Will Red Wings' Inability To W...

The Detroit Red Wings earned a much-needed victory Saturday night against a very good Toronto Maple Leafs team, but if we’re looking at the macro picture for the Wings, they’ve won just two times in their past eight games. Detroit indeed is only four standings points away from the fifth spot in the Atlantic Division, but it’s also true that the Red Wings are just two points ahead of the seventh-place Buffalo Sabres, and they’re only three points ahead of eighth-place Montreal.

With that, you can see why Wings GM Steve Yzerman is at a crossroads of sorts with his team. Missing the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season would be an abject failure for Yzerman, but making a desperate push for the post-season and winding up in the mushy middle of the Atlantic – too good to land a top draft pick next summer, and too bad to make the playoffs – would not cut it either.

With that said, what’s next for this Detroit team? Are they going to be buyers or sellers at the March 7 trade deadline? Let’s take a look at Yzerman’s options.

For starters, you always have to look at a team’s looming UFAs to see who could be dealt for draft picks and prospects. And when it comes to the Red Wings’ UFAs, there are a few notable candidates to be placed on the trade block. Most noteworthy is star right winger Patrick Kane, who has a salary cap hit of $4 million (all financial information via Puck Pedia), Kane currently has three goals and 11 points in 25 games – not exactly the level he’s performed at during his Hockey Hall-of-Fame career, but on a better team than Detroit, Kane could ratchet up his play. Kane also has a no-trade clause, but the 36-year-old may welcome a trade to a true Stanley Cup contender.

Meanwhile, the Wings also have a pending UFA in 29-year-old center Tyler Motte, who has a cap hit of only $800,000, making him a bargain depth acquisition for a Cup contender. And on Detroit’s back end, veteran defenseman Jeff Petry and goalies Ville Husso and Alex Lyon are all looming UFAs. Now, it’s not like Yzerman will be able to squeeze out first-round draft picks or above-average prospects for any of the aforementioned players, who are, for the most part, rental players. But if Detroit is going to try to build for the future, Yzerman needs to move out many, if not all of them.

Some might make the argument Yzerman needs to be a buyer, but Detroit has only $2.74 million in cap space – not nearly enough to acquire a needle-mover or difference-maker. However, maybe Yzerman decides it’s finally time to truly shake things up with his organization and trade a player or two who still have term on their current contracts while trying to add pieces that will play this season and beyond for Detroit.

Maybe that’s right winger Vladimir Tarasenko, or defenseman Ben Chiarot, both of whom have another year left on their contracts after this one. Tarasenko has a no-move clause, while Chiarot has a modified no–trade clause, so they’d get some say in where Yzerman could move them. But another year on a sub-par Wings team may not be palatable for either or both players.

Yzerman has many options to try and better his team in the long haul. But after so many years of failure, people are rightfully starting to question Yzerman’s blueprint for success. Unless Detroit goes on a rampage and climbs up the Atlantic standings, they’re going to be a massive letdown of a team yet again. And that’s why the Red Wings need to show some type of improvement, either in the long or short term. But it says here they need to be sellers in the upcoming weeks and months because this Wings team is simply not good enough to double down on.

The Red Wings are in the midst of another terrible season, and they need to disassemble their group as much as possible because they’ve shown they’re unable to ride with the big dogs of the league. One win over the Leafs isn’t nearly enough to dig them out of the hole they’re in, and stringing together four or five wins in a row is highly unlikely. Detroit desperately needs improvement, but if it doesn’t come quickly, the Wings should be making significant moves to alter the makeup of their team. Does that include firing coach Derek Lalonde? Yes, it almost assuredly does. But the cuts have to go much deeper than that.

There’s no question Detroit isn’t a legitimate Cup contender, and now it’s on Yzerman to once again make changes to improve his team over the long haul. The status quo is not an option for this once-outstanding franchise, and if they do stumble the rest of the way this season, it's on Yzerman and Wings ownership to make major moves.