as a two-way player (he even got a handful of Selke votes last season), he hasn’t strung together consecutive seasons with positive defensive impacts since the start of the decade – and last year (0.052) was one of his worst since the first few seasons of his career.

However, the biggest culprit is Ben Chiarot. He’s far from the sound defensive defenseman some believe him to be (0.14 5v5 RAPM xGA/60), yet teams continue to over-rely on him and overpay him. It’s only fitting that he was extended for three more years and at almost $4 million last year, and is projected to be in Detroit’s top four again. At this point, Seider is giving Chiarot’s career the Weekend at Bernie’s treatment.

GOALTENDING

If there is one aspect of Detroit’s lineup that is not in total chaos, it’s in net. The Red Wings spent years trying to find stability in between the pipes after longtime starting goaltender Jimmy Howard left, and they finally found it when Yzerman swung a deal for John Gibson last summer. With a 29-22-4 record, a .901 save percentage, four shutouts and 22.04 5v5 goals saved above expected (the seventh-highest in the league), he was a massive reason why Detroit was in the playoff race for so long. The difference was staggering: they were 12-9-6 when he didn’t start for the team. He also dealt with various injuries after the Olympic break, which likely had an effect on his play, and in turn, the Wings’ success.

Tarasov looks to be the backup for the season, and while he doesn’t have the most promising resume, he’s coming off one of his better seasons in 2025-26 with the Florida Panthers, posting a 13-15-3 record, .895 SV% and 5.37 5v5 GSAx. There were many things that went wrong for the Panthers last year, but Tarasov wasn’t one of them. In fact, he played better than Sergei Bobrovsky at times.

However, there’s a world where Tarasov isn’t the backup, but that’s why the Red Wings weren’t completely safe from drama at the goalie position this season. It feels like Tarasov’s spot should have been reserved for Cossa, one of Detroit’s two incredible goaltending prospects, after the Hamilton, Ont., product showcased he had nothing left to prove in the AHL. But he lost the starting gig with the Grand Rapids Griffins during their playoff run and was moved to the Utah Mammoth. The Wings still have Trey Augustine in the system, and perhaps they believe in him more than Cossa, but keeping both around for another season or two to see which one has the edge before moving on from the other would have been smart.

COACHING

Todd McLellan enters his third season (and second full season) as head coach of the Red Wings, and while he hasn’t brought anything to the table which has allowed the team to take another notable step, it at least feels like Detroit isn’t as much of a mess… on the ice, at least. The numbers don’t exactly scream strong playoff team (49.05% 5v5 expected goal share during his tenure), but they’ve played with more structure and respectability than they ever did under Jeff Blashill and Derek Lalonde.

At this point in time, it’s clear the issues with the Wings come from the roster Yzerman built and not how McLellan has deployed it, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely safe either. Another collapse like last season could put him on the hot seat. And there’s always the factor of the new general manager. Whoever Detroit hires would be foolish to waste their “not-my-coach” firing right out of the gate on a guy like McLellan, but some GMs just really want to get their coach as soon as possible. Still, it’s highly unlikely that happens this summer with training camp starting soon and no GM hired yet.

ROOKIES

Right now, it looks like there is one spot open in the lineup, and three rookies (Bear, Brandsegg-Nygard and, not technically a rookie but only with 28 games to his name, Danielson) are gunning for it. Our lineup projects Brandsegg-Nygard to get the spot, but the decision could very well depend on who has the best training camp. Danielson is the only center of the bunch, so if the decision is a close one, he may have the tiebreaker. Regardless, all three should get some games in the NHL at various points of the season.

With Cossa gone and Detroit’s NHL tandem locked in, it means Augustine and Michal Postava will spend most of the year in the AHL. But if injuries happen, one of Postava or Augustine will get some games in, and who’s performing better at the time will likely determine who is called up.

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. When are the Red Wings hiring their new general manager? The timing was certainly weird on Yzerman’s “promotion.” Detroit gave him free rein to operate at the draft and free agency to set the team up for the season, and only then did they decide to move on from him. It’s an awkward situation for the incoming GM to come into, overseeing a team they didn’t have any say in creating, but it also gives them a year free of blame. But with two other big looming decisions entering the season, Detroit needs a GM in place to get everything done. It’s been a month and a half since Yzerman stepped down from the role, so why hasn’t a new GM been named yet?

2. What will happen with Dylan Larkin? One of the biggest stories of the summer was Larkin’s trade request. It sounds like he wants to move on from his boyhood team in hopes of winning a Stanley Cup, and it’s hard to blame him with the Red Wings’ lack of success during most of his tenure. But he also isn’t making it easy for Detroit to make a move, as he initially only gave them three teams he’d accept a trade to before adding one more to the list – and none of them is bustling with trade assets and cap space to pull off a deal. Does Larkin hold strong on the few teams he’d accept a trade to, or does he budge and open up his options even more if a deal doesn’t get done soon enough? Or does he rescind the trade request and give the new GM a chance to build a contending team?

3. When does Simon Edvinsson sign? The obvious answer is “when the new GM is hired,” but there is more to this decision than that. Cap space isn’t the problem for Detroit, as they have almost $20 million available to sign the defenseman, according to PuckPedia. That doesn’t mean the Red Wings should use all of it, but it doesn’t mean Edvinsson will bend to whatever Detroit wants either, and they don’t have the defensive depth to play without him. Was the new deal far along when Yzerman stepped down, and how much longer will it take to come to an agreement?

PREDICTION

With everything going on within the Red Wings franchise right now, it’s hard to see them making the playoffs. Unless Larkin rescinds his trade request (or gets dealt for a great return), Edvinsson gets locked up before training camp, Detroit sees some significant strides from their younger players, and the new GM makes the right moves with what options they have in-season, this roster doesn’t feel like an improvement on last year’s team. They aren’t significantly worse than last year either, but they certainly aren’t better. Add in the Atlantic Division looking as competitive as it’s ever been, especially with the improved Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs joining the five who made the playoffs last season, and it looks more likely that Detroit finishes in last in the division than makes the playoffs. But with everything going on, taking a step back to take two steps forward might better in the long run.