NHL Hot Seat Radar 2023: Detroit Red Wings

With hometown hero Alex DeBrincat joining cornerstone captain Dylan Larkin under the management of franchise legend Steve Yzerman, the Detroit Red Wings are on the hot seat to force their way into the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

We’re in the dog days of summer for hockey fans, but that doesn't mean that every person employed by an NHL team doesn’t continue to feel pressure. Every one of them does, around the clock, throughout the year. That’s what this ongoing THN.com hot seat series is looking at, continuing on Sunday with the Detroit Red Wings.

Analyzing teams in alphabetical order, we’re picking out three to four people per organization who are on some type of hot seat. One NHL player, team owner, GM or coach will be on the hot seat as someone facing big-time pressure to produce positive results in 2023-24 or find themselves divorced from their current team. A second person will go on the warm seat as someone who may not be looking at an imminent firing or trade but may see their time with the team end this coming season. A third individual will go on the cold seat, making them highly likely to stay with their current employer for the foreseeable future.

DeBrincat got his wish and worked his way out of Ottawa this summer, but don’t fool yourself – as a hometown hero in Detroit and a player with a salary cap hit of $7.875 million, DeBrincat will get a ton of the spotlight and the attendant pressure.

The 25-year-old winger is entering his prime, and for his salary, he’s got to do more on offense than he did last season with the Senators, when he posted 27 goals – a drop-off of 14 goals from his 2021-22 campaign – in 82 games. DeBrincat will be a fixture on Detroit’s top forward line, but he has to justify that move, and his salary, with drastically-increased production. The Red Wings are under pressure to get back into the playoffs in 2023-24, and if they fail to do so, and DeBrincat doesn’t generate enough offense, he’ll hear the heckles of frustrated Wings fans.

DeBrincat is signed for the next four seasons, so we don’t see a trade happening anytime soon, but fans can quickly sour on a player if they don't deliver what they want out of them. DeBrincat should tread lightly now that he’s got the employer he wanted, because now that they’ve paid him like an elite player, they expect him to perform like one.

Yzerman is a Red Wings icon, and his management past with the Tampa Bay Lightning has created a lot of cachet for him. But hockey is a zero-sum game, and the inescapable truth is that Yzerman’s Wings teams have failed to make the post-season for more than four years now, and Detroit fans are beginning to get cranky.

Yzerman made a slew of roster changes this summer, and while we like some of them – in particular, the additions of forward Daniel Sprong and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere – we don’t like others (blueliner Justin Holl and goalie James Reimer aren’t needle-movers). 

When pundits make their pre-season predictions for the more-competitive Atlantic Division this fall, don’t be surprised when the Red Wings aren’t pegged as a playoff team. Both Ottawa and Buffalo have better forward and defensive groups than Detroit, and a lot must go right for the Wings to sneak into a wild-card playoff berth.

Let’s say Detroit doesn’t make the 2024 playoffs. What will Yzerman do then? He’s likely not going to fire coach Derek Lalonde. He’s also not likely to trade veterans such as Dylan Larkin and Moritz Seider. And another summer of moves on the periphery of the Wings lineup may not make them good enough to make the playoffs in 2025. Listen, Detroit isn’t the first team to turn to a former player with all the respect in the hockey world to run its franchise. Sometimes things don’t work out for the best. And if by the time Yzerman is halfway to a decade of running things in the Motor City, things aren’t working out, there has to be some form of accountability.

Larkin is about to enter Year 1 of his eight-year, $69.6-million contract extension that carries a team-high annual cap hit of $8.7 million. He’s coming off a season where he set a new career high in points (79). As team captain and franchise cornerstone, he’s been consistently terrific for the Red Wings – and with a full no-trade clause in place for him, Larkin can rest assured he’s not going to be traded under any circumstance.

Larkin will probably play on Detroit’s first line with DeBrincat and veteran sniper David Perron, and team brass would love to see his individual offensive statistics rise to new heights. But if he can remain an approximate point-per-game player and set the tone defensively to help the Wings’ forwards, Yzerman & Co. will be pleased. Larkin doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone, even with the Wings not being a post-season team. It hasn’t been his fault Detroit has been on a lengthy rebuild, which is why Wings fans will give him lots of room to try and stick the landing this coming year.