In debriefing the 2023-24 season, Derek Lalonde and Steve Yzerman discussed progress, disappointment, optimism for the future, and a need for tightening up defensively to keep growing
In debriefing the 2023-24 season, Derek Lalonde and Steve Yzerman discussed progress, disappointment, optimism for the future, and a need for tightening up defensively to keep growing
In reflecting on the 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings season from the annals of Little Caesars Arena Friday afternoon, coach Derek Lalonde and general manager Steve Yzerman—speaking one after the other—painted similar pictures.
Both spoke of progress set against disappointment. Both expressed optimism about the continued development of the young players coming throughout the organization. Both stressed that further improvement will hinge upon tightening the team's defensive game. And both preferred to discuss an ongoing and evolving process of growth to a more teleological fixation on the postseason with respect to the '24-25 campaign.
"If you look at the black and white improvement, we improved 11 points," said Lalonde in his opening statement, addressing the season's fundamental ambivalence between progress and frustration. "You can also look at it black and white as we missed the playoffs." "We scored a ton more goals this year," he continued. "We went from 26th to 13th in goals for. Those goals helped us, but we want to keep pushing, and you hope to get over that line. I still think it's team defense and keeping it out of your net."
"First of all, it was an exciting season," said Yzerman. "I think for us all a bit of a roller coaster. A lot of highs and some periods of a lot of losses and lows I guess. Overall, it was progress. After five years, more so than just the Red Wings, but the organization in general, I'm somewhat pleased. I can't say it's perfect, but somewhat pleased with the development of our organization, the play of some of our younger players not only in Detroit, but in Grand Rapids...and some of the younger players that haven't turned professional yet. Overall, I'm encouraged with the progress of our organization...I'm kinda disappointed, as most people are, at the end of the the season, because particularly the last week was incredibly exciting."
Then, he echoed the action plan that Lalonde had offered 30 minutes earlier, saying "Ultimately, we have to become a better defensive hockey team, and it's the fundamentals of defending. I'm counting on our coaching staff to work with our players and our players to be determined to do that. It's not necessarily the system; it's the basic fundamentals of defending that at times this year we struggled with, and we need to address that again."
If there was any doubt as to Yzerman's faith in the first head coach he hired upon returning to Detroit, he resolved any ambient uncertainty with respect to Lalonde's job status in saying "There's no lingering question," when asked about Lalonde.
"Not from me," he continued. "I think we competed hard. I thought there was a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of determination amongst the players. Obviously we weren't perfect, but the most important thing I feel from my vantage point is that our players are motivated, our players are determined, there's a good atmosphere within the locker room, and part of that is the coaching staff helps foster that or create that. So overall, I'm happy with the direction we're going, the coaching we have."
After concluding the '23-24 as close to the Eastern Conference playoffs without qualifying as possible, Lalonde recognizes that moving forward the standard for his team will inevitably continue to grow.
"Expectations are for certain going to change," he observed. "And that's a positive. Expectations changed when we went 16-4-2 in [January and] February. Expectations changed when we started the season 5-1. Expectations changed when we won six straight. We don't shy away from that. It's reality. You wanna grow somewhere, we're gonna grow. Of course expectations are gonna change as we keep building this, and that's all part of it. And if we don't have the stomach for it, we're gonna be in trouble. I have the stomach for it. Our group has the stomach for it. It's part of growing. Our goal next year is gonna be simple: We wanna build on what we did this year."
When asked why he'd declined to name the 2025 postseason as an explicit goal or priority, Lalonde replied, "because I really think playoffs will take care of itself...We talked about it being above the line. When you start saying playoffs, you start putting outcome ahead of your process, and we'll never get there...There were times within our season our process wasn't good enough, and that's why we didn't make the playoffs...We're not a finished product. We're flawed in some ways. And, again, even expectations going into last year, when you said no one expected us to be here, I don't think it was a knock on our group. It was probably a credit to our division. I don't see teams in our division going anywhere...They're only going to get better."
Yzerman took a similar tack with respect to the postseason push next season, expressing aspiration before deferring back to process. "I hope to. I hope we make the playoffs," he said. "It's going to be a challenge, honestly...We're gonna need development: Mo's gotta keep going. Lucas Raymond's gotta keep going. Dylan's gotta keep—everybody's gotta be a little bit better, and collectively defensively, we've got to be a little bit better."
In the offseason to come, Yzerman will have no bigger priority than signing restricted free agents Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond to new contracts, with their entry-level contracts expiring. Seider and Raymond made Yzerman's job at once more difficult and easier with their excellent '23-24 campaigns.
"Obviously Lucas was just impressive to see," Lalonde said of Raymond. "I can't speak enough of him. Extremely proud of him. I asked more of him at the end of year meeting last year. I asked more of him in his approach. I asked more of him in his practice habits. There were some really tough conversations, and obviously he did it...Let's take another step. Let's keep pushing this."
"We're asking him to do a lot, and he's got the mental toughness to weather it all," added Yzerman of Seider. "As our team gets better around him, his role might change a little bit. He will be used a little bit differently, which I think will allow him to display or express even more of the offensive side of his game...If he was drowning out there, I'd have concern, but he ain't drowning. He's doing really well."
As for the particulars of those potential contracts, Yzerman said, "The term and the dollar's gotta work for both parties. You have to pay a player enough that he's willing to lock up for eight years, but also it can be dangerous if you're paying an extreme premium for potential...The market has changed a lot between the first, the second, and the third contract. The first are pretty much standard. Entry-level deals are what they are...The second one is getting a little trickier now, because teams have some go short and some go long."
There is no doubt as to whether Raymond and Seider will be Red Wings in the season to come. Both expressed a desire to remain in Detroit at their exit interviews the day prior. The question instead is whether they will take shorter 'bridge' deals or lock in for six-to-eight more seasons now. As Yzerman pointed out, the latter option provides greater security in locking down their services for the long term but can make it trickier to find a mutually agreeable number for the two parties.
Regardless of the precise figure Seider, Raymond, and Yzerman arrive at, the simple fact is that their raises will make it harder to build depth around them. By necessity, that will likely mean an increased reliance on young players and prospects, and to Lalonde, there is promise in that future. "I like youth," he said. "There's something special about youth. There's something special about rookies, what they bring the group, the passion, the drive." Meanwhile, Yzerman named Albert Johansson (Detroit's second round pick in 2019 who has yet to make his NHL debut) and Jonatan Berggren (who has 79 NHL games to his name) as two youngsters liable to find themselves in the mix for NHL minutes next season.
In the end, the Red Wings' '23-24 season brought both frustration and progress, the sting of the conclusion softened by the growth of the franchise's twin young stars in Raymond and Seider and the first meaningful springtime hockey in Detroit in more than half a decade.
To Lalonde, there is no sense in agonizing over the various points the Red Wings lost that might have kept the season going for at least four more games. Instead, it's the time to celebrate the progress Detroit did make and recognize the work yet to do.
"I don't think you can think like that," Lalonde said, when asked which dropped point from the season will stick with him longest. "I even asked our guys not to talk or think like that. I went right in after the game [against Montreal] and told them how proud I was of them. I thanked them for pushing this organization forward, but it's just the start."
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