Red Wings looking at another late-season meltdown that could extend playoff drought

Now that the Buffalo Sabres are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 2025-26 NHL season, the Detroit Red Wings own the longest playoff drought in the NHL at nine consecutive seasons. It is on the verge of reaching a 10th consecutive season, especially after Tuesday's game (a 4-3 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets) and the other results around the NHL.

Another late-season meltdown could extend Detroit Red Wings playoff drought

After taking a 3-2 lead late in the third period, the Red Wings allowed a late game-tying goal and then lost in a shootout.

Combined with wins by the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators, as well as the Boston Bruins gaining a point in their game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Red Wings now find themselves three points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with all of the aforementioned teams ahead of them in the standings.

With only four games to play, that is going to be a challenge to make up. 

What makes it such a brutal situation for the Red Wings is the fact going into the month of March they were solidly in a playoff spot and looked to be in a great position to end their playoff drought. 

Since the beginning of March, however, the Red Wings are just 6-9-3, including Tuesday's game, which is the fourth-worst mark in the NHL over that stretch.

It is not the first time this sort of thing has played out for the Red Wings in recent years.

Just a year ago, they finished the regular season with a 9-12-2 mark after having a 30-23-6 record up until that point.

During the 2023-24 season, they were 8-11-3 after the beginning of March, ruining what had been a 33-21-6 record up until that point.

It was the same story during the 2022-23 season, when they went 7-13-2 after the start of March, ending their playoff chances after having a 28-24-8 record going into March.

None of it is good, and none of it can be good for general manager Steve Yzerman's continued plan to rebuild the organization. While the playoff drought is set to reach 10 years barring a late-season turnaround over the next week-and-half, this is his seventh year overseeing the organization. There was always going to be an element of patience given the situation he was inheriting (bad NHL roster, bad salary-cap situation, one of the NHL's worst prospect pools), but we are at a point now where it is time to start seeing some results. A seven-year rebuild should be enough time to produce something positive.

All the Red Wings have produced is non-playoff seasons with the same type of late-season meltdown. 

The Red Wings have a good core in defenseman Moritz Seider, as well as forwards Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat, but the rest of the roster is lacking in quality depth and additional impact players. That has to fall on Yzerman for not doing more. 

He is a legend in Detroit for what he did as a player. That track record and history is almost certainly giving him a longer leash with the fan base and organization than most general managers would get. But how much more patience can there be when the same story keeps playing out? The team should be better than this by now.