Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
- Last Year’s Finish: 4th
- Key Additions: Kevin Porter
- Key Losses: David Legwand, Todd Bertuzzi, Mikael Samuelsson, Daniel Alfredsson
The Red Wings did very little to improve their roster as the main focus for them was re-signing key players such as Tomas Tatar, Danny Cleary, and Kyle Quincey. Detroit is still waiting for Daniel Alfredsson to decide on whether he will continue his playing career or retire.
Last year Detroit was hit hard by the injury bug. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Jimmy Howard all missed significant time and they still managed to sneak into a wild card spot. This was largely due to the rise of some of the youngsters on the team like Gustav Nyquist, and Tomas Tatar. This season elite prospect Tomas Jurco may get a shot to crack the line-up for Detroit. If Detroit can stay healthy and they can get contributions from their young players they could even jump past the Canadians in my standings. Either way, the Wings should have no problem sliding into at least a wild card spot and continuing their amazing playoff run.