It appears that for the first time under Steve Yzerman the Red Wings will be trade deadline buyers. They have earned the right to bolster their roster with 70 points through 55 games and a firm grip on a playoff spot.
"I think we're a better hockey club (than last season), just flat out," Todd McLellan said Friday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Our roster is a little bit better than it was last year. We’re getting some better goaltending than we had last year, but overall starting in training camp we talked about getting physically and mentally stronger and we’ve really pounded that day after day into the players and I think they’re starting to believe in it, especially between the ears. I think that we stick with things a little bit longer, a little more resilient. We believe we have a chance right to the bitter end, as we did last night. And I give the players credit for that, they’ve responded well."
The Wings fell to the Capitals 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night, but rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final two minutes to salvage a point. They haven't lost back to back games in regulation since November. Their 19-6-4 record since December is the second best in the NHL. Only the Sabres, of all teams, have been better over that stretch, the only club with a longer active playoff drought than Detroit.
Detroit's nine-year famine is a franchise worst, the last six of those seasons on Yzerman's watch. The Wings have been in position to snap it in years past, only to fall apart in March after basically sitting out the deadline. It led to a public clash, of sorts, at the end of last season when captain Dylan Larkin lamented the club's lack of moves after another extended losing skid sank the Wings' playoff hopes and Yzerman responded by calling on "our best players, our leaders" to provide the boost Larkin was looking for elsewhere.
"That’s what they’re paid for and that’s the expectation for them," Yzerman said.
At the same time, it's the responsibility of the GM to fortify his roster where it's weak when it looks capable of a playoff push.
"We have done enough to be buyers," McLellan said, "but it’s never that easy. It’s simple to sit back at home and say, ‘Well, they gotta go get this guy, that guy and that guy.’ The store has to be open, the shopkeeper has to be willing, and he has to have some reasonable prices or nobody's purchasing anything. It’s no different than any human being going to the mall or to a (dealership). You’re not going to overpay three times the amount of what that car or item might be worth."
The Red Wings clearly need another top-four defenseman on the right side, which has been on Yzerman's shopping list since at least last offseason, and ideally another top-six forward with some hard, heavy scoring ability. Detroit's best forwards are too often pushed to the perimeter, as evidenced by their 3-1 loss to the Kings on Tuesday, which will be a problem in the playoffs should the team get there.
The trade deadline isn't until March 6, but an NHL roster freeze goes into effect during the Olympic break starting Feb. 4. That leaves just seven games for the Red Wings between now and the deadline. While the left side of the blue line is a weakness at the moment, Simon Edvinsson's expected return after the break should remedy that.
"I know Steve’s going to do everything he can to look at the market and he’s listening right now," McLellan said. "We like the chemistry we have with our team right now and that always has to be considered, but not just at the trade deadline, he’s always looking to improve the team any way that he can."
Yzerman remains leery of trading future assets for rentals at this point in the Red Wings' rise. They aren't one move away from being serious Cup contenders. But there are players signed beyond this season that look like fits for Detroit, including right-shot defensemen Dougie Hamilton of the Devils and Justin Faulk of the Blues and forwards Vincent Trochek of the Rangers, Blake Coleman of the Flames and maybe even Elias Pettersson of the Canucks.
"I think we have put ourself in a position to maybe go and get some players and try to be a team that’s a buyer at the deadline," Patrick Kane said last week. "I’m sure whatever moves we make, we’ll be excited about them, if there are any. We still are very confident with the group we have in here going up against anybody."
The Red Wings are third in the East and 11 points clear of the playoff cutline entering play Friday night. But March looms. "We’re definitely aware of what’s gone on in the past," said McLellan. The Wings had a four-point cushion on a playoff spot last year before a six-game slide, an eight-point cushion the year prior before a seven-game slide, and were firmly in the race the year before that before a six-game slide.
"We experienced that last year a little bit in our short time here, said McLellan. "But that’s why we started training camp (this year) the way that we did. That mental fortitude, that resilience that we wanted to build up and talk about, it started day one in training camp before we even put the equipment on. We've tried to push the players. We’ve tried to make them comfortably uncomfortable, in any situation we can, just for that.
"There’s no guarantee that that’s going to work for us this year, but we’ve tried to push as much as we can and to this point they’ve indicated to us, or shown us as a coaching staff, that they’re prepared to deal with it."
The next move is Yzerman's.