- Detroit has missed the playoffs 10 straight years, the longest active drought in the NHL
- Steve Yzerman is gone and Dylan Larkin’s trade request is still unresolved
- Read below for what Keegan Kolesar and Viktor Arvidsson make of their new team
The Red Wings are walking into 2026-27 without a general manager and without an answer on their captain.
NHL.com’s 32-in-32 series reached Detroit on Monday, and Nicholas J. Cotsonika laid out a franchise at a crossroads.
Ten straight seasons without a playoff game is the longest drought in Detroit’s 100-year history and the longest active one in the league.
Steve Yzerman moved into a senior adviser role under owner Chris Ilitch on July 15, with the club still hunting for its next leader of hockey operations. Larkin asked out shortly after the season ended.
Detroit did patch two holes before any of the front office stuff got sorted. Viktor Arvidsson signed a two-year, $10 million contract on July 1, and Keegan Kolesar arrived from Vegas in a trade the same day.
Both additions aim at the same weaknesses. The Red Wings ranked 30th in 5-on-5 goals with 142 and 29th in hits with 1,480.
Kolesar was asked what he sees in his new group.
“I think they’re going in a great direction. They have a lot of young studs who I have felt that have been good for a number of years and are tough to play against. I just want to bring whatever I can to (build) more of an identity for the team.”
Kolesar landed 270 hits last season, seventh in the NHL. Arvidsson brings the scoring half, coming off 54 points (25 goals, 29 assists) in 69 games with Boston and a reunion with Todd McLellan, his coach in Los Angeles from 2021-24.
Take a look at what the Swede brings to the top six:
Arvidsson talked about what the roster still has to clean up.
“Great ‘D’ corps, first of all, and a lot of speed and skill up front. I think you need to mesh that together and maybe be more consistent and stuff like that, because that’s what this League is about.”
Consistency is the whole ballgame for the young core. Marco Kasper slid from 37 points to 19 in his third season, and Lucas Raymond has gone 31, 27 and 25 goals over the last three years.
Moritz Seider gave them one piece of good news last week, sneaking back onto NHL Network’s top 20 defensemen list.
Everything else waits on Larkin. He put up 67 points (34 goals, 33 assists) in 74 games and has five years left on an eight-year, $69.9 million deal, plus a no-trade clause and a short list of teams he would go to.
Detroit went 41-31-10 for 92 points last season, the best mark of the Yzerman era, and still finished outside the bracket. Whoever takes the chair inherits that math.
