Red Wings Offseason Review 2022 - Part 1

Red Wings Offseason Review 2022 - Part 1
Pre-Draft

The Detroit Red Wings went into this offseason with a number of challenges to tackle and a clear objective: do what it takes to turn this team into a playoff winner. With the team coming off three straight 1^st round playoff defeats, there were bound to be changes coming.

The first challenge facing the team to start the summer: a tough choice between coaches. Farm Head Coach Darryl Sutter was offered a Head Coach position with another club, and Detroit was given the option to match. Of course, doing so would require firing Jared Bednar. Sutter looked to be an elite coach for 2022-23, but the incumbent Bednar had done quite well in his first season behind the bench and showed elite potential.

In the end, GM Evans made the call to stick with Bednar, and end a vicious cycle of 4 coaches in 4 years in Detroit - Quenneville, Montgomery, Cassidy, and Bednar. Lane Lambert was hired by Grand Rapids to replace Sutter.

The next issue, and possibly the most impactful to the team’s 22-23 fortunes was goaltending. Binnington and Hart were both looking more like backup goalies this season and Binnington was owed a hefty 5M for two more seasons. Fans were speculating that the team would look to trade Binnington in a deal for a better starter.

As it turns out, GM Evans was able to do exactly that and even added a 3^rd line forward. Binnington, Lucas Carlsson, Nico Sturm, and top prospect Matthew Coronato were traded to New Jersey for Tristan Jarry and Frederick Gaudreau.
GM Evans: “It hurt to give up Coronato so soon after drafting him 13^th overall, but this deal was a great fit and we feel Jarry can be a top tier starter for this season and hopefully long term.”

The third challenge facing GM Evans was a quintet of top UFA’s-to-be in Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, Blake Wheeler, Jeff Carter, and Ondrej Palat. GM Evans was determined to sign one player and turn the rest into assets of some sort without letting anyone walk for nothing. When the dust settled, the UFA rights to Palat, Kane, Wheeler, and Carter were traded away, and eventually, toward the start of UFA period, Ryan O’Reilly was re-signed for 4 years at 7M… and then promptly traded away.

The UFA rights to Palat were shipped off to New Jersey for 2024 NJD 3^rd round pick and pending UFA Cole Cassels, Wheeler was sent to San Jose for 2023 SJS 3^rd and 2023 SJS 4^th round picks. Evander Kane’s UFA rights were traded in a blockbuster deal along with top prospect Nils Lundkvist for top pair defenseman Brent Burns, 2022 BOS 3^rd round pick, and 2023 BOS 5^th round pick. Lastly, Carter’s rights were traded to Buffalo along with DET 2024 6^th round pick for 2023 NJD 5^th.

GM Evans: “I hate to see quality players walk, so I was happy to turn this group of talented players into Brent Burns and add a few extra draft picks. Some teams definitely got strong players on the cheap – Wheeler, Kane, Palat, and Carter will be all be missed. Burns and Freddy Gaudreau were top UFA targets for us last season. I wasn’t impressed when neither signed with us and they landed on bottom feeders for a couple hundred k extra, but we were able to right those wrongs with a couple trades. Burns should be our #1 Dman this season.”

The fourth item on GM Evans’ off-season list was re-signing the team’s many RFA’s. Tristan Jarry, Elias Lindholm, Miro Heiskanen, Ryan Hartman, Ryan Lindgren, Alexandre Carrier, and Carter Hart all needed new contracts – quite a tall order.

Some of the negotiations went to the 11^th hour, but deals were struck with everyone. Jarry got 4 years at 5.85M, Lindholm got 4 years at 8M, Heiskanen got 4 years at 6.45M, Hartman got 2 years at 4M, Lindgren got 3 years at 2.65M, Carrier got 2 years at 2.5M, and Hart got 1 year at 2.25M. Minor leaguers Austin Strand, Alex Green, Cole Smith, Ryan Shea, Brandon Biro, and Zach Sawchenko were retained and nine others did not receive qualifying offers.

After getting contracts out of the way, for the moment, GM Evans was able to swing a characteristic blockbuster trade and add a few draft picks in a couple smaller trades in preparation for draft season.

The blockbuster deal saw Thomas Chabot and minor leaguer Logan Day shipped to the Big Apple in exchange for star C Mika Zibanejad plus NYR 2022 6^th round pick.

GM Evans: “It’s tough to move a top young defenseman like Thomas but you have to give up something that hurts to add a star player like Mika. I think it’s key that our team has a strong C playing behind McDavid as well as an elite winger playing with him.”

After completing the previously mentioned Burns deal, which added a 3^rd round pick, the Red Wings struck four more draft day deals to add extra picks.

Prospects Adam Beckman, Tyler Madden, and Zayde Wisdom were traded to Carolina for 2022 STL 2^nd, 2022 CAR 3^rd, 2022 MTL 3^rd, and 2023 CAR 4^th round picks. Not long after, the 2022 STL 2^nd (61^st overall) and 2023 CAR 4^th round picks were flipped to LA for 2022 NJD 2^nd (39^th overall). Next, bubble forward Matt Luff and 2022 NYR 6^th were sent to Boston for 2023 BOS 4^th. Lastly, minor leaguer Sean Malone, CAR 2022 3^rd, 2023 BOS 5^th, and a conditional 2024 5^th round pick were sent to Vegas for 2022 CAR 2^nd (60^th overall).

The main result of all this draft day dealing: GM Evans and his scouting team no longer had to wait around until the 78^th pick to add a prospect, they now had three picks (39^th, 60^th, and 65^th) preceding it, though the team still lacked a 1^st round draft pick. This would make 2022 the third draft in GM Evans’ tenure without a 1st round selection, joining 2016 and 2018.

Red Wings 2022 Draft Selections:
Round 1: No selections
Round 2: Mattias Havelid, Julian Lutz
Round 3: Ben Meyers, Alexander Perevalov, Jordan Dumais
Round 4: Adam Ingram, Dmitry Rashevsky, Tyler Brennan
Round 5: Alexander Suzdalev, Cruz Lucius
Round 6: Gannon Laroque, Albert Sjoberg

The Red Wings ended up making twelve selections, headed by Mattias Havelid at 39 overall. Four of these - Meyers, Rashevsky, Laroque, and Sjoberg - were overage players.

GM Evans was reached for comment at his post-draft press conference: “This was a bit of a weird draft for us, with 12 selections and no 1^st rounder, but I like what we added. Mattias Havelid is a guy we had ranked borderline round 1. He has a cannon of a shot but he’s a smaller defenseman. We took a few guys - Lutz, Perevalov, Ingram, and Suzdalev – that our organization didn’t know much about. They were all fallers, we felt they were good value plays where they were taken, but these aren’t guys our scouts had circled ahead of the draft.

“Meyers could be a player for us as early as next season since he’s already 23. Dumais, Brennan, and Cruz Lucius were all top targets for us in the later rounds and we expect all to trend sharply upwards this year in their D+1 seasons. Rashevsky, Laroque, and Albert Sjoberg are all overage players that our scouts like, especially Rashesvsky. Overall, I think we added a few future NHLers. I’m not sure we added a true impact player, but a few guys have a chance to be that – keep an eye on Dumais.”

-Detroit Free Press
November 21^st, 2022