With respect to Vladimir Tarasenko, Tyler Motte, and Erik Gustafsson, if the 2024-25 Red Wings are to improve, it will have to be drive from within, from the development of young players already within the organization, beginning with its two budding stars Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.  It has been a summer of plans fallen though, with the lavish spending of the last two UFA markets replaced by bracing for the impact of the extensions Raymond and Seider have not yet signed.

Tarasenko is a nice fill-in for the combined departures of Daniel Sprong and David Perron.  Motte will help defensively and on the penalty kill.  Gustafsson is a solid facsimile of Shayne Gostisbehere, if a slight downgrade. Cam Talbot will help in net.  However, this was an offseason of preservation and long-term planning.  Unlike the past two seasons, the summer’s additions combined with the lowly terminus of the previous campaign all but assured a jump in the standings before the puck dropped on game one of 82.

That safety net is gone, and to improve on last year’s finish will be to qualify for the playoffs, no small feat in an Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division that will be as hotly competitive as ever.  To do it, the Red Wings will have to pull off a dexterous trick: simultaneously improving defensively and getting younger, two ends thought by conventional NHL wisdom to be at odds.  Nonetheless, it’s a challenge Derek Lalonde is ready to embrace.

After hosting yesterday’s “Street Hocket in the D” event, Lalonde acknowledged the Red Wings’ imperative to tighten up in their own end to climb the standings: “We made strides last year. A lot of it was because we were able to find some goals, but obviously the numbers speak for themselves. We were a top 10 team in goals for, but we were a top 10 team in goals against, so we’d love to improve the goals against. I just feel teams in the end, it all looks the same: they put a premium on keeping the puck out of the net. It’ll be a goal of ours. And we’re gonna need it from everyone.”

At the same time, Lalonde expressed his enthusiasm for a number of the younger players potentially poised to join the Red Wings in the coming season.  He described himself as “very excited about some of our young guys from Grand Rapids that are gonna be pushing,” citing defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson, as well as forwards Jonatan Berggren, Carter Mazur, Nate Danielson, and Marco Kasper.

“You need that push from the bottom,” said Lalonde of the importance of young players to team success.  “There’s something unique about the energy of youth, guys getting their first NHL games, guys competing for spots. There’s a sense of urgency to them. I think you’ll see that in all those guys in camp. I just think it’s healthy.”

At the same time, Berggren’s 2023-24 season is something of a cautionary tale about the perilous combination of youth and defending.  Though veteran scorers in the bottom six like Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong didn’t make it easy to force his way in, Berggren could never hold onto a place in the lineup, because Lalonde never seemed to trust him to defend adequately.

Despite that hold up, Lalonde is optimistic about Berggren’s impact in the coming year, and in fact, where Lalonde wants improvement from Berggren is precisely where he wants it from the collective.  “He’s shown the ability to create offense,” he said of Berggren. “When he’s been with us, he’s created offense. Again, we have a lot of guys with a similar DNA like that…We’re gonna be responsible. We’re gonna ask the whole team to be conscious of that two-way game, without taking away from some of that offense.”

“He did a really good job in a really tough situation last year,” Lalonde continued, in reflection on Berggren.  “I’ll never say anyone’s played themself out of the American Hockey League. It’s just too good of a league, but he’s proven and more has earned this opportunity. Again, he’ll have to show us, and he’ll have to do it in camp, but in my conversations with him, I’m gonna ask everyone a little bit more of the responsible two-way game, without taking away from his offense.”

So, it’s hardly a stretch to say as the Red Wings begin the 2024-25 campaign, their challenge is Berggren’s: internal improvement via defensive tightening.  It won’t be easy, with or without the youthful push Lalonde aspires to.  However, for Lalonde to be assured he will get a fourth season behind the Detroit bench, it’s a trick the Red Wings will likely have to pull off with aplomb, as if Simone Biles landing a vault.