Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

On Their Way Up

09/30/2022 at 8:25am EDT

from Greg Wyshynski of ESPN,

Here's a look at the most likely candidates to miss the playoffs -- and the most likely to leap into those open spots -- in each division for the 2022-23 season.

Most likely to leap: Detroit Red Wings
The Ottawa Senators were like a child banging on the kitchen pots with a wooden spoon this offseason, demanding attention as they acquired Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat. Hence, they've gotten the lion's share of the attention among the division's cellar dwellers and have become the hipster pick to challenge for a playoff seed.

Detroit GM Steve Yzerman doesn't roll like that. He's not out to make splashes. He wants to bide his time until it's time to strike. Last season saw Moritz Seider win the Calder Trophy and Lucas Raymond produce as a rookie forward. The offseason saw the Red Wings add a slew of veterans -- Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, Dominik Kubalik, Olli Maatta and most intriguingly David Perron -- as well as goalie Ville Husso to pair with Alex Nedeljkovic. He brought on Jon Cooper's assistant Derek Lalonde from the Lightning as the new head coach.

Perhaps this was all an attempt to push the Red Wings up the standings before they're ready. Or, perhaps, this was Yzerman sticking his finger in the air to sense where the wind was blowing for his team, and getting accordingly aggressive in the offseason.

I'm going with the latter, and looking for Detroit to motor up the standings this season, potentially even to a playoff seed.

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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