The Red Wings are still a very long way from being a playoff team and in this year’s divisional format should expect to be the group’s punching bag. Maybe the top line makes things interesting every now and then, or the goaltending becomes a surprising force, but a lot of things will need to go right for Detroit to be competitive. Looking at the roster, it’s difficult to see any reasonable ways where that happens. For a team that’s still short valuable cornerstone pieces for the future, another rough season is for the best. At least this time the losses shouldn’t be as embarrassing.

That's Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic (paid). He goes on to tell you why.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

Because of pandemic, the NHL also has a four- to six-man taxi squad that will travel and practice with the team but not count against the 23-man roster.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Wings, and the 30 other NHL teams, use the taxi squad, as no one really knows if there will be an American League season.

In baseball, the sport’s minor leagues never did get up and going.

Hockey’s minor league is a similar gate-driven league, so the longer the pandemic rages, the AHL season could be in doubt.

Players who require waivers when they’re assigned to the AHL also will need to clear waivers to be sent to the taxi squad. That might play into teams’ personnel decisions.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how the Red Wings’ roster coming out of training camp could look:

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