Initial Creation Date: Jul. 2, 2022

Published: Jul. 2, 2022

Team: 2022-23 Detroit Red Wings

This will be boring, but it’s what I feel and am hoping the direction will be this offseason. Although there is promise in the pipeline and with some of the youngins, the Wings play in the 2nd half of the season showed we are not ready to take the next step. That in combination with the weaker free agency market, this is not the year to jump in.

Pet was not traded for to note because I’m personally not giving up a low 3rd rounder for him (think his value is closer to a late 3rd/early 4th due to recent cap shed comments) and am unsure why PIT would want to move him given his cap and play is decent.

I am also holding on to Zadina and Bert. Zadina is getting one more opportunity under a better coach and consistent line if Vrana can stay healthy. Bert I’d ideally like to be packaged for the 2OA in the incoming draft, but don’t see this happening without his extension in place first. With the short timeframe until the draft, I don’t see him getting extended yet. If he is moved, it will be for futures potentially in the deeper 23 draft.

Cole is a fill-in until next year. I opted to give him 2 years as with his age, I felt he would be unwilling to sign for 1 year. Paying him slightly more than his worth was intentional.

I originally was going to go the C plug-in route as a quality C would hurt the need to suck, but decided not to as A) Suter is not a 2C and B) need to do all we can to get Zadina going. I don’t believe the Rangers can keep Strome with the need to sign a few forwards, a backup goalie, and more RFAs to pay next year. I’m giving Strome a raise and a slight ‘DET isn’t a UFA destination’ bump to get him. Hopefully teams will be focused on bidding on the other top few options first (Kadri and Trocheck) and DET will have less competition.

For goalie, I went young with upside to run a 1A/1B with Ned. Ned can’t handle the sole starter workload. Also gave more $ to Husso as a I feel he will be a sought after goalie, did not want to give him more than Ned though and intentionally gave him 2 years in the event we move Ned.

I’m drafting Savoie with the 8OA unless one of the top 5 tier 1 players fall (2C’s, Slaf, 2D). Or if we can trade back even better.

To conclude, I’m too high to adjust lineups but It’s Edi’s job to lose so I have him rounding out the D. The rest of the forward slots will be filled by depth signings and potentially other prospects (Berg, Soder). One more year of player growth and hopefully competitive but bottom 5 play with the shot at an elite/franchise player in a deeper draft. Reassess from there, and as of right now, 23 free agency is looking better.