Thee Official 2025-2026 Detroit Red Wings Thread: Everywhere I look it's a darkness

[Grand Moff Larkin]

J. T. Compher: C
A slight downturn in production from last year (32 points down to 28), with less responsibility for much of the year aside from when Larkin and Copp were out. Overpaid for a bottom-six player, but I’m not expecting more at this point. He centered a hodge-podge of wingers and scored more even-strength goals than a lot of the team and was pretty good on the PK. I can’t help but picture him on the ice during a few late game collapses. He somehow still has two years left.

Marco Kasper: C-
After Finnie made the team and took the top-line spot with Larkin and Raymond, the hope was that Kasper could carry the third line. That did not happen. 19 points, only five of which came before January, after he nearly hit 40 last season despite starting off with a similar drought. He led the team in hits so he’s playing hard, but there just isn’t confidence or swagger in the offensive zone. Maybe he has to be a top-six winger?

Michael Rasmussen: D+
There’s the idea of Rasmussen—a big-bodied defensive forward who can chip in some points—and the reality: 64 games, 14 points (a career low for a full season), only 64 hits (Kasper had 186!), and 46.2% at faceoffs. He’s got two more years at 3.2 and maybe some other team looks at the idea and thinks “That’s an upgrade for our bottom six.” And who knows? Maybe he’ll fit better somewhere else and it’ll work. But aside from some usefulness on the PK and end-game lead protection, he doesn’t currently bring much that will be missed.

Mason Appleton: D
I was optimistic on Appleton back in October, when he had six points in twelve games, and looked like a viable bottom-six contributor. But after five points in his 19 games in November and December, he had zero points in his next 19 games (and three in 15 games in March / April before leaving the lineup with another injury). It’s possible that the injury he suffered in December hadn’t fully healed, but when Todd McLelland talks about guys just being jerseys, he’s the first one that comes to mind.

Nate Danielson: C+
He made the team out of camp and stayed up for 28 games, managing seven points. He probably would’ve gotten a second stint if he’d been healthy when Larkin and Copp went down. The amount of NHL roster time seemed correct: he didn’t look out of his element on the Wings, but he was mostly treading water by the end, and playing around ten minutes a night. He’s smart, he’s fast, and he makes the right plays, but similar to Marco Kasper, there are valid questions about how much offense to expect moving forward. I think he’s on Detroit for the entirety of next season and takes a step forward, but I also though Kasper would get 60 points this year.

Jonatan Berggren: C
Had six points in fifteen games before getting waived and landing in St. Louis, where he started off hot and ended with sixteen points in 35 games. Was Berggren worse this year than previous years in Detroit? No. But it became clear that he wasn’t going to get any stronger. He’s essentially the reverse David Perron: incredibly easy to knock off the puck along the wall, but quick and smart in open space. I liked him as a dude and will miss his appearances on Jumbotron Q&As.

John Leonard: B-
The rare AHL call-up who actually produced a bit (four points in eleven games), the difference between Leonard and Jonatan Berggren was smaller than I anticipated. Both are undersized, offensively inclined wingers who get bodied off the puck in the corners. By the end of his initial stint in Detroit (mostly spelling Patrick Kane), some mental errors were popping up in Leonard’s game, but he’s still on the better end of the AAAA scorer call-ups.

[Grand Moff Larkin]

David Perron: C-
They reacquired Perron to add some veteran experience and scoring to the bottom six, and the latter didn’t quite come through. Three goals, no assists in sixteen games is almost the same as Dominik Shine’s stat sheet, but Shine’s a career AHLer and Perron is a wily vet. He’s a little bit slower but overall the same guy: incredible at puck protection along the boards and prone to dumb offensive zone penalties. For what ended up being a fourth-round pick, it’s not a terrible swing, but I was hoping for more.

Dominik Shine: C+
Shine proved me wrong by getting three goals in eighteen games this year, but he’s still a better story than an impactful fourth-line contributor. There’s no questioning his heart or his commitment, which is more than I can say for some of his teammates, but there’s a ceiling on what he can do skill-wise at the NHL level. Eighteen games is too many.

Elmer Soderblom: C-
I can’t fault Yzerman for trading Soderblom, because despite all of the flashes of both offensive confidence and physical engagement, he wasn’t putting in a consistent, predictable performance or appearing on the score sheet (3 points in 39 games in Detroit). But in Pittsburgh he has 10 points in 20 games! Is that a fault of the Wings’ system? Of Soderblom’s deployment? A credit to Dan Muse? I don’t know, but it’s frustrating, and he’s not the only guy to succeed after leaving Detroit (Tarasenko with 47 points in Minnesota).

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard: C+
Only one assist in fourteen games, but aside from tailing off a touch before being sent down in October, looked very much physically ready to be an NHL player. He threw a lot of hits, so even when the offense wasn’t popping, he was contributing. I do think his shot and instincts will get him points in the future, but the ceiling is unclear.

Sheldon Dries: C
When all of the centers got hurt, AAAA guy Sheldon Dries got to play for his childhood team. Good for him. Ideally either Nate Danielson or Amadeus Lombardi would’ve been healthy enough to take that spot, and maybe they would’ve contributed something offensively. But Dries was committed defensively and didn’t embarrass himself.

Carter Mazur: C-
The good news is that Mazur made it through eight games without suffering a season-ending injury. The bad news is that seven of those games were losses, Mazur didn’t get a point, and most importantly, he seemed physically tentative instead of an unchained bulldog.