Editor
The Detroit Red Wings are known as “Hockeytown,” but they haven’t lived up to that billing in years.
The franchise is a proud one and were the team to beat at the turn of the millennium when they won four Stanley Cups and advanced to six Finals series between 1995 and 2009. They featured the NHL’s top stars in Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Federov, including a group of other Hall of Famers such as Chris Chelios, Dominek Hasek and Brett Hull.
However, they’ve fallen on hard times over the past decade, failing to clinch a playoff berth since 2016 and having not won a playoff series since 2013. After entering this season with expectations of a playoff berth following a 91-point season last year, the Red Wings missed the postseason again with an 86-point season.
Darren McCarty — one of the key pillars of those Red Wings Stanley Cup teams — says it was a “disappointing” year but still believes in his former teammate, current general manager, Steve Yzerman to turn things around in Detroit.
“Well, it was a disappointing year,” McCarty told Poker Scout in an exclusive interview. “If you can actually go and look at what he had to work with when he got here, he hasn’t been here six or seven years, because he was minus-three to begin with, with the contracts and things he had to untangle. You look at the kids he’s drafted, and you look at the young guys Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, and obviously Dylan Larkin being your captain. But also the evolution of Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson, Elmer Soderblom and these younger guys that are coming up.”
McCarty’s point is that the Red Wings do have a good young nucleus, with the core being built around Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. Larkin is the elder statesman at 28 years old, while Raymond and Seider are both no older than 23 years old.
When factoring in the three Swedes that McCarty mentioned — all of whom are 24 years or younger — Detroit should have a good future ahead of them, especially when considering they’re just barely finishing out of a playoff spot.
McCarty: Detroit Needs Help Defensively
However, McCarty points towards the team’s lack of goaltending and a penalty kill specialist — such as Quinn Hughes or Lane Hutson — as key flaws holding the Red Wings back.
“The new NHL is you need your water bug D-man,” says McCarty. “What I mean by that is, you need your Lane Hutson, your Quinn Hughes, you need the guy that can play tons of minutes and be an effect on a game and kill penalties, but be able to skate.
“They’re coming,” McCarty continues to say of the Red Wings. “The old adage is, until they solidify their goaltending, which is supposed to be the future with Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine, who’s at Michigan State, but how far away is that?”
The Red Wings ranked 21st in goals allowed and ranked dead last in the penalty kill. That combination will hold any NHL team back.
Despite the glaring areas they need to fill at goaltending and with a “water bug D-man,” there is a young nucleus in Detroit that’s one of the best in the league.
McCarty: No One Better Equipped Than Yzerman To Be GM
That’s why McCarty is confident that his former team can turn things around and emerge as a potential playoff contender who can win a Stanley Cup in two-to-three years.
“It’s disappointing they didn’t make the playoffs this year,” says McCarty. “Obviously you want to elevate that step. They didn’t elevate that step, like Ottawa did. They can only look in the mirror for that, but I think they’ll be better. The goal like Steve Yzerman said is when this team gets back in the playoffs, it’s like it was in the past to be back for 25 years, to be hockey town again. They still have about two or three years, but they could win a cup in two or three years.”
Although there are questions on whether or not Yzerman is the guy to lead the Red Wings back to relevance, McCarty speaks passionately about the former longtime franchise captain. Yzerman has been the GM since 2019, but it’s worth noting that he built the Tampa Bay Lightning rosters that would eventually win the Stanley Cup in back-to-back years during the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
“Who else do you want doing the job? Throw names at me that’s better equipped than this guy that cares more,” says McCarty of Yzerman. “If you just want to blanket a statement and say you have this amount of time and then you didn’t do it, then it’s done and don’t see why it’s done that way. You can question them on some of his free agent signings and their production, but at the end of the day, their contracts would never be here long enough. They were never part of the solution.”
McCarty once again points towards the lack of a penalty kill, which was one of the worst in NHL history.
“You have to realize where you come from,” says McCarty. “Everybody knows I’m the first one who’s going to question them. I try to give perspective, because I was raised at the table by these guys. They don’t tell me anything, but I read between the lines, and it’s about solidifying this. If they want to look in the mirror, you had the third-worst penalty kill in the history of the NHL this year under 70%. Maybe you want to start there, because that’s all effort.”
The four-time Stanley Cup champ once again hammers home the “great” farm system, but stresses the need to improve the penalty kill and goaltending in order to get to the next level.
“For a lot of teams too, but for this team, absolutely,” says McCarty of the team’s lack of penalty kill and goaltending. “Because they have the guys, they have the guys coming. They have a great farm system in Grand Rapids, so it’s not easy. It would be nice if Steve Yzerman could land a top free agent. He hasn’t been able to do that and the draft hasn’t helped him out.”
