The Red Wings have to wait a big longer than most, but the NHL is back. The season kicked off Wednesday night, and Detroit will get things rolling Saturday night in Nashville before coming home Sunday night to face the Stars.
It's year three of the team's rebuild and year one of the Steve Yzerman era. Optimism is high, but patience will have to be higher. Yzerman made that very clear at his introductory press conference in April. The Wings are moving in the right direction, but they remain at least a couple years away from where they want to go.
Detroit isn't expected to compete for a playoff spot this season. The East is too deep, and this team is too thin. Until the talent on the farm, including five of the organization's last six first-round picks, graduates to the NHL, the Wings will remain where they've been the last three years. On the outside looking in.
Still, it's an important season in the trajectory of the franchise. With a new voice at the top, everyone below gets to make a new first impression -- from the head coach and the captain in waiting to the rookies and the draft picks who have just arrived. Progress is essential. Yzerman's presence, and his reputation as a shrewd, calculated GM, will loom over this team every step of the way.
To say the Wings will be mediocre this season is not to stay they will be boring. Here are five key questions that will be answered in the months ahead.
1. Does Yzerman Keep Blashill?
Only three NHL coaches have been with their team longer than Jeff Blashill has been with the Wings. And those three coaches -- Jon Cooper of the Lightning, Peter Laviolette of the Predators and Paul Maurice of the Jets -- have a combined nine playoff appearances since Blashill was hired in 2015. Blashill has one. He walked into a tough situation, for sure, but that leash only extends so long. At some point, possibly as soon as this year, Blashill needs to start winning.
Look, Yzerman has given no indication that Blashill is on the hot seat. He committed to keeping him as soon as he was hired, and he's only had good things to say about him since. But the two-year extension Blashill received at the end of last season didn't come from Yzerman. Blashill needs to prove to his new GM that he's the right man for the job, primarily by continuing to nurture Detroit's young players. And it's fair to expect the team to win a few more games this year after two straight seasons of less than 75 points.
If development stalls and the Wings wind up yet again in the basement, Blashill's job will be very much in danger.
2. Can Larkin Be A Superstar?
Larkin took a huge jump two years ago. He took another last year. The biggest one comes next, and Larkin's ability to rise to the challenge is a crucial factor in Detroit's future. Every NHL team wants to build around a superstar at center. Larkin, at age 23, has a chance to be that for the Red Wings.
How does he get there? For one, Larkin needs to provide more offense -- and that won't be easy on a team without a ton of offensive talent. But great players, elite players, make those around them better. Larkin's 73 points last season, a career high, ranked 24th in the league among centers. 80 points would have placed him among the top 15; 85 would have placed him among the top 10. That's where Larkin needs to aim in his fifth season, because it's where the Wings need him to be moving forward.
Here's the other thing about Larkin's 2018-19 season. He garnered Selke Trophy votes as the league's best defensive forward for the first time in his career. For a player whose two-way game was in question just a couple years ago, that's a big deal. And it puts Larkin in more exclusive company at his position. If you limit last year's top-scoring centers to those who received Selke consideration, Larkin rises to 12th. He might not be a household name yet, but he's knocking on the door of superstardom. This would be a good time to let himself in.
3. Will Zadina Arrive?
Let's point this out at the top: Filip Zadina is still 19 years old. Know how many sub-20-year-olds played at least 10 games in the NHL last season? 10. Know how many scored at least 10 goals? Five. There is plenty of time for Zadina to live up to the hype he arrived with when the Wings drafted him sixth overall in 2018.
That said, his first pro season wasn't the greatest of starts. Zadina scored in spurts last year in the AHL, and for longer stretches of time went missing. He finished with 16 goals and 35 points in 59 games, and was merely OK in his nine-game cameo in the NHL. Entering training camp this year, Zadina was expected to push hard for a spot on the Red Wings roster. There was a path for him to play on the second or third line. So it was a letdown when Zadina went scoreless in five preseason games and was sent down to Grand Rapids last week.
"Had he come in and played unbelievable, similar to what Larks did in training camp (in 2015), he would've made the team. But he didn't," Blashill said Thursday on 97.1 The Ticket. "He played fine, and there's nothing wrong at his age with the way he played, but now why potentially put him in a position to fail and just crush his confidence and all of a sudden he's two years behind? Confidence is a huge thing, so let's get him back in the American League and let's get him playing at a high level."
Blashill and the Wings want to see Zadina "dominate" the AHL before they call him up for good. It's on Zadina to do that this year, to leave no doubt that he's ready to bring his goal-scoring talent to the NHL. His shot could play here right now. His feel for the game probably could, too. The rest of his game, namely his strength and decisiveness on the puck, needs to catch up. The Red Wings would like to see that happen this season.
4. Will Mantha, Athanasiou Stay?
When the Wings open the season Saturday night, Anthony Mantha will be on the first line. Andreas Athanasiou, health willing, will be the motor of the second. The pair, which combined for 55 goals last season, is very much part of the picture right now.
But the picture isn't as clear moving forward. Both Mantha and Athanasiou are entering the final year of the bridge contracts they signed last summer. They're set to be restricted free agents again next summer. Raises will be due, assuming they continue to progress, and the money might get complicated for the Wings. The discussion is further clouded by the questions they've invited in terms of effort and consistency, though they put some of those to rest last season. While Tyler Bertuzzi feels like a sure piece of the future, at least as long as Blashill is around, it's hard to say the same yet about Mantha and Athanasiou.
Detroit has a slew of young forwards nearing the NHL, and there won't be room for everyone. The pipeline is pretty dry by comparison on the blueline. If Yzerman wants to address this imbalance on the trade market, Mantha and/or Athanasiou could be his best bargaining chips. This season is critical for them both. It's not a stretch to say their futures with the Red Wings hang in the balance.
5. How Good Is Hronek?
Remember that trade Ken Holland made with the Coyotes at the 2016 draft to shed Pavel Datsyuk's cap hit, the one that cost Detroit a shot at defenseman Jakob Chychrun? That same trade afforded the Wings a second pick in the second round, which they used to take Filip Hronek -- who just might be a star.
Hronek wasn't supposed to be the young defenseman to storm onto the scene for the Wings last season. That was supposed to be Dennis Cholowski, and for a month or so it was. But Cholowski ran into a wall after his strong start, and the rest of the year belonged to Hronek. He rose to the occasion following a call-up in February and stood out especially down the stretch. Most importantly, Hronek, always known for his offense, answered Blashill's challenge to improve in his own zone. And he finished the year with 23 points in 46 games, third to only Rasmus Dahlin and Quinn Hughes among rookie defensemen in points per game.
Hronek, 21, enters this season entrenched in Detroit's top four, with a chance to earn top-pair minutes. His continued development is essential for an organization that needs to identify a No. 1 defenseman moving forward, the complement on the blueline to Dylan Larkin. That might wind up being Moritz Seider in the end, but Hronek has thrown his name into the conversation. Just how good can he be? We'll get a good idea in the months ahead.
