After five months of turmoil, the Detroit Red Wings face a new season and a familiar question.
Is 2026-27 going to be the season they finally make it back to the playoffs and start distancing the most successful U.S.-based Original Six franchise from a drought that has grown into a decade?
There's been scant overturn in player personnel from the group that stumbled last spring after putting itself on what seemed such a promising path: The starting goaltender is back, and so is much of the defense corps. A couple of new forwards were brought in to offset the ones that left, but all in all, the team hasn't changed much.
The organization, however, has. It is operating under an interim general manager hastily named two days before training camp, without
a captain, and with a former captain who wants to be traded. Amid all of this, those within the locker room are tasked with staying focused on the only thing that will serve as a balm: Winning.
"As simple as it is, I think that just calms everything," Moritz Seider said. "Calms a lot of noise, calms a lot of weirdness that maybe came with the summer. Points on the board is a really good answer to a lot of those things."
The weirdness
First it was Dylan Larkin requesting a trade shortly after last season ended, after 11 years with the team that drafted him, the last six as captain. Then it was the abrupt departure of Steve Yzerman, a franchise icon, as general manager in mid-July. And while those two shocking developments drew headlines, restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson's contract talks dragged into October.
No one within the organization has shed much light on any of the situations: Not Horcoff, when he met with reporters on Sept. 16, nor Larkin, when he did the same Sept. 17. The response to the most pertinent questions – what triggered the trade request; whether a reconciliation is on the table – was that it would be kept private.
Until there are answers, until there is a measure of resolution, the noise remains, though players are doing their best to quiet it in the locker room.
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"Since camp has started it's been pretty normal for us," Andrew Copp said. "We've been worried about our systems, figuring out line mate chemistry, how our own individual games are going, our team game, all that kind of stuff. I would say that it was tumultuous for a while there in the summer, but since we had Larks talk to the team, and Horc was named GM and he talked to the team, and since then training camp started, it's been pretty normal.
"Now we need to get off to a fast start and build confidence and get everything focused on hockey."
Focused on hockey
Both in goal and on the back end, the Wings have solid depth. John Gibson, after some early inconsistency as he adjusted to a new team last season, was stellar from Thanksgiving onwards. Newcomer Daniil Tarasov comes in ready to prove he's more than a backup. Once Edvinsson is signed, he'll further strengthen a defense corps boasting size, skill and mobility. In additions to experienced players in Seider, Justin Faulk, Ben Chiarot, Albert Johansson and Edvinsson, there's impressive depth highlighted by young defensemen Anton Johansson and Axel Sandin-Pellikka. In newcomer Andreas Englund, the Wings gain a measure of toughness.
As solid as the goaltending and defense corp look, the forward group could have used an infusion of skill and scoring touch. Gone are Patrick Kane and James van Riemsdyk, who accounted for 31 goals. Larkin, who has been nursing an upper-body injury, accounted for 34. He was unavailable throughout the preseason, prompting the Wings to form a top line of Copp, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond.
Viktor Arvidsson, signed in free agency, based on his history, is likely to come in around 20 goals. The other free agent forward signed, Keegan Kolesar, is a grinder.
"If we look at Dylan and Simon and JVR and Kane leaving, that's about a third of our offense, when you look at it from goals scored or from points produced," coach Todd McLellan said. "Some of those guys were in key situations. You think about them on the power play, as well as 5-on-5. Kaner coming down the stretch, his line was the one line that continued to produce 5-on-5, so there's no doubt that we lost a lot of firepower. And I'm not going to sit up here and paint the picture that everything's okay.
"We have to find ways for other guys to manufacture offense. We can try and help them as much as we can. They're going to have to put a concerted effort into scoring some ugly goals. We've got to find a way. And that can be a tip-in, a deflection, a screen. It can come from a player that's not named Raymond or DeBrincat, and it's going to have to happen that way. But I think we can do it. It's just, can we get enough over time? We're going to keep pushing."
While scoring may be an issue, the new guys added all share a trait the Wings felt they needed.
"We want our guys to play harder and heavier and we brought a couple players in to do that," McLellan said. "We're going to have to spend less time in our zone, so that's where the structural changes come through. We're going to have to spend more time in O-zone. We've worked on that. Will it be different next year? I can't read into the crystal ball, but we're going to do everything we possibly can to make it better and to change. That's where we're at right now. We start playing and we see what happens."
See what happens
The Wings finished the 2025-26 season 41-31-10, their 92 points falling seven short of the 99 points that it took to advance to the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. It took only 90 points in the Western Conference.
As 2026-27 starts up, the Atlantic Division looks just as tough as last season. The Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning project to finish in the top three spots, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins giving close chase. The Ottawa Senators made the playoffs last spring (and then traded Brady Tkachuk to the Panthers). If the Wings are to reach the playoffs, they will have to serve notice within the toughest division in the NHL.
"I think this is a super hungry group," J.T. Compher said. "We've been close the last few years to getting into the playoffs. I think that the desire is as high as it's ever been."
That hunger will show in performances, from the first game onwards. Since he arrived at Christmas 2024, McLellan has emphasized mental toughness and game management. Whether those vital aspects are really, truly taking root will show with consistent performances, with not gifting away points.
"We, being the group that I've been around for 18 months now, we should have learned a bunch of valuable lessons," McLellan said. " It doesn't mean we're not going to make the same mistake over again, it just means that we should cut them down. Game management is often a read or sometimes just being delinquent. If it's the delinquent part, we'd better be fixing that. If it's a read and a react situation and we make the wrong play at the wrong time, then we've got to keep working on things. But the delinquency has to be eliminated, and I think we're doing a good job of addressing it and working towards that. It's also a work in progress. We're growing."
The Wings play seven of their first eight games at Little Caesars Arena, offering a friendly opportunity to show that growth, that hunger, that desire to follow weirdness with winning and building towards that elusive goal: A playoff berth.
"It's really important to build a little confidence, a little momentum, and kind of go from there," Copp said. "I mean, there's no one little thing that's going to just change absolutely everything, but for 75% of last year we were really good, and then 25%, obviously not good enough. We need to improve that, and it's the crunch time of year. But our process was pretty good for a long time. We think we have a lot of good players, and that we can play a sound team game, and that's how we'll win."
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. She’s co-authored “Red, White & Gold: How American men and women became the kings and queens of Olympic hockey” (order at USA.ChampsBook.com.) Her books: “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of Hockeytown,” and “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Only way for Red Wings to bury 'weirdness' of offseason is by winning
