Acquire Top-Six Center<\/p>\n
This has been an issue plaguing the Red Wings and most of the league for some time. They\u2019ve taken shots at it, mostly by signing Andrew Copp<\/a> and J.T. Compher<\/a> in back-to-back offseasons. This season, the hope was that Marco Kasper<\/a> could assume that role after a solid rookie campaign. Unfortunately, Kasper was flat out of the gates and finished with nine goals and 19 points in 81 contests. His poor play since the start of the campaign vaulted Copp back into the top six.<\/p>\n Despite being one of the best faceoff takers in the league, Copp doesn\u2019t have the offensive punch to warrant a spot in the top six. Yes, he finished with the second-highest scoring output of his career, but it mostly came by the way of assists with the benefit of playing on a line with Alex DeBrincat<\/a>, who finished with 41 goals.<\/p>\n Detroit was heavily linked to Vincent Trocheck<\/a> of the New York Rangers and Robert Thomas<\/a> of the St. Louis Blues leading up to the deadline, but ultimately didn\u2019t have the appetite to pay the heavy price to address their need. That\u2019s generally a respectable position, given that the General Manager is tasked with managing the team\u2019s assets as well as putting the best team out on the ice. Still, it was a noticeable hole from the jump, and the lack of aggressiveness left many fans, and likely the team, disappointed.<\/p>\n Given the Rangers\u2019 direction, it\u2019s safe to say that Trocheck will again be available for the right price this summer. For Thomas, there\u2019s no indication what direction new General Manager Alex Steen will want to take the team, so it\u2019s no longer a guarantee that he\u2019ll be shopped. As for other options, the Red Wings could take an expensive flyer on Elias Pettersson<\/a> of the Vancouver Canucks, go on the cheaper side and target Morgan Frost<\/a> of the Calgary Flames, or go bold and try to pry Nico Hischier<\/a> away from the New Jersey Devils, especially if his extension talks stall.<\/p>\n Re-Work Defensive Corps<\/p>\n One of the most peculiar themes from Detroit over the past several years has been the organization\u2019s infatuation with Ben Chiarot<\/a>. Yes, he\u2019s physical and blocks shots, but he doesn\u2019t have the on-ice awareness to have a meaningful role in the top four of the defensive corps. He hasn\u2019t had an on-ice goals percentage greater than 50.0% since his time with the Winnipeg Jets, and he\u2019s continued to get worse since then. Despite his decline in play, the Red Wings signed Chiarot to an extension, keeping him in HockeyTown through the 2028-29 campaign.<\/p>\n Although they started strong, Albert Johansson<\/a> and Jacob Bernard-Docker<\/a> both declined significantly towards the end of the season. Detroit attempted to give its defensive corps a jolt by acquiring Justin Faulk<\/a> at the deadline, but he wasn\u2019t enough to get them over the finish line. By the end of the season, the Red Wings could really only rely on their top unit of Moritz Seider<\/a> and Simon Edvinsson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Youngster Axel Sandin Pellikka<\/a> still has a high ceiling, but has some maturing to do, which isn\u2019t atypical for younger defensemen. Throughout the season, it was evident that the Red Wings\u2019 coaching staff lacked trust in him during challenging situations, leading to his demotion to AHL Grand Rapids before the campaign ended.<\/p>\n Detroit hopes that a full season with Faulk next to Sandin Pellikka will be beneficial, especially if it moves Chiarot to a bottom-pairing role. However, if injuries occur, Detroit lacks sufficient reserves. The Red Wings should target a defenseman who will primarily play in the bottom pairing, but wouldn\u2019t look out of place in the top four if needed. They should be able to recruit this on the free agent market this summer, such as Mario Ferraro<\/a>, Logan Stanley<\/a>, or Ryan Shea<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lock Up Edvinsson<\/p>\n Although he hasn\u2019t taken off as immediately as Seider, it\u2019s clear that the two play well together. Now a full-time player, Edvinsson has scored 16 goals and 56 points in 150 games over the past two years, averaging 21:43 of ice time per game. Additionally, he plays into his frame, blocking 292 shots and delivering 180 hits in that time. The pairing of Edvinsson and Seider played the third-most totals of any defensive pairing this year, and they finished with a 54.8% xGoals% in all situations, according to MoneyPuck<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the very least, the Red Wings should target a five-year contract if not longer. Should they agree to a five-year deal, that would line Edvinsson up with Seider for their contract expirations. As of now, AFP Analytics projects<\/a> Edvinsson to sign a seven-year, $61.4MM ($8.77MM AAV) on a long-term deal. It\u2019s unlikely that Detroit would be willing to go above Seider\u2019s $8.55MM salary on any new deal, so they would likely play hardball in getting Edvinsson down to an $8MM to $8.5MM range.<\/p>\n Add Depth Scoring<\/p>\n Connected to their need for a second-line center, the Red Wings must add additional scoring, particularly to their bottom-six. In what has become another theme for this team over the last few years, Detroit struggles to produce at even strength, costing them several games. This season, the team finished in 30th place in even-strength goals.<\/p>\n Of those that finished the season in Detroit, the combination of James van Riemsdyk<\/a>, Michael Rasmussen<\/a>, Mason Appleton<\/a>, Compher, and Kasper finished with 47 goals on the season. As mentioned previously, DeBrincat finished with 41 himself.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the Red Wings don\u2019t need to go big-game hunting in this regard. In fact, most of it could come from within. If Detroit can move Rasmussen and Appleton this summer, as well as let van Riemsdyk walk in free agency, the Red Wings could begin adding in some of their prospects to the NHL roster and let their youthful energy take over.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire of Imagn Images.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason has arrived for half of the league\u2019s teams that aren\u2019t taking part in the playoffs\u00a0plus those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,93,5137,5,4,63047,697,3358,5138],"class_list":["post-583637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroitredwings","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-offseason-checklist-2026","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-red-wings","tag-redwings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116637562765085765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583637","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=583637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/USATSI_28631946-228x300.jpg\")
<\/a>One key factor in solidifying the defensive corps is locking down Edvinsson this summer. He\u2019s set to become a restricted free agent on July 1st without arbitration rights, giving Detroit plenty of time to work something out long-term.<\/p>\n