How the Red Wings built themselves back into a contender
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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
Patrick Kane had his pick of suitors in free agency this fall. And he wholly embraced the courting process.
It was intuition, then, that ultimately drove Kane’s decision. Because of all the offers he received on where to play next, only one team had it all — and couldn’t be ignored.
Kane’s gut told the tale: He was going to be a Detroit Red Wing.
“The thing about Detroit was, anytime I really thought about any other team, I would always kind of come back to Detroit,” said Kane. “There’s a lot of good situations for you out there and you go back and forth with [some of them] and what you want to do in your head. But I kind of knew [Detroit] was in my heart, knew it was where I wanted to be.”
A year ago, that sentiment could have felt forced. But now? Consider Kane just one more member of the Red Wings’ ever-increasing — and increasingly star-studded — bandwagon.
Detroit has been, after all, in a years-long period of transition. The Red Wings haven’t been in the postseason since their record-setting run of 25 straight appearances came to an end in 2016. That bled into Detroit’s current seven-year drought of playoff berths, a span that saw former head coach Jeff Blashill fired, a near-total overhaul of the club’s roster and, recently at least, hope renewed that the Red Wings are finally getting somewhere.
It’s clear Kane believes that’s the case. But the three-time Stanley Cup champion was drawn to Detroit because of the groundwork laid before him — by players who chose, before Kane did, to put their faith in the Red Wings rebuild.
Captain Dylan Larkin did that when he skipped unrestricted free agency altogether to sign an eight-year, $69.6 million contract extension last March. Alex DeBrincat did it when he inked a four-year, $31.5 million contract following a trade in July. J.T. Compher, fresh from a recent Cup-winning run of his own in Colorado, bet on Detroit in July too, agreeing to a five-year, $25.5 million pact.
And that’s to say nothing of Detroit’s rising young generation helmed by Lucas Raymond and Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider, both unabashedly happy to have been drafted on board. Or even the team’s renewed vigor under Blashill’s successor behind the bench, Derek Lalonde.
Slowly but surely, general manager Steve Yzerman has curated his vision for the Red Wings’ future. It’s required patience, and pivots, and a commitment to the bigger picture.
Detroit now looks ready for a breakthrough — and to break away from its painful past stretch outside the playoff picture.
It didn’t take long for Kane to see Detroit’s potential. Getting on the inside, though, was an experience all its own.
“I think [the organization] has exceeded expectations,” Kane said on the eve of his Red Wings’ debut on Dec. 7. “Just as far as how close the guys are in the room, how friendly everyone is, how dialed in they are with player personnel and taking care of each individual player. That’s very impressive, something I didn’t know about them. It’s impressive; it’s a good fit.”
DEBRINCAT STIFLES A SHREWD grin when the topic of Kane comes up.
They’d previously spent five years as teammates in Chicago and found enormous success playing on the same line (including DeBrincat’s career-best 41-goal campaign in 2021-22).
It’s no wonder DeBrincat tried to sell Kane on the Red Wings by sharing the positives of joining their group. And Kane himself told reporters that while DeBrincat’s presence in Detroit wasn’t “the biggest reason” behind his choice, it was a “big one.”
And if that now leads to more ice time recapturing the magic with Kane then all the better for DeBrincat.
“It’s great he’s here,” DeBrincat said. “He’ll add another element of offense for us. He’s a superstar and he can really change things in the lineup. It’s fun to have him and I think everyone’s excited he chose to be here.”
The rest of Detroit might say something similar about DeBrincat. The 25-year-old hit restricted free agency last summer after spending a season with the Ottawa Senators. DeBrincat was traded from Chicago to Ottawa in a blockbuster move at the 2022 NHL draft in Montreal, and while he was good for the Senators — producing 27 goals and 66 points in 82 games — DeBrincat quickly agreed to a four-year, $31.5 million contract once his rights were traded to the Red Wings.
That’s how the forward raised 30 minutes outside Detroit in Farmington Hills wound up donning the local red and white. He’d trained with several of his now-teammates during summers. Plus, there was ample off-ice support in the area — crucial for DeBrincat and wife Lyndsey with their growing young family (they welcomed son Archie in May 2022).
Following the turbulence of being traded, here was a chance for DeBrincat to settle down. There was no better team to align with than Detroit.
“I just feel pretty comfortable here,” he said. “And honestly, it’s just felt relatively easy, an easy transition, for me and that’s felt so good. I feel like we’ve meshed together [as a group] pretty well right off the start. There are other new guys here too, so I feel like everyone came in and we got to know each other pretty quick and it’s been fun so far.”
Beyond mere geography, it was the Red Wings’ depth that drew DeBrincat to sign long term, too. Yzerman’s been meticulous in adding the right pieces for Detroit’s gains, and that’s begun spitting out dividends in a big way.
The Red Wings started this season on a remarkable heater offensively, leading the league in goals scored (40) through their first 10 games, with the power play operating at 32.4%.
It’s been DeBrincat and Larkin leading the charge stats-wise up front, but the likes of Raymond, Compher and Seider have made invaluable contributions across the board, too. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, though. After Detroit opened the season 5-1-0, they slumped to a 3-5-3 stretch that included a pair of losses in Sweden during the NHL’s Global Series Showcase.
The Red Wings used that international disappointment as fuel for a North American comeback. DeBrincat said the team “refocused” with a short break post-Swedish excursion and went on a 6-1-0 run to reestablish their place as a top Atlantic Division contender — but their rivals had already been commenting on Detroit’s resurgence.
“Give them credit — they really stuck to their game plan, got pucks deep and made it hard for us to get out of our zone and limited our o-zone time,” Boston’s Linus Ullmark said after Detroit handed the Bruins their first loss of the season on Nov. 4. “Sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat.”
More than once, it turned out. Boston lost just twice in regulation through their first 19 games, and both times it was against the Red Wings. Given Boston’s stance as a perennial contender, the early success helped boost Detroit’s profile.
“They come out hard and play a simple and effective game,” Bruins’ forward Jake DeBrusk said. “They can capitalize, and they control momentum swings really well.”
Those victories stand out for the Red Wings as examples of their ultimate capability, and that’s hanging with the league’s top-tier squads. The road has been rocky at times but Detroit’s latched onto a collective approach when weathering the ups and downs of a season.
“I think we have a lot of depth that can score up and down the lineup, so when we do the little things, we have a good chance to win,” DeBrincat said. “And I think that’s been our motto right now. We’ve got to play the right way to make good things happen. I think we have a good team; we have a good group of guys in the locker room, and I think we can definitely do something special.”
DeBrincat drops the term “identity” then, and how playing to that will help define the Red Wings’ road from here. But what exactly will that look like now with a quarter of the year already behind them?
THERE’S A COMMON REFRAIN in the Red Wings’ room.
Overall, guys like being around each other. That speaks to Yzerman’s attempt at not only targeting great skaters but high character ones, too.
For Seider, the quality of those personalities began standing out when Detroit decamped to Traverse City, Mich., for training camp instead of holding court in their usual digs.
“We just bonded really well,” Seider said. “Having all the dads with no kids and no wives, it helps to just create a little chemistry there and we get to know each other on a little deeper level than if they would just be in the locker room and then head home after camp. That’s obviously something that’s helped and then we’re just really comfortable with each other. We don’t have any egos in here and it’s just easy to talk to everyone whenever something comes up. Nobody’s afraid to speak up and talk. So, I think that’s pretty unique.”
Seider is relatively unguarded himself, particularly when it comes to discussing his NHL trajectory so far. Drafted sixth overall in 2019, the defenseman put up seven goals and 50 points as a rookie in 2021-22 to secure a Calder Trophy win and further elevate expectations ahead of his sophomore season.
But Seider stumbled out of the gate in year two, producing fewer points and struggling to find a rhythm with partner Ben Chiarot. He recovered in the season’s second half and ended up with comparable stats to that rookie campaign, but more importantly the now third-year pro learned valuable lessons to aid in his growth.
“I still think, looking back, I was a better hockey player in my second year than I was in the first,” Seider said. “Even though maybe the numbers didn’t show it, but you can just see it’s a lot more than points to a single season. I can tune out a lot more now. I think the only person that puts pressure on me is myself. I don’t really listen to the media. I don’t really care to be honest. It’s all about this locker room and myself and being comfortable in my role.”
Raymond can relate to what Seider’s gone through adjusting to the league. He was drafted fourth overall in 2020 and was in the Calder conversation with Seider thanks to his 57-point rookie season in 2021-22. Raymond’s sophomore year was, like Seider’s, less productive (45 points in 74 games) and forced Raymond to challenge himself in new ways before this season started.
“Developing physically was big,” he said. “I think that’s a part of what’s changed for me. And mentally as well. I’m trying to mature on and off the ice and I feel a big difference in that area from this year compared to last year. My focus is on playing within my game every night and trusting that it will help the team win. I think it’s just about doing the right things and playing at a high pace.”
When it comes to relaxing off the ice, Raymond often turns to Larkin for company. The 21-year-old relishes time spent with his frequent linemate, partaking in “classic stuff” like going to dinners that fostered a strong alliance between them.
“There’s a lot of things [I admire] about him,” Raymond said. “The way he carries himself off the ice, he’s a good friend of mine; he’s helped me out a lot. And on the ice, obviously just watch the guy play. We have a good time together.”
Raymond adds Larkin might even be underrated as a goal scorer given his abilities as a playmaking center. That elite level of execution is what DeBrincat believes makes Larkin so potent, and such a desirable linemate. It’s also what’s made losing Larkin from the lineup following a cross-check from Ottawa’s Mathieu Joseph last week all the more difficult for Detroit.
“His game has got a lot of different layers to it,” DeBrincat said. “I think he’s got that speed, but he’s also smart on the ice. He sees the ice so well and can find his teammates and I think that’s maybe something that you don’t necessarily see all the time when you’re on the other team but playing with him every day, it’s been great. He’s very easy to play with. He creates so much space for his linemates by being so fast up the middle. He has a lot of skill with the puck as well. So, it’s been fun.”
IF THERE’S SOMETHING rather Zen about the Red Wings this season, it’s probably coming from Derek Lalonde.
The first-time NHL head coach was hired by Yzerman before the 2022-23 season to reinvigorate the team after Blashill’s seven-year stint finished with six consecutive missed playoff appearances. Lalonde didn’t manage to get Detroit back in the postseason immediately, but he has planted the seeds to help the Red Wings get there now.
“He’s been great,” DeBrincat said. “He’s really calm behind the bench and keeps that calm, that quiet, confident attitude, throughout the team and throughout the game. We’ve had a couple of third period comebacks [this season] and I think that starts with him not panicking and being that calm presence for us. He definitely preaches work ethic and just doing the little things and knowing that will allow us to win games.”
The messaging appears to have sunk in. Detroit’s lapses haven’t snowballed under Lalonde’s watch this time. Past the quarter mark of the regular season, that’s landed Detroit firmly in playoff position.
It’s a good start, to be sure. But Lalonde’s also clearly excited about what more Detroit can give, especially after Kane gets up to speed. The mix of young talent with NHL experience in the Red Wings’ ranks delights him, and Lalonde wants to make the most of its potential.
“I like new faces; there’s an energy to it,” he said. “[Other teams] within our division have drafted longer and higher than us and done a really good job with that, and we’ve had to build a little bit from the outside. I think Steve [Yzerman’s] done a really good job with that. He’s got the right pieces. Some guys are maybe within their career, [they’re] hungry, and trying to help us build something. I’m excited; I like getting faces and new personalities in the room.”
If the combination is right then the Red Wings can keep rising — and, to Lalonde’s eye, perhaps prove a few critics wrong in the process.
“We’re ecstatic [with where we’re at],” he said. “I don’t think many people saw us being in this position at the beginning of the year, which is understandable. But it’s just the quarter mark, and we got there through doing some things the right way. And we’ll have to continue to do that.”
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
The committee has released its second crack at the top 25, and it’s (almost) all Big Ten at the top.
That might seem a bit strange to the conference that boasts the most playoff-caliber teams and the most nonconference wins against other Power 4 leagues, and also has Paul Finebaum there to remind everyone just how angry they should be at this affront to good judgment.
With that, we’ll handle much of Finebaum’s homework for him. Here’s this week’s Anger Index.
1. The SEC
Eleven weeks into the 2024 season, and one thing seems abundantly clear: The SEC is the best conference in college football. Take a look at Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings, for example, where nine of the top 17 teams are from the SEC. Or use ESPN’s FPI metric, where the SEC has spots 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9. Consider that the team currently ninth in the SEC standings, South Carolina, has three wins over SP+ top-40 teams and losses to the committee’s No. 10 and 22 teams by a combined total of five points.
Yes, the SEC’s dominance and depth seem obvious.
So, of course, four of the top five teams in the committee’s rankings this week are from the SEC.
Wait, no, sorry about that. We’re getting late word here that, in fact, it’s the Big Ten with teams No. 1, 2, 4 and 5 in this week’s rankings.
It’s not that those four Big Ten teams aren’t any good. Oregon (No. 1) has chewed up and spit out nearly all comers this season. Ohio State (No. 2) is the best squad the gross domestic product of Estonia can buy. Penn State (No. 4), well, the Nittany Lions still haven’t beaten Ohio State, but we assume the rest of the résumé is OK. Indiana (No. 5) is blowing the doors off people.
But that’s it. The rest of the Big Ten is a mess. You need a magnifying glass to find Michigan‘s QB production. Iowa finally learned how to score and somehow has gotten worse. Minnesota looked like the next-best team in the conference, and the Gophers have losses to North Carolina and Rutgers.
A lack of depth does not inherently mean the teams at the top are not elite. Indeed, the other teams in any conference remain independent variables when addressing the ceiling for any one team. If the Kansas City Chiefs joined the Sun Belt, Patrick Mahomes would still be a magician and Andy Reid would still be saying “Bundle-a-rooskie-doo” in your nightmares.
But the cold, hard facts are these: Indiana’s best win came last week against Michigan (No. 40 in SP+) by 3. Penn State’s best win (by SP+) came by 3 against a below-.500 USC team that just benched its QB. Ohio State is absolutely elite on paper, but on the field, the Buckeyes’ success is entirely buoyed by a 20-13 win at Penn State, a team we also know very little about.
The SEC gets flack for boasting of its greatness routinely, and to be sure, that narrative has often bolstered less-than-elite teams. But this year, every reasonable metric suggests the SEC’s production actually matches its ego, and when Ole Miss (No. 11), Georgia (No. 12), Alabama (No. 10) and Texas A&M (No. 15) — all with two losses — are dogged as a result of playing in a league where every other team warrants a spot in the top 25, it undermines the entire point of having a committee that can use its judgment rather than simply look at the standings.
Let’s compare two teams with blind résumés.
Team A: 8-1 record, No. 14 in ESPN’s strength of record. Best win came vs. SP+ No. 20, loss came to a top-10 team by 3. Has four wins vs. Power 4 teams with a winning record, by an average of 14 points.
Team B: 8-1 record, No. 11 in ESPN’s strength of record. Best win came vs. SP+ No. 28, loss came to a top-15 team by 15. Has one win vs. a Power 4 team with a winning record, by 3.
So, which team has the better résumé?
This shouldn’t take too long to figure out. Team A looks better by almost every metric, right?
Well, Team A is SMU, who checks in at No. 14 in this week’s ranking.
Team B, though? That’d be the Mustangs’ old friends from the Southwest Conference, the Texas Longhorns. Texas checks in at No. 3.
Perhaps you’ve watched enough of both Texas and SMU to think the eye test favors the Longhorns. That’s fair. But should the eye test account for 11 spots in the rankings? At some point, the results have to matter more.
Or, perhaps it’s the brand that matters to the committee. If that same résumé belonged to a school that hadn’t just bought its way into the Power 4 this year, it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t be in the top 10 with ease.
Let’s dig into three different teams still hoping for a playoff bid, even if the odds are against them at this point.
Team A: 7-2, 1 win over SP+ top 40. No. 28 in ESPN’s strength of record. Losses by a combined 18 points.
Team B: 7-2, 1 win over SP+ top 40. No. 25 in ESPN’s strength of record. Losses by a combined 13 points.
Team C: 7-2, no wins over SP+ top 40. No. 24 in ESPN’s strength of record. Losses by a combined 21 points.
You could split hairs here, but the bottom line is none has a particularly compelling résumé, and they’re all pretty similar.
So, who are they?
Team B is Iowa State, which plummeted from the rankings after losing two straight. But the committee isn’t supposed to care when you lost your games. Losing in September is not better than losing in November. At least that’s what they say.
Team A is Arizona State. Its 10-point loss to Cincinnati came without starting QB Sam Leavitt and was due, at least in part, to a kicking game so traumatic head coach Kenny Dillingham held an open tryout afterward. The Sun Devils and Cyclones are two of three two-loss Power 4 teams unranked this week (alongside Pitt), but unlike Iowa State and Pitt, Arizona State isn’t coming off back-to-back losses. The Sun Devils’ absence seems entirely correlated to the fact that no one believed this team would be any good entering the season, and so few people have looked closely enough to change their minds that the committee feels comfortable ignoring them.
The team the committee can’t ignore, however, is Team C. That would be Colorado. Coach Prime has convinced the world the Buffaloes are for real, even if nothing on their résumé — a No. 77 strength of schedule, worse than 7-2 Western Kentucky‘s — suggests that’s anything close to a certainty.
The Big 12 remains wide open, but it’s to the committee’s detriment that it has so eagerly dismissed two of the better teams just because they’re not as fun to talk about.
Has Missouri played with fire this year? You betcha. Just last week, the Tigers were on the verge of falling to Oklahoma before the Sooners’ woeful QB situation reared its ugly head again and the game ended in a 30-23 Tigers win.
But here’s the thing about playing with fire: So long as you don’t turn your living room into an inferno, it’s actually pretty impressive.
Missouri is 7-2 with wins against SP+ Nos. 26 and 28, and its only losses are to the committee’s No. 10 and No. 15 teams. SP+ has Missouri at No. 17, though we can chalk that up to Connelly’s hometown bias. But No. 23? After a top-10 season in 2023, don’t the Tigers deserve a little benefit of the doubt? They currently trail three three-loss teams (Louisville, South Carolina and LSU) and are behind Boise State, Colorado, Washington State and Clemson, who, combined, have exactly one win over SP+ top-40 teams.
There’s a good chance that, should Brady Cook not return to the lineup, Missouri will get waxed at South Carolina on Saturday, and then the argument is moot. But the committee isn’t supposed to look ahead and take guesses at what it believes might happen (Florida State’s snub last year notwithstanding). It’s supposed to judge based on what’s on the books so far, and putting Missouri this far down the rankings seems more than a tad harsh.
The committee threw a nice bone to the non-Power 4 schools this week, with four teams ranked, including No. 25 Tulane Green Wave. That seems deserved, given Tulane’s recent run. But what is it, exactly, that puts the Green Wave ahead of UNLV?
UNLV has the No. 31 strength of record. Tulane is No. 32.
UNLV has the No. 98 strength of schedule played. Tulane is No. 96.
Tulane has a one-possession loss to a top-20 team. UNLV has a one-possession loss to a top-20 team.
The key difference between the two is UNLV has wins against two Power 4 opponents — Houston and Kansas. Houston, by the way, just knocked off Kansas State, a team that beat Tulane.
So perhaps the committee should spread a bit more love outside the Power 4.
Also Angry: Pittsburgh Panthers (7-2, unranked), Duke Blue Devils (7-3, unranked), Georgia Bulldogs (7-2, No. 12), Utah Utes AD Mark Harlan (the Utes would be ranked if Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark hadn’t rigged the system!) and UConn Huskies (7-3, unranked and thus prohibiting us from Jim Mora Jr. giving a “You wanna talk about playoffs?!?” rant).
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
Oregon remained No. 1 in the second rankings released by the College Football Playoff selection committee on Tuesday night.
The Ducks, who cruised past Maryland 39-18 last week to improve to 10-0, were followed by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana.
BYU, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia round out the committee’s top 12.
Miami’s first loss of the season, 28-23 at Georgia Tech, and Georgia’s second defeat, 28-10 at Ole Miss, shook up the committee’s rankings. The Hurricanes fell five spots to No. 9, while the Bulldogs dropped nine spots to No. 12.
Using the current rankings, Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), BYU (Big 12) and Miami (ACC) would be the four highest-rated conference champions and would receive first-round byes in the 12-team playoff.
Boise State is No. 13 in the committee’s rankings, but the Broncos would be included in the 12-team playoff as the fifth-highest-rated conference champion from the Mountain West.
The first-round matchups would look like this: No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Ohio State; No. 11 Ole Miss at No. 6 Penn State, No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Indiana; and No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Tennessee.
Although Georgia, which captured two of the past three CFP national championships, is ranked No. 12 in the committee’s rankings, the Bulldogs would be the first team left out of the 12-team playoff.
SMU is No. 14, followed by Texas A&M, Kansas State, Colorado, Washington State, Louisville and Clemson.
South Carolina, LSU, Missouri, Army and Tulane close out the top 25.
The updated College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings 🏆 pic.twitter.com/ymA9wlI1dB
— ESPN (@espn) November 13, 2024
The Gamecocks and Green Wave made their CFP rankings debuts this season, replacing Iowa State and Pittsburgh, who were Nos. 17 and 18 last week, respectively.
There were nine SEC teams included in the committee’s rankings, four each from the ACC and Big Ten and three from the Big 12.
Georgia, which also fell 41-34 at Alabama on Sept. 28, plays what might be a CFP elimination game against Tennessee at Sanford Stadium on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET/ABC, ESPN+). Georgia is 14-3 after a loss under coach Kirby Smart, bouncing back after each of its previous eight defeats. The Bulldogs haven’t lost back-to-back games in the regular season since 2016, Smart’s first season coaching his alma mater.
Georgia has defeated Tennessee in seven of its past eight contests, including a 38-10 win on the road last season.
Asked about the CFP implications of the game on Monday, Smart said his team had to solely focus on beating the Volunteers.
“I don’t ever take those approaches,” Smart said. “I don’t think they’re the right way to go about things. I think you’re trying to win your conference all the time, and to do that you’ve got to win your games at home. You’ve got to play well on the road, which we have and haven’t. We’ve done both, but I like making it about who we play and how we play, and less about just outcomes.”
BYU survived a 22-21 scare at Utah last week. With Miami’s loss, the Cougars jumped the Hurricane as the third-highest-rated conference champion. BYU hosts Kansas on Saturday, followed by a road game at Arizona State on Nov. 23 and home game against Houston the next week. According to ESPN Analytics, BYU is the heavy favorite (92%) to earn a spot in the Big 12 title game and also win it (40%).
Army would be the next-highest-rated conference champion behind Boise State, one spot ahead of fellow AAC program Tulane. The Black Knights improved to 9-0 with last week’s 14-3 victory at North Texas. They’ll have their best chance to make a statement to the selection committee in their next game, against Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in New York on Nov. 23.
The four first-round games will be played at the home campus of the higher-seeded teams on Dec. 20 and 21. The four quarterfinal games will be staged at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl presented by Prudential and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
The two semifinal games will take place at the Capital One Orange Bowl and Goodyear Cotton Bowl on Jan. 9 and 10.
The CFP National Championship presented by AT&T is scheduled for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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