After Summer of Roster Change, Red Wings' Forwards Fit Roles Better than Before

connor earegood

Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 9:21 a.m.·5 min read

Last season, the Detroit Red Wings’ forward group was as deep as it had ever been during its rebuild. Eleven forwards scored at least 10 goals. Eleven broke the 30-point threshold. Overall, Detroit’s 278 goals ranked top-10 in goal scoring for the first time since 2011-12. In the words of Larry David, pretty, pretty good.

By the end of free agency, pretty good became pretty different. The Red Wings took a scalpel to their depth, forced to become more efficient with their salary cap. Players representing 75 goals signed elsewhere or departed via trade, and only half of those found natural replacements in free agent adds. Detroit has a fraction of the depth that it thrived on last season.

At face value, this missing scoring is concerning, but Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde is a bit more optimistic. As much as the scoring might have decreased, the level of scoring Detroit needs might also have decreased.To him, it has everything to do with how the roster is slotted.

“Guys are slotted a little bit more proper, if you will,” Lalonde explained Aug. 7. “Maybe more of an ideal top six, bottom six situation, but it will be fluid as the season starts.”

The way he sees it, his top six — players primarily tasked with putting pucks in the net — is made up of his scorers. His bottom six, tasked with more defensive responsibility, is made up of checkers. He has the right players to play the right roles, instead of a lot of players who play a certain scoring style.

The moves Detroit made this offseason intentionally furnished the roster’s roles. The Red Wings added Vladimir Tarasenko to replace top six departure David Perron, and he’ll play alongside a mix of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Patrick Kane, J.T. Compher and Alex DeBrincat. That’s a group that could and should carry a lot of Detroit’s offensive needs.

Meanwhile, the Red Wings brought in checkers to make up a defensively focused bottom six. In addition to his shutdown third line of Michael Rasmussen, Andrew Copp and a returning Christian Fischer, Detroit has built a fourth line that can also defend. It shed scoring-centered fourth liners of Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong in favor of bringing in Tyler Motte to shore up the defensive play alongside checking center Joe Veleno. It’s not a perfectly shutdown unit — Jonatan Berggren will probably play in the bottom six, and his stylistic lacking on defense has caused concern from Lalonde in the past. But, it’s a lot better than it was, and there are clear functional checkers who he can lean on.

So why is this a good thing? After all, losing scoring depth of any kind is, at its very core, a loss. The Red Wings’ offense is a step back from where it was last season on paper.

The key is that last season, the Red Wings scored a lot because they had to. There was no other option due to the personnel’s strengths and weaknesses than to play in a way that its lineup focused on scoring, finishing off scoring chances and racking up goals. That’s why three of the four forward lines were built to be scoring lines.

Detroit received a lot of offense from last season’s forward construction, but it traded chances the other way to foot the bill. When it came to those late-season games where goals became harder to come by, the Red Wings didn’t have the defensive funding to pay up. This year is about balancing the checkbook and coming out in the black. With the current forward contingent at his disposal, Lalonde has a lot of pieces to tinker with to make this happen.

“We did a good job addressing some holes,” Lalonde said. “It feels like guys may be slotted going into the year a little bit. I think we did a good job addressing some loss offense, which is very important. It's just exciting. All I've known here, since I've come here, is progression. Moving in the right direction, year one to year two. We did it going into the second year, obviously, and now we need to keep building.”

A well-built team has to be constructed from well-built lines. With this summer’s changes to the roster, Lalonde doesn’t have to build lines with the wrong parts. That’s a major progression for his team, even if the lost offense seems like a step backward on paper.

In reality, this advancement addresses an aspect of roster depth that is often ignored. Usually when talking about a team’s depth, the focus goes to scoring depth. Checking depth is often ignored for the flashy allure of goals and point totals. But, having players who can succeed in crucial defensive roles is an equally important aspect of depth, especially when goals are hard — and expensive — to come by.

Detroit would benefit from more scoring depth, sure, but Lalonde’s glass-half-full perspective also lends itself to the stylistic changes that he wants to make anyway. His marching orders at the end of last season called for him to make the Red Wings a better defensive team to make its scoring matter. Lower the goals against, and they don’t need as many goals for to make up for them. That’s what both Lalonde and general manager Steve Yzerman laid out at their closing press conferences, and it’s what they’ve maintained all summer long.

So far, Lalonde has been given the right players in the right spots to complete the job. Now, the task becomes putting them to good use once the season starts.