Detroit Red Wings know they're nobody's favorite to make the playoffs — except their own

Their division is loaded; their conference, stacked; their attitude, indefatigable.

Reality, as coach Derek Lalonde puts it, may not favor the Detroit Red Wings breaking a seven-year spell and bringing playoff hockey back to the Original Six franchise, but determination and depth may overcome a dreary outlook. Over the past seven months, general manager Steve Yzerman has engineered changes that have made the Wings deeper and more experienced at every position, and that has strengthened confidence among players.

"I feel like we should enjoy the journey, wherever it takes us," goaltender Ville Husso said. "At the end of the day it’s all about us and what we believe in this room.

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"We don’t really care what anybody else says. I think the biggest thing for us is just go game by game. We can’t think what’s going to happen in April or May, we have to go game by game and enjoy it. But I do think we have a good chance to make the playoffs."

Lalonde had a succinct take: "I don’t know if we’re a playoff team, but we’re going to have a heck of a lot of fun finding out."

A quick recap of all the remodeling

The Wings have a very different look coming into this season (right down to the new carpet in their locker room at Little Caesars Arena). Going back to last season's trade deadline, the departures include defenseman Filip Hronek and forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Jakub Vrana and Oskar Sundqvist, all of whom were flipped for draft picks. Forwards Adam Erne and Pius Suter and defenseman Jordan Oesterle were among those not re-signed and forward Dominik Kubalik was shipped out in an offseason trade. When Yzerman was unable to accommodate Filip Zadina's request to be traded, the sides agreed to contract termination.

That's the exit list. The incoming list is even longer: Forwards J.T. Compher, Alex DeBrincat, Christian Fischer, Klim Kostin and Daniel Sprong; defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl and Jeff Petry; and goaltenders Alex Lyon and James Reimer.

"We have more depth and leadership at each position," captain Dylan Larkin said. "We don’t really have, right now, many rookies, young players. We have guys that are established. With the trade deadline last year, it seemed like we were going to continue to get younger, but we brought in a lot of guys that are late-20s and guys that have been around and played a lot of hockey games. We have everything, in my opinion."

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Why they really may have fun

Yzerman addressed the need to score more goals, and then some. There's two-time 40-goal scorer DeBrincat on the top line, potentially with Larkin and either Lucas Raymond or David Perron. Sprong adds scoring punch to the third line. However Lalonde shapes his lines — and they're likely to be fairly fluid depending on game situations — it's no longer a matter of only needing to sht down Larkin's line to neutralize the Wings. Now there's enough skill to assemble three lines that can score — and when the inevitable injury occurs, there are skilled forwards, including Jonatan Berggren, Amadeus Lombardi and Cross Hanas, waiting in the minors.

"I think our depth is maybe overlooked a little bit," DeBrincat said. "We have four good lines, seven good defensemen — any of them can play top minutes, and our goalies look good, too. We’re very happy with our team in here."

On the back end, Gostisbehere and Petry — who had 72 points combined last season — join Moritz Seider and Jake Walman in being dynamic with the puck. Olli Määtta, for that matter, had 23 points in 78 games last season, a .29 points-per-game average that matched Walman's. In Seider, Walman, Petry, Ben Chiarot, Gostisbehere, Määttä and Holl, the Wings have seven experienced defensemen — and then there's Simon Edvinsson, the 2021 first-round pick whose exhibition performances (three points in five games) instilled confidence in a potential call-up from the minors should help be needed.

"When you have depth all over the team, it breeds competition and pushes people to perform at their best all the time," Chiarot said. "It’s a sign of a good team when you have that kind of competition at every position."

Then there are the net gains. No one expected Alex Nedeljkovic to struggle like he did last year, which undermined what looked like a good tandem with Husso when the season began. The Wings brought in Magnus Hellberg, but he let in too many soft goals. They learned a lesson from that, and come into this season with the room to carry three goaltenders: Husso, plus newcomers Lyon and Reimer.

"That burned us last year," Lalonde said. "We overplayed Ville because he gave us our best chance to win. As much as we addressed the depth at the other positions, we also did in goal. We are very comfortable with all three."

Why the fun may not last

It only took two games last season for the Wings to lose their best goal scorers, as Bertuzzi and Vrana were sidelined. Health levels all playing fields.

Even if the Wings enjoy good health, they may find themselves coming up short when the playoff markers emerge. The Atlantic Division is loaded with skilled teams, making a top-three finish a challenge. The Toronto Maple Leafs look like a playoff team, with their core supplemented by the signings of Bertuzzi, Max Domi and John Klingberg. In Boston, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have retired, but the Bruins still look formidable. So do the Florida Panthers, last season's surprise Eastern Conference champ. The Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators are ahead of the Wings in their rebuilds, thanks to having had some luck in the draft lottery. (The Sabres got to pick first twice and select defensemen Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power; the Senators drafted Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle ahead of the Wings' picks.) In Tampa, superstar goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to be sidelined at least two months after undergoing back surgery, which could scuttle the Lightning, but all in all, it's a crowded field of competitors within the division, and it is the Wings' task to show they belong.

"Our room is well aware what everyone thinks of us, but us as players, we realize what we have in here," Gostisbehere said. "Our thing isn’t just to make the playoffs, but to take it day by day and play every game like it’s our last. We know we have to take a step forward every day."

Add in the Metropolitan Division, and the East is stacked. The New Jersey Devils (the Wings' opponent in their season opener), Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers project to finish in the top three spots, with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals still providing a push, even as their core has aged, along with the New York Islanders.

A slow start to the season, or any extended slumping along the way, will sabotage what the Wings are trying to accomplish.

"We don’t want to take any games off," Seider said. "I think we showed that even last year, when we were down, we would have given up in years prior but we found ways to come back — not necessarily win, but we definitely showed character and built from there. This year we are ready to build on that.

"We feel great. We have a really good team spirit right now. I think we’re really happy about our team. We are in a good spot and are really excited to get started."

Finding out what they have

The Wings worked their way to seven games above .500 in late February — enough to enjoy a brief respite inside the playoff picture. Getting to that point and staying there, will be how this season is judged.

"We want to push for it, we want to be in the fight," Lalonde said. "We want those meaningful games late, which we flirted with a little bit, and take that next step. You kind of kick yourself a little last year in that the magic number was 92 [points], whereas the previous year it was 100. With this division, we will be beating up on each other, so you’re hoping that’s within a reach, and a goal as late as possible."

The Wings play 10 games between Oct. 12-30, and another five the first 11 days of November, before heading to Stockholm, Sweden, to play the Maple Leafs twice, their only action in a 10-day period. Where the Wings are in the standing when they head overseas will stand as an early benchmark for finding out who they are.

"All the questions that we have are going to be answered pretty soon," Larkin said. "We get to play meaningful games — the start of the season is always energetic, and chaotic a little bit. Everyone is excited. The guys in this group, we know what our focus is, and that’s to get off to a great start and put ourselves in a good spot before we go over to Sweden."

Players such as DeBrincat say they've noticed, "an excitement, an energy, around the city," as the Wings head into the 2023-24 season. It is borne from a makeover that has rendered the Wings stronger and deeper — and perhaps able to withstand the challenges of the regular season and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

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Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings out to prove they're a playoff team in 2023-24