After a surprising late season run, Red Wings management is comfortable that the team is ready to make the jump from "rebuild" mode to "playoffs" mode. After some mid-season tweaks that saw two seperate young forwards in Brady Tkachuk and Pierre-Luc Dubois come to Hockeytown, the Wings fell just short in the final days of the regular season in nabbing a playoff spot, largely due to losing their top defenseman to injury. Management has addressed some concerns this offseason, adding a couple defensemen as well as a veteran top 6 forward.
Trade #1: In more of a salary cap move for the Bruins, the Red Wings were able to trade an expiring, veteran defensive forward in Lars Eller for Derek Stepan. Stepan brings a good playmaking game to the Red Wings, and will hopefully be able to support the likes of Fabbri and whoever plays on his right side. And Stepan is under contract for 3 more seasons.
Trade #2: Management is not very high on this years entry draft, especially after the first 8-10 picks. With that being the case, we decided that maybe it was time to shore up the defense, especially after what happened in the later stages of last season. So Kieffer Bellows was told to pack his bags, as him and the #14th overall selection was packaged to the Blackhawks to bring in big dman Tyler Myers. Penalty troubles have plagued Myers in the past, but the hope is that he can come in and provide some stability on the back end, and be a mentor for the likes of Chychrun, Sergachev, and eventually Bjornfot when the time comes.
Trade #3: Though a minor one, management still is happy with this deal, seeing a veteran Nic Petan who spent last season in Grand Rapids head to the Islanders in exchange for Samuel Morin. A bottom pair dman, however another capable big body on the back end to help stabalize the defensive end of things.
With these trades in the books, the Wings are looking to begin the regular season with a little north of $20m in cap space, and could potentially make a run at a big name free agent this offseason. Their roster is shaping up to look like the following to kick things off for next season, barring any further trades or free agent acquisitions: B. Tkachuk (74) - Dubois (74) - M. Tkachuk (81) Fabbri (76) - Stepan (77) - Lindholm (80) Soderberg (73) - Sutter (74) - ??? ??? - Faksa (72) - Brown (67) Myers (76) - Chychrun (74) Sergachev (73) - McCabe (73) Morin (72) - Jokkipakka (71) Grubauer (83) - Raanta (82)
Fans can expect some line shuffling in the top 6, but the priority will be to get the youngsters some quality ice time and to put them in the position to succeed. Hopes are high in Detroit that we can finally return to the postseason, which would be their first under GM Cook.