Steve Yzerman's hopes for 2024-25 Detroit Red Wings: 'Actually getting into the playoffs'

Steve Yzerman broke from his breakdown of the Detroit Red Wings' 2023-24 season and cast his memory back to how it was when he entered the NHL as a player back in 1983.

"I long for the 21-team league, where 16 of us were making the playoffs and everyone was saying the system was a joke," he said a few days after the Wings just missed out on the playoffs, their drought growing to eight years, the last five with Yzerman as general manager. "Everybody makes the playoffs."

It's much tougher now with 32 teams, a salary cap, and a draft lottery, but after missing out because of a tiebreaker, Yzerman spoke of how that impacts the outlook for next season.

"Expectations are raised I think for some individuals," Yzerman said. "For our team, we had 91 points, 41 wins. That’s tough to do and we still (missed) the playoffs. We’re probably going to have to get more than 91 points next year to get in, and that will be a challenge for us. But the overall growth of our young players, I see that as progressing, and I hope that translates into more wins for next year and actually getting into the playoffs."

STEVE YZERMAN: 'Incredibly exciting season' reflects well on Detroit Red Wings as a whole

Yzerman made significant changes after the 2022-23 Wings finished with 35 victories and 80 points, adding new players at every position. The result was a season highlighted by a 20-point January and seven points the last four games, and undermined by a seven-game skid in March.

"I think we competed hard, there was a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of determination among the players," Yzerman said. "The most important thing is, from my vantage point, I feel our players are motivated, our players are determined. There’s a good atmosphere within the locker room, and part of that is the coaching staff helps foster that or create that.

"So I am happy with the direction we’re going, the coaching we have. Ultimately we have to become a better defensive hockey team, and it’s the fundamentals of defending, and I’m counting on our coaching staff to work with our players and our players be determined to do that."

Coach Derek Lalonde spoke multiple times over the past few weeks of the need for reflection once the season ended. Friday, three days after the Wings were eliminated, he elaborated on that.

"You look at the black-and-white improvement, we improved 11 points," Lalonde said. "You can also look at it as black and white that we missed the playoffs. I think our guys are finding out it’s still about keeping it out of our net. We scored a ton more goals this year, we went from 26th to 13th in goals-for. Those goals helped us. But when you want to keep pushing and you hope to get over that line, I still think it’s how you play team defense and keeping it out of your net.

"A positive underlying (number) with our defense, grade-A chances against, which we kind of live on as coaches — we were 18th in the league a year ago, and we were 15th in the league this year with grade-A chances against. So, some positives, but obviously not good enough. I’m sitting here talking to you instead of preparing for the Rangers."

Yzerman is preparing for another busy offseason, starting with getting restricted free agents Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider under contract. Given their importance, and given Raymond's emergence as a clutch scorer down the stretch, both project to get the maximum eight-year deals. Once their salary cap numbers are established — combined that's likely to be in the $16-17 million range — Yzerman can circle back on the pending unrestricted free agents he has an interest in keeping, which starts with Patrick Kane, David Perron and Shayne Gostisbehere. Kane has all but said he's going to test free agency – but so might the Wings.

As it stands now, two of the biggest names expected to be available July 1 are Steven Stamkos, a 34-year-old standout forward Yzerman knows well from their days with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and forward Sam Reinhart, a 28-year-old coming off a 57-goal season.

Internally, Simon Edvinsson earned a spot in next year's starting lineup with his performance after being called up in March. Forward Jonatan Berggren and Albert Johansson (a second-round pick from 2019) are no longer waiver-exempt and will start the season on the roster.

"We as a staff have to make some decisions with our roster, whether we make changes, whether it’s with younger players coming up," Yzerman said. "Hopefully we’ll find out next year that the decisions were good. I have to try to improve our team in any way I can."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. 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: Steve Yzerman: Detroit Red Wings raised playoff expectations