Navigate Hockeytown’s shifting landscape as contract-year veterans and emerging young stars aim to defy the uncertainty surrounding a roster facing major leadership changes and trade demands.
Puck drop is nearly here, and with training camps opening across the league, it's officially fantasy draft season. It's been a busy offseason, full of blockbuster trades, big-name signings and roster overhauls that are only just starting to settle.
We're going team by team to help you prepare, flagging a sleeper worth stashing, a breakout candidate ready to take off, and a bust that might not be worth the price you'll pay to draft him. Next up: the Detroit Red Wings.
Detroit finished last season 41-31-10 for 92 points, its best total since the 2015-16 season, the last time the Red Wings made the playoffs. Despite the improvement, the result was the same, as Detroit missed the postseason for a tenth straight year after collapsing down the stretch, losing 16 of its final 24 games and finishing sixth in the Atlantic Division.
It's been an eventful offseason in Hockeytown after longtime general manager Steve Yzerman stepped down from the role and transitioned into an advisory position within the organization, and captain Dylan Larkin has since gone public with a trade request of his own.
On the roster front, Detroit lost forward Patrick Kane and looked to fill some of that offensive gap by signing veteran winger Viktor Arvidsson, fresh off a 54-point season with Boston, to a two-year deal. With plenty still unresolved regarding Larkin's future and a new general manager set to take over before the season begins, Detroit enters 2026-27 with more uncertainty surrounding the organization than perhaps any other team in the league.
Sleeper: John Gibson & Emmitt Finnie
Many goaltenders in recent years have proven that age is just a number, and Gibson is looking to do the same. After a strong first season in Hockeytown, the 33-year-old enters the final year of the eight-year deal he originally signed with Anaheim back in 2018.
He'll look to build off that solid season with a chip on his shoulder as he plays for his next contract. With Cam Talbot gone in free agency and Detroit bringing in Daniil Tarasov as a one-year backup, Gibson should have plenty of runway, and he's a strong bet to outplay his current 140th-overall average draft position, along with other netminders being taken ahead of him like Dustin Wolf, Tristan Jarry, Pyotr Kochetkov and Philadelphia's tandem of Joseph Woll and Dan Vladar.
Finnie, meanwhile, was one of Detroit's biggest surprises last season, developing rapidly from a seventh-round pick and AHL grinder into a full-time NHL regular at just 21 years old. The Lethbridge, Alberta native steadily improved his production at every level, earned a spot on Detroit's opening-night roster, and finished his rookie campaign with 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points while playing all 82 games.
With another offseason of development ahead, Finnie has the potential to keep climbing, likely remaining a top-line option alongside Larkin and Raymond, with 45-plus points within reach. Owned in just three percent of Yahoo leagues, he's an intriguing low-cost, high-reward option to watch on the waiver wire.
Breakout: Simon Edvinsson
While he awaits his next deal as a restricted free agent, the 23-year-old Swedish defender flashed at moments last season but missed ten games and finished with just 25 points, a modest total for the former sixth-overall pick from 2021.
With an offseason to refine his game, Edvinsson looks poised to build on back-to-back seasons in the 25-to-30-point range and could push past 40 points this year. He'll have every opportunity to do so, continuing to play the top defensive pairing alongside Moritz Seider and logging heavy minutes after averaging more than 22 a night last season.
Going as high as 133rd overall on average, Edvinsson has a real chance to outplay defensemen being drafted ahead of him, including Vince Dunn, Aaron Ekblad and Devon Toews.
Bust: N/A
The Red Wings' roster is largely priced fairly this draft season. A few names, like J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp, look like potential disappointments, but neither is rostered widely enough in fantasy leagues to qualify as a true bust. Meanwhile, the team's core pieces, Larkin, Raymond, Seider and DeBrincat, are all being valued appropriately, leaving no obvious candidate to avoid on this roster.
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