The 2022 offseason was a busy one for the Detroit Red Wings as tons of changes were made to the roster. Familiar faces bid their goodbyes and plenty of new ones said hello to the winged wheel. Changes were needed in order to hopefully ice a competitive team come the start of the regular season and Steve Yzerman did not disappoint. He has made many great moves and decisions during his tenure as the Red Wings general manager (GM), but these recent signings may be some of the best yet.
Today, my linemate Devin Little and I will be ranking the new Red Wings additions based on how effective they have been for the team thus far. Spoiler alert: great minds think alike and that may show throughout our rankings.
Delaney Rimer: Husso Leads the Way
1. Husso
2. Kubalik
3. Perron
4. Määttä
5. Chiarot
6. Copp
Ville Husso lands at the top of my rankings for a few different reasons. The first being that the Red Wings were in dire need of a reliable, consistent goaltender. He brings a certain level of peace of mind to the ice when he is in goal. The defense also seems to play better in front of him as compared to Alex Nedeljkovic and it has been showing in the stats. So far, Husso has recorded three shutout performances in just 15 games played and has earned the starter’s role fair and square. Needless to say, he’s been the backbone of the Red Wings on numerous occasions and has done great at filling his role on the team.
Dominik Kubalik and David Perron have a similar role for this Red Wings team as they have both brought a very important thing to the table: goal scoring. These two have combined for a total of 15 goals and 23 assists with Kubalik having the majority of both. The Red Wings needed players who could just shoot the puck with purpose or were simply smart, tactical shooters. The more players like that on a roster, the greater the chances for success and it’s shown tremendously through this first stretch of the season.
Related: Red Wings’ Kubalik Production Is Here to Stay
Olli Määttä and Ben Chiarot have been huge additions to the blue line. Both have brought much-needed and desired attributes to the Red Wings’ defensive zone and have actually been productive offensively as well. As of late, all of the blueliners have been tremendous in the offensive zone and Määttä and Chiarot both have tallied up some goals. Andrew Copp is finally starting to show up a bit more on the stats sheet after a slow start to his season with nine points in the last 12 games. It’s still very early, so it’s hard to gauge what the impact of each of these players will be once the season comes to an end. All in all, the new additions are proving to be improvements so far; most of which were very good deals as well.
Devin Little: Husso, Hands Down
1. Husso
2. Kubalik
3. Määttä
4. Perron
5. Chiarot
6. Copp
I believe that goaltending is the most important position in hockey – especially if you’re used to getting bad goaltending. Though he has had a couple stinkers along the way, Husso has been a revelation for the Red Wings this season. He already has three shutouts on the season, and the calming effect he has on the team when he’s in net is obvious to anyone who watches. This is not meant as a slight towards Nedeljkovic, but I’m sure Red Wings fans don’t care to think about where their team would be if it weren’t for Husso.
As for the rest of the new additions, Kubalik sure seems to have recaptured the magic that made him a Calder Trophy finalist back in 2020. He and Dylan Larkin continue to jockey for the team lead in goals and points, and it’s exciting to see him unload his shot whenever he gets the opportunity. GM Yzerman seems to have struck gold here. I also believe that Määttä is a key reason why Filip Hronek has looked the best he has in years; I am genuinely surprised by how well Määttä has fit in in Detroit as I initially thought he was going to be nothing more than a fill-in until the trade deadline.
Perron, Chiarot, and Copp have all had their moments to start this season. Perron has been a key contributor on the power play, and there’s little doubt that his veteran leadership is a valued asset to this team. The same goes for Chiarot, as his physical edge on the blue line has been a treat to watch. Copp has been a light disappointment to start this season, but I attribute a lot of that to the fact he missed all of training camp and the preseason due to his offseason surgery. With 11 points in 21 games, including four points in his last five games, it’s good to see that he’s finally finding his way into the box score.
Takeaways
There is one new addition who has yet to make his debut as a Red Wing and that would be defenseman Mark Pysyk. It was announced in July that he would be out 4-6 months due to a torn Achilles tendon before having even taken the ice with his new team. Recently, there have been some speculations of him re-injuring that surgically repaired tendon and further setting back his return to action. He’s in Detroit on a one-year contract, so there might be a slim chance that he doesn’t see game action as a Red Wing this season if he did in fact re-injure his Achilles.
As Devin and I concluded, all these new additions have been remarkably impactful for the Red Wings so far. This is the best start to a season the Red Wings have had in quite some time now and each and every new name on the roster deserves some credit. Players such as Husso and Kubalik have made their arrival loud and clear and others such as Copp have been more under the radar, but they all have contributed plenty to the success seen up to this point.
It’s cliche to say that “something is better than nothing”, especially regarding the success of a team, but the busy 2022 offseason paved the way for many improvements so far. Adding talent to both the offensive and defensive lines while bringing in that talent on mostly reasonable contracts was exactly what was needed for the Red Wings. Needless to say, sometimes change is for the better and in this case, it certainly was.
