While the Detroit Red Wings have seen more success in their rebuild recently on the cusp of a wild card playoff berth, the Buffalo Sabres have integrated more of their future into the lineup
While the Detroit Red Wings have seen more success in their rebuild recently on the cusp of a wild card playoff berth, the Buffalo Sabres have integrated more of their future into the lineup
The seven years since the Detroit Red Wings made the playoffs feel like an eternity. The Buffalo Sabres can empathize, seeing how they’re the only franchise that has missed the playoffs for longer at 12 years. If misery loves company, these teams are practically roommates.
As these teams’ rebuilding efforts have dragged on, they've employed a different strategy. The Sabres have integrated a number of future core players into the lineup early, while the Red Wings have graduated fewer prospects to the NHL in favor of building a competitive roster through free agency. Each philosophy has its innovations, but it also has its quirks. While Detroit’s strategy might lead to more immediate success, Buffalo appears to be in a more stable situation for the future.
Let’s start by looking at the state of each team. Knocking on the door of a playoff spot, the Red Wings’ roster features a lot of veterans. Free agent signings Patrick Kane and David Perron bring experience to the forward corps, while Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, Shayne Gostisbehere and Olli Maatta add their wisdom to the blue line. These older presences aren’t merely on the roster to teach — they’re components in the Red Wings’ desire to make the playoffs. This roster was built with the idea that it could make the playoffs right now, even if a number of its players probably won’t be on the roster two or three years from now.
Winning now still includes some younger players who will be around for a while. Defenseman Moritz Seider and forwards Lucas Raymond, Joe Veleno and Michael Rasmussen have been on the team the past few seasons and figure to be a part of the team’s construction in the future. However, a number of prospects have also stuck around the American Hockey League far past when they’re ready for NHL minutes, including the likes of 2021 first-rounder Simon Edvinsson and 2022 first-rounder Marco Kasper.
By and large, Detroit’s roster is the product of trades and free agent deals rather than any success in drafting. Of its current 23-man roster, 12 players joined the team on free agent deals while another five came via trade. Of the remaining six players who the Red Wings drafted, five are forwards and none are goaltenders. There’s going to be a lot of turnover from this roster in the coming seasons, just based on the nature of age and contracts.
Turnover isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a caveat to Detroit’s recent success. With new pieces, the team might regress season to season as rookies enter the lineup and make mistakes. It might also improve as they develop into bona fide professionals.
One detail of the Red Wings’ current construction suggests there might be difficulty down the road. Overall, it’s easier for teams to integrate forward prospects into the lineup compared to defensemen or goaltenders — forwards can take the ice in sheltered minutes without having such an impact on the team, but the smaller quantity of defenseman and goaltenders puts them in the spotlight a lot more. This makes defense and goaltending development unique, if not more difficult, in that prospects in these positions can’t run from their mistakes, and they can have significant impacts on their team. Detroit will likely face this head-on when rookie blueliners join the team.
The timeline of such an integration seems relatively distant. Three of its four defensemen are signed for two more seasons after this one. All but Gostisbehere and RFA Seider are signed through next season. But one day, the blue line will change hands between generations, and that could redefine what the Red Wings look like for better or worse.
Buffalo, meanwhile, is in the opposite situation. The Sabres have embraced a youth movement of prospects, giving their future pillars valuable NHL minutes to develop on the NHL’s youngest team. This is especially true of a blue line led by Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, two first overall draft picks, while the acquisition of Bowen Byram at the deadline adds another young weapon. Overall, the average age of its blue line is 24.1 years, and the oldest player is 28-year-old Connor Clifton. In other words, this blue line is going to be around a while.
There are obvious differences in the prospect pool the Red Wings could draw from — they never had a top-three pick in their peak rebuilding seasons. Regardless, the reality is that Buffalo’s blue line features a lot more long-term pieces.
In net, the Sabres are also steady. They're currently leaning on 25-year-old Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to be their starter, while prospect Devon Levi has split time between the NHL and AHL. Both figure to be the tandem for the time being unless something major changes. Again, we see Buffalo implementing prospects into a lineup that projects to stay relatively intact down the stretch. Of the 22-man roster overall, 10 players were Buffalo draft picks, while eight were trade acquisitions.
For the Sabres, the fruits of their drafts are ripening on the tree. But the goal isn’t just to be young. Rather, it wants to build experience for long term pieces through early playing time.
“I’m not overly concerned about age now because I feel like the core of our team is experienced,” Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said in a Q&A with The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn. “There’s college free agents that come out that are older than Rasmus Dahlin. The age is one thing. But now I think it’s great because he’s in the prime of his career and has played how many 100s of games in the NHL? It’s more about that. That’s why I used Dylan Cozens as an example, too, he started at 19. He’s 23 and that’s relatively young in years but he’s now an experienced player. The next step would be us hopefully becoming a playoff team and getting that kind of experience. That’s how I look at it.”
The Red Wings aren’t without talented prospects who could crack the roster, but the delay in getting them experience differs from the Sabres. Edvinsson will all but certainly make the roster next season, while 2023 first-rounder Axel Sandin Pellikka should be part of the future blue line, too. In net, Sebastian Cossa has gotten a lot better as the AHL season has progressed, which is an encouraging sign for his ability to test out NHL games in the future. At forward, Kasper, Carter Mazur and Nate Danielson all figure to be future roster players. But when they join the roster, they won't have the kind of experience at a young age that the Sabres' delayed gratification has created.
That difference doesn't mean Detroit is wrong. It just means it's going about its business a different way.
“I'm going to be very conservative, but I think we have a good group of young prospects. We still have … eight draft picks this year, eight draft picks next year and all of ours moving forward,” Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman said in a post-trade deadline press conference. “We're building a nucleus of young prospects that are going to be a part of this team. We're slowly seeing some of those kids in (Grand Rapids), not only develop from junior and college and Europe into good American League players, they're just slowly moving up the pipeline.”
While these contrasting rebuild styles don’t stack up one-for-one, the differences in these approaches have put each team in a far different space. Detroit sits on the cusp of its first playoff spot in seven seasons, while Buffalo sold at the deadline for another year in a row. But whereas the Sabres’ future is relatively predictable — as much as can be in the volatile world of sports — the Red Wings’ strategy lacks a similar stability.
For both franchises, the rebuilding road has been rocky. While each team has followed a different road map, they hope their efforts lead them to a similar end to their playoff droughts.
Also from THN Detroit
Quiet Deadline Reflects Detroit's Long-Term Ambition
Without Larkin, Detroit lineup struggling to match up with opponents
Alex DeBrincat and the Art of the Near Miss
Did the "Trash Patch" Curse the Red Wings?
Around the NHL: Rempe's Circus Act a Step Backward for Player Safety
Red Wings Winless Since Putting "Trash Patch" on Jerseys
Five Years into Rebuild, Yzerman’s Patience Brings Promise among Pain