The 2023–24 Detroit Red Wings season saw their playoff drought elongated yet again, as they were in the mix until the very end wherein they were eliminated from postseason contention on a tiebreaker via the Capitals’ victory over the Flyers that many likely still remember. It is arguable that they took proper steps forward last summer and that it showed in the results just by being a semi-respectable bubble team. However, with them falling short, Steve Yzerman and the front office still had work to do to build upon the foundation this summer. Did they perform well in this endeavor? Let’s examine.

Let us examine the three trades made by Yzerman this summer. First, there was a prospect deal wherein D Andrew Gibson (OHL – Soo Greyhounds) was sent to the Nashville Predators in exchange for RW Jesse Kiiskinen (Liiga – HPK) and a second round pick in 2024. The next one was in direct relation, as they flipped that selection and D Jake Walman to San Jose for… future considerations.

I can’t even make the meme this time. This was not a good sequence of events for Detroit. The rationale for the Gibson trade was that Kiiskinen was someone that they liked and they were attempting to acquire a pick with which they could move out a contract, which they did. However, the price multiple times over was too steep. Gibson had a terrific season for Soo last year, in which he tallied 44 points in 68 games, which doesn’t scream “I’m going to go full ‘equivalent of Air Raid Offense’ on the NHL”, but complemented his overall effectiveness and TWD prowess nicely. Maybe this deal couldn’t have happened without it, as Kevin Allen notes, but it doesn’t matter when you consider the totality of things. He puts it into perspective, also, that the team has more appealing options for defensemen than forwards, which the addition of Kiiskinen aids with and softens the blow of the loss of Gibson, but that is also of the franchise’s own doing – but more on that later.

At any rate, the Walman cap dump, which was accompanied by the parting with of the previously acquired second round pick, as pointed out in the Allen article, effectively allowed them to re-sign Patrick Kane to a one-year deal. The former adversary/Blackhawks superstar has been better than we’ve ever seen anyone play after a hip resurfacing (no, really, it’s a statistical fact), but between that and his approaching age 36 (his birthday being on November 19th), you kind of have to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s already a questionable aim to keep the band together, but it seems to me that it would’ve made more sense to retain a 28-year-old blueliner who you respected enough for his capabilities to give a three-year extension to (while still being at a team friendly cost) and appreciated due to his effectiveness playing alongside of the immovable Moritz Seider. As Joe Yerdon says, it was a cap move but the price tag, especially given the utilization by Yzerman, was just ridiculous. It only gets worse when you consider San Jose selected D Leo Sahlin Wallenius (J20 Nationell – Växjö Lakers) with the pick, with the blueliner coming off a terrific season wherein he was nearly a PPG player and exhibited plenty of other strengths, too. If he continues growing, this may be a source of regret.

Despite providing rationale, it doesn’t get much better when you hear Yzerman’s side of things: “It’s really difficult to move money right now – And I’ve tried. Honestly I’ve tried. We needed to move at least one contract to do some of the things we gotta do. Unfortunately, that (second-round pick) was the price to do it.” To be blunt, this gives off similar vibes to Chuck Fletcher’s declaration about the difficulty of trades. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the regime. To make matters worse, their performance with UFA retention didn’t go nearly as hoped, with them losing both D Shayne Gostisbehere and LW David Perron. They did have a replacement for Perron come along in the form of Vladimir Tarasenko, but the initial cost is too much and, even with him having some gas left in the tank as evidenced by his pretty respectable bounce-back season last year and the lower cost in the second season, I would not have given him more than one season. It was also somewhat good to see LW Joe Veleno retained, but again, these terms can only be called an overpay, particularly given the team’s precarious situation and his role.

For the last of those aforementioned three trades, C/LW Robby Fabbri and a conditional fourth round pick in 2025 went to Anaheim for G Gage Alexander. This was good to get money off the books (particularly given his deal). However, given the value that Anaheim got here by receiving a respectable finisher (if limited overall player with some health woes) as a team that continuously struggles to score goals and help in their pursuit of the cap floor, I think Yzerman could’ve pressed Pat Verbeek into giving him a better prospect than a goaltender who wasn’t able to post a .900 SV% in the ECHL given that Anaheim also is going to have to trim the herd a bit with their prospect pool which might actually be TOO big. Giving up Fabbri isn’t a huge deal at all and he isn’t a full-fledged premium asset (not even close), but the price tag for him still could’ve been higher. I feel this is yet another instance of Yzerman being leveraged rather than leveraging.

In the round one of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the Detroit Red Wings made history by making the first ever first round selection of a Norwegian player. At 15th overall, they took RW Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (SHL – Skellefteå AIK). The Oslo native had a pretty good season in the Hockeyallsvenskan with Mora IK last year, registering 8 goals and 10 assists in 41 games played. However, it seems Detroit’s regime is making a habit of drafting future serviceable middle-sixers when elite talent is still available. Good tools are less relevant when players of Cole Eiserman’s capabilities, which cannot be coached, are on the board. The point of comparison with Nate Danielson is sufficient on its own – He has a good 200 foot game and was admittedly less burdened after being traded to Portland from Brandon. However, if it were up to me, I’m taking a superior WHL forward prospect in Zach Benson, who was immediately NHL ready and did not need additional cultivation as Danielson (as one of the oldest players in his class, no less) did in both the WHL, and, when Portland’s playoff run ended in the finals against Moose Jaw, the AHL for some of Grand Rapids postseason run. Marco Kasper was also drafted just before Matthew Savoie in 2022, which is a class that can be treated with some leeway due to a lack of NHL ready players (Savoie included, as it turned out), but the concept remains the same. If Detroit were punting to next year, a superior depth class than 2024, that’d be one thing, but past tendencies suggest otherwise. Between that, making a bit of a reach with C Max Plante (US NTDP, committed to Minnesota-Duluth) and taking a double overager in the form of C/W Ondrej Becher (WHL, Prince George Cougars), I feel as though the Wings’ activities in the top 100 left us with more questions than answers.

So many big price tags were shelled out in the name of getting the $ to work for Detroit, while also attempting to retain a competitive nature (yet while also not really moving the needle, which will be costly considering the feeling around the hockey world that the East/the Atlantic Division will be cutthroat this season), that you just can’t have a positive outlook on the events of this summer. Even what seemed to go right came with big caveats. Their draft was also questionable yet again, as they seem to be incapable of ceasing to be themselves. While they might get some value out of what they did this summer, there is so much risk involved, so many things that could’ve gone differently, too many overpayments and too much stagnation along with little improved prospectus for the future for me to give Detroit anything other than an F grade for this offseason. I had maybe mild hopes, despite some apprehensions (and my disdain for expectations that were too high), as well, about last summer’s activities and I thought Yzerman might finally show some signs of being even a percentage of the executive he was in Tampa Bay going forward. Those actions last year did land his team in about the spot that I expected. However, his failure to continue down that road, especially considering how horribly that things have transpired, have completely eroded the bit of confidence that I had.