![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tarasenko-e1776634799678.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Detroit Red Wings gave away a $9.5 million forward for nothing, allowing him to get a fresh start and score 20+ goals for a playoff team.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this season, the Detroit Red<\/a> Wings made a trade to erase a seeming mistake. During the 2024 offseason, Steve Yzerman signed Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year, $9.5 million contract<\/a>. The signing promised to give the Wings a much-needed boost in their top six.<\/p>\n Well, that didn\u2019t go quite as planned. In his lone season in Detroit, Tarasenko notched 11 goals in 80 games. The totals weren\u2019t bad. It was just that the Wings were expecting more from Tarasenko. Moreover, the organization wasn\u2019t comfortable paying $4.75 million for 11 goals.<\/p>\n With virtually no market for Tarasenko, Yzerman gave him away to the Minnesota Wild.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right: The Red Wings traded Tarasenko to the Wild for future considerations. When such trades occur, the \u201cfuture considerations\u201d loop of the trade rarely closes. The deal remains like that.<\/p>\n The Wild paid nothing to get 23 goals and 47 points in 75 games from Tarasenko. To make matters worse, Tarasenko is now playing in the postseason with Minnesota, while the Red Wings crumbled down the stretch.<\/p>\n Needless to say, the Red Wings missed Tarasenko. The club could have certainly used his 23 goals to help its playoff push.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s an obvious point. Tarasenko clearly didn\u2019t work out in Detroit. So, it\u2019s useless to speculate that he would have scored 20+ goals this season. Still, the Red Wings needed scoring. And the guy they gave away for nothing, ended up producing the goals they could have used.<\/p>\n Tarasenko Wasn\u2019t the Problem in Detroit<\/p>\n Judging from Tarasenko\u2019s season in Minnesota, and the way things went for the Red Wings, it\u2019s evident Tarasenko wasn\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n Sometimes, there are players who just don\u2019t fit into a specific dressing room. The culture, the team, the environment just doesn\u2019t work for that player.<\/p>\n Other times, expectations can derail a player\u2019s confidence. Then, criticism and the media can continue to erode that player\u2019s conviction in his skills.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the term \u201cchange of scenery\u201d comes into play. That is what the Red Wings did for Tarasenko. They facilitated a change of scenery. It worked for the 34-year-old. But for Detroit, Tarasenko\u2019s resurgence just proved that the problem does not lie with the player, it lies with the team.<\/p>\n What to read next: Red Wings Vet Might Not Be Back in 2026-27<\/a><\/p>\n Red Wings Will Need to Address Culture in 2026-27<\/p>\n \u201cCulture\u201d is somewhat of a vague term. Referring to culture typically involves various aspects like confidence, competitiveness, and the overall desire to win. Those were all elements that came into question during the Red Wings\u2019 annual March collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n What made the cultural question even more prominent was the 8-1 pounding in their final game of the season. The lack of drive on the Red Wings\u2019 part in that game proved the problem lies with the desire to win every game, regardless of the standings.<\/p>\n Moving forward, the Red Wings will need to address their desire to compete game in and game out. It won\u2019t boil down to just pushing at the beginning of the season. The team\u2019s ability to return to the postseason in 2026-27 will ultimately come down to the club\u2019s ability to keep its head in the game across a full season.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tNestor Quixtan<\/a> Seasoned NHL analyst and baseball writer focused on covering clubs across each league with news, analysis, and insights. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Nestor’s singular experiences and background have enabled him to bring a different take on the sports world as a whole. Nestor’s fondness for baseball and hockey set the tone for his love and passion for writing about sports. More about Nestor Quixtan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Red Wings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Detroit Red Wings gave away a $9.5 million forward for nothing, allowing him to get a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,93,5137,5,4,3358,5138],"class_list":{"0":"post-556320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-red-wings","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-red-wings","10":"tag-detroitredwings","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-red-wings","14":"tag-redwings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116433654169839602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}