Down and Out: What is the top priority this offseason for the Detroit Red Wings?

A once historically competitive team, the Detroit Red Wings have found themselves on the other side of the playoff bubble for the sixth season in a row.

But this season was much more promising for the Wings, as they started to see their young talent emerge, particularly in skilled forward Lucas Raymond and poised defenseman Moritz Seider, and had a competitive start to the season before falling behind.

Will we start to see another era of competitive Red Wings’ teams soon? Maybe we do with another strong offseason from general manager Steve Yzerman. Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna talk about what moves he should make on Thursday's Down and Out segment.

McKenna: “I think they need to figure out their coaching situation first and foremost. I like Jeff Blashill, I know he’s been there for a long time, and at times this year I thought 'this team’s turned around, the young talent’s played well, he seems secure’. But it sure seemed like the tide changed by two-thirds of the way through the season. Even the fans were calling for his job. I just wonder if they could use a new voice to go along with the young talent that’s in the room in Detroit, because Steve Yzerman wasn’t happy with some of his players.

And they got a lot of players there that are going to be RFA or UFAs either this summer or next summer, and we’re talking big players like Larkin and Bertuzzi down the list. So, there’s a lot of mid-range players that aren’t quite veterans yet that are going to have to be supplemented by all these draft picks that the Detroit Red Wings have. I mean, 31 picks in their last three years.

One of the things that’s going to be critical for them is to see if Simon Edvinsson, who just signed, big defenseman out of Sweden, 6’5″, first round draft pick. If he makes the team in Detroit, and if he makes a big difference for that club next year. They need defensive help, will it come from a 20 year-old? So, I think they’ve got a lot of gaps to fill, and I think they’re still two to three years away from really being a team that we’re looking at to contend.”

Seravalli: “Yeah, one of these summers though, we’re going to get Steve Yzerman, who’s just going to come along and (*smacks fist into palm*) BOOM, mash that button and say ‘it’s go time’. I agree in that they’re not quite there yet, but it certainly seems like at some point we’re going to see where that team takes that next step. They’ll surround themselves with some better pieces. Edvinsson, if he’s able to take that same development path that Moritz Seider did, it’s a pretty exciting time to be a Detroit Red Wings fan.

They got to cut down on goals against though. -84 goal differential, that’s not going to cut it in today’s NHL. And even so, if you want to make strides, you’ve still got maybe 30 points to go to get to where you really want to get to. Just biting off half of those this year, and getting in that sort of 85 point range would be a big step forward for the Detroit Red Wings.”

You can watch the full episode here…