Red Wings March 2026 Games Thread

[lordstanley]

For reference, when Yzerman took over in 2019 the Wings had just completed a 74 pt season. Buffalo had 76 points that season, Ottawa had 64. In 2021, in a strike-shortened season, the Wings had 11 more points than Buffalo. In 2022, the Wings had 19 more points than Montreal. In 2023, the Wings had 12 points more than Montreal, 21 points more than Columbus, and 22 more points than Anaheim. In 2024, the Wings had 13 more points than Ottawa, 15 points more than Columbus, 4 points more than Minnesota, and 32 more points than Anaheim. In 1995, Detroit had 7 more points than Buffalo, 10 points more than Boston, and 6 points more than Pittsburgh. The Wings' rock bottom wasn't unprecedented in length or depth. All those teams have caught or passed the Wings this season. 

[Jason_R]

Starting in 2015 Buffalo picked 2, 8, 8, 1, 7, 8, 1, 9, 13, 14, 9.  They should be good after that run. Montreal has a 1 and two 5s over the past four drafts. I wouldn’t say Ottawa is a model franchise. They are just a tick above Detroit. 

But if Holland had not absolutely mangled the draft for years the Wings would be in the playoffs. 

[1984Echoes]

It was a very bad mangle.

[Jason_R]

Yzerman hasn’t been perfect. But he has had almost nothing to work with and no margin for error. 

ButI think just like this year was the trade deadline when he was obligated to make a move, this off-season will be the one where he is on the clock to make a franchise altering deal. He has to get a proven scorer this off-season. 

[buddha]

10 hours ago, Jason_R said:

It’s easy to conclude that if they tanked their draft position would have been better and the rebuild would have gone faster but maybe not. How is it working out for Chicago so far?  And we know as well as any franchise that tanking is not a sure thing.

Looking back at Holland’s drafts is infuriating. It is astonishing how frequently and how badly he missed. A dozen players picked after Evgeny Svechnikov in 2015 outperformed him. Would you like to have Sebastian Aho right now? In 2016, Tage Thompson and Alex DeBrincat went after Holland picked Dennis Cholowski. In 2017 they could have had Martin Necas or Nick Suzuki instead of Rasmussen, not to mention trade targets Robert Thomas and Jason Robertson. We all know how Zadina worked out, and again we could not pull together a trade to get a player that Ken Holland could have had in the draft. 

Yes, it is easy to second guess draft picks, but if we are going to second guess Yzerman, we need to do the same for Holland. In most of these seasons Holland had his choice of multiple players who have turned into good to excellent NHL contributors. If Holland had even gotten two of these drafts right this year’s Wings would be a playoff team. 

if youre under the impression that i have never second guessed kenny holland, youre barking up the wrong tree.

yzerman was dealt the worst hand in the nhl because of kenny holland.  kenny holland is why we are here.  yzerman just hasnt been able to dig out of it.

[lordstanley]

8 hours ago, Jason_R said:

Starting in 2015 Buffalo picked 2, 8, 8, 1, 7, 8, 1, 9, 13, 14, 9.  They should be good after that run. Montreal has a 1 and two 5s over the past four drafts. I wouldn’t say Ottawa is a model franchise. They are just a tick above Detroit. 

But if Holland had not absolutely mangled the draft for years the Wings would be in the playoffs. 

I'm not saying that any of Buffalo, Montreal, Anaheim, Ottawa, Columbus etc. are teams to emulate. Just that Yzerman is really no further ahead than teams that were just as bad or worse a few years ago. 

Also, Holland had two big top 10 misses - Zadina at #6 and Rasmussen at #9. That's it. In his last four drafts before that he got Mantha at #20, Larkin at #15, picked Svech at #19 where busts aren't unusual, and made up for his #20 Cholowski pick by picking Hronek at #53. Yzerman hasn't set the world on fire with his drafting, yielding nothing outside of the top 15 in his first four drafts 2019-2022 apart from Albert Johansson, being generous. 

[buddha]

4 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Yzerman hasn’t been perfect. But he has had almost nothing to work with and no margin for error. 

ButI think just like this year was the trade deadline when he was obligated to make a move, this off-season will be the one where he is on the clock to make a franchise altering deal. He has to get a proven scorer this off-season. 

yes, but we said the same thing LAST YEAR when there were actual scorers available.  some said it this year when the best scoring defenseman in the league was available.

when will we actually see him obtain this great scorer? 

[lordstanley]

Here's Corey Pronman ranking the Red Wings' prospect pool at #7 entering the 2018-2019 season, just months before Yzerman took over the so-called wreckage of a franchise.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/459786/2018/08/30/pronman-2018-19-nhl-farm-system-rankings/

Here's the Bleacher Report ranking the Red Wings' prospect pool at #10 in 2015.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2505679-re-ranking-every-teams-prospect-pool-after-2015-nhl-draft

All Yzerman can hang his hat on now is prospect pool, prospect pool, prospect pool. The Wings had highly-regarded prospect pools throughout the 2010s so what do we have to show for missing the playoffs 9 straight years, maybe 10.

Edited 3 hours ago by lordstanley

[buddha]

21 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Here's Corey Pronman ranking the Red Wings' prospect pool at #7 entering the 2018-2019 season, just months before Yzerman took over the so-called wreckage of a franchise.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/459786/2018/08/30/pronman-2018-19-nhl-farm-system-rankings/

Here's the Bleacher Report ranking the Red Wings' prospect pool at #10 in 2015.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2505679-re-ranking-every-teams-prospect-pool-after-2015-nhl-draft

All Yzerman can hang his hat on now is prospect pool, prospect pool, prospect pool. The Wings had highly-regarded prospect pools throughout the 2010s so what do we have to show for missing the playoffs 9 straight years, maybe 10.

That says more about corey pronman than it does about the talent in the wings' prospect pool in 2019.

and it should be a cautionary tale for those of us who love to espouse all the talent we have just waiting to be nhlers.  odds are that 75% of cossa, bear, augustine, lombardi, danielson, asp, wallinder, tuomisto, et al arent going to be nhl players of any note.

[lordstanley]

3 minutes ago, buddha said:

That says more about corey pronman than it does about the talent in the wings' prospect pool in 2019.

and it should be a cautionary tale for those of us who love to espouse all the talent we have just waiting to be nhlers.  odds are that 75% of cossa, bear, augustine, lombardi, danielson, asp, wallinder, tuomisto, et al arent going to be nhl players of any note.

Agree with both of your sentences. 

[Shinzaki]

Zadina is scoring at a point a game...in Switzerland.

If Ras played the game the way Shine does...he'd be a top 6 wing.

I just hope Kasper is in some kind of sophomore slump and he'll be better next year.   Finnie may be passing him up as a top six C

If we're gonna go after someone like a Matthews ...or an unsigned Quinn Hughes,  I would make Raymond a centerpiece of my offer.  He's been largely invisible since the Olympics.  Might take a look at moving on from Larkin as well

Edited 2 hours ago by Shinzaki

[buddha]

we dont have a first round pick next year anymore.  that would likely end any pipedream of getting matthews.  even if the leafs would trade him to us.

[Jason_R]

I have been assuming the rebuild is over when Copp and Compher come off the books. Copp has the 2026-27 season left, for Compher (and Rasmussen) it is 2027-28. That is a much longer timeline than fans want to accept, but that is probably the timeline Yzerman annd Ilitch are operating under.

One way to handle this is to tread water until those contracts come off the books. Those three contracts equal $12 million annually. Assuming some of the kids can step in to fill these slots for cheap, that leaves a lot of room to sign a big ticket free agent center. In summer 2028.

I’m getting impatient though and would love it if Stevie could package up Compher, a goalie, and a few prospects/picks for a bona fide center this offseason. 

[lordstanley]

We talk about the Wings not having lottery luck, but of course there's drafting luck too. Otherwise how did the knucklehead organization that picked Kotkaniemi at #3 and David Reinbacher at #5 also be brainiacs in between then by picking Lane Hutson at #62 and Jacob Fowler at #69. Yzerman's rebuild in Tampa benefited immensely from picking Vasilevsky at #19, Brayden Point at #79, and Anthony Cirelli at #72. We're waiting for such drafting luck.

[buddha]

57 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

I have been assuming the rebuild is over when Copp and Compher come off the books. Copp has the 2026-27 season left, for Compher (and Rasmussen) it is 2027-28. That is a much longer timeline than fans want to accept, but that is probably the timeline Yzerman annd Ilitch are operating under.

One way to handle this is to tread water until those contracts come off the books. Those three contracts equal $12 million annually. Assuming some of the kids can step in to fill these slots for cheap, that leaves a lot of room to sign a big ticket free agent center. In summer 2028.

I’m getting impatient though and would love it if Stevie could package up Compher, a goalie, and a few prospects/picks for a bona fide center this offseason. 

with the rise of the salary cap, there arent nearly as many free agents to sign because most teams have more than enough room to sign them.  maybe that changes in the near future, but our hopes for all these teams to be dropping their best players like flies who will find their way to detroit because we have cap space is not happening.

i've been as patient as the next guy, and the wings have had nothing but bad luck when it comes to injuries and lotteries, but he is the one responsible for the results on the ice, and those results havent been good enough.

 

[Jason_R]

It is a tough business, pro sports. Everyone is clawing for every inch. You need to have some luck. Stevie got lucky that DeBrincat forced his way back home but that is really the only luck he has gotten. 

In retrospect, maybe the worst thing that happened to this franchise was letting Jim Nill leave. 

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, buddha said:

... and it should be a cautionary tale for those of us who love to espouse all the talent we have just waiting to be nhlers.  odds are that 75% of cossa, bear, augustine, lombardi, danielson, asp, wallinder, tuomisto, et al aren't going to be nhl players of any note.

I would add Genborg (just arrived in GR), Buium, Anton Johansson, maybe Plante...

Specifically because these guys are at GR or have played some for Detroit (so add Finnie, Kasper and MBN here too) or are close to arriving in GR... I would call them all unfinished prospects. Even those with Red Wing playing time or on the Wings right now.

Maybe every single one of these guys turns into hot garbage... but I don't think so.

It's just that, IMO, it's going to take 1 to 3 years for these guys to flesh out either into good NHL players... or not.

Puts us in a sucky position because I'm tired of watching this version of the Wings (annual March wilting flowers...) as much as anybody else in here. They have problems with toughness, hard area play, playmaking/ passing/ scoring in general, 5 on 5 play, team defense...

It's endlessly mediocre and I've had enough of the mediocrity too.

But... since the largest portion of the Wings' "potential" talent isn't quite ready yet, and that includes ASP, Kasper & MBN, amongst others... I feel like I am stuck letting these guys percolate into Wings or... dropping off into less-than-mediocrity. I therefore want to give Stevie Y at least a couple more years as well...

I think this raft of "potential" will actually develop into something... into a team that plays better/ tougher than this version of the Wings. But I'm the optimist. And I think SY can get this team to play at a higher level, with his prospects or any other moves needed... but I'm the optimist.

 

1 hour ago, Jason_R said:

I have been assuming the rebuild is over when Copp and Compher come off the books. Copp has the 2026-27 season left, for Compher (and Rasmussen) it is 2027-28. That is a much longer timeline than fans want to accept...

 

This is where I am at. Transition old contracts of the books, see if these kids turn into something... or not.

I'd like to see SY make a sharp move, by trade or FA or whatever...

And I'll give him another 2 years to make this happen.

But I'm not jumping up and down for this... I just want to see this through.

And I think Stevie Y, and his cadre of current "prospects", deserve that chance.

Just my 2 cents.

 

 

Edited 25 minutes ago by 1984Echoes