Every season is a new opportunity. For a team like the Detroit Red Wings, a new season represents a new opportunity to end their playoff drought and bring postseason hockey to Little Caesars Arena for the first time. For specific players, a new season can be an opportunity to earn a raise on their next contract, an opportunity to claim a bigger role on the team, or just about anything in between.
The Red Wings will have several players looking to prove something during the 2025-26 season. Some will look to prove they belong in the NHL while others will look to prove they belong on a Stanley Cup contender. From the front office all the way down to the team’s spare skaters, these folks are facing questions they hope to answer this season.
Jonatan Berggren
This one seems fairly obvious. Not only did Jonatan Berggren re-sign with the Red Wings on a one-year deal, meaning he is playing for his next contract, but the 24-year-old winger literally referred to it as a “prove-it” deal in a recent interview.
“This one-year deal is a prove-it-deal for me. I want to show what I can do,” Berggren said. He also mentioned how he received more opportunity from head coach Todd McLellan once the veteran coach took over in late December, and that he likes the way he and the team played in the second half of the season.
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Berggren, a second round pick back in the 2018 draft, has shown flashes of promise throughout his time in the Red Wings organziation. He set the franchise record for rookie scoring for the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, during the 2021-22 season, and he has 58 points in 159 NHL contests. He spent time on the Red Wings’ first line late last season and did not look out of place.
Depending on how the 2025-26 season goes, Berggren could be in line for a nice raise with the Red Wings or another “prove-it” contract with another organization.
John Gibson
John Gibson projects to be the Red Wings’ most significant addition this season – or so the Red Wings and their fans hope.
A veteran of over 500 games in the NHL, Gibson built up a reputation as one of the league’s premier goaltenders shortly after claiming the starting role for the Anaheim Ducks in 2016. From the 2015-16 campaign through the end of the 2018-19 season, he won 103 games, collected 16 shutouts, led the Ducks to the conference finals in 2017, and never finished a season with a save-percentage (SV%) lower than .917.
Prior to last season, the 2018-19 season was the last time Gibson posted a SV% higher than .904. It is still the last time he recorded 25 or more victories, though the lackluster state of the Ducks’ roster is perhaps the biggest cause of that. Regardless, he hasn’t been a top-tier starter in the NHL in quite some time, and last season’s resurgence was over a 29-game workload – to put that into persepctive, Alex Lyon appeared in 30 games for the Red Wings last season.
Gibson’s request for a fresh start goes back to the summer of 2023, with two seasons having gone by since then. This is the opportunity he has patiently waited for. He has the opportunity to help catapult the Red Wings into the playoffs by providing the caliber of goaltending Detroit has not seen in quite some time. He hasn’t done it in a while, but he aims to prove he still can this season.
Steve Yzerman
There isn’t a player or coach in the Red Wings organization that has been talked about as much as general manager (GM) Steve Yzerman. Hired in the Spring of 2019, he enters his seventh season in the role without a single playoff game to show for it. While there are many that still believe in his process, there is no mistaking the hunger for change building up within the fanbase.
A popular storyline this summer has been the Red Wings’ inactivity during free agency and the days leading up to it. Some perceive the organization’s conservative approach to mean that they aren’t serious about reaching the postseason in their centennial season. No matter how valid Yzerman’s explanations were, fans look to the success aggressive teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers have enjoyed and can’t help but to feel like he isn’t doing enough to move the Red Wings forward.
To his credit, Yzerman remains steadfast in his plan to build the Red Wings up through drafting and developing. Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond are stars at their respective positions, and Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper could obtain star status this season as well. There are around half a dozen prospects that should push for NHL minutes this season, and Yzerman’s roster remains flexible enough to make way for them when they arrive. The 2025-26 season feels like it could be the one where Yzerman’s prospects really start to take over the roster.
If the Red Wings’ youth propels them forward in a meaningful way this season, it will vindicate Yzerman in a way Seider’s Calder Trophy or the team’s near-miss in 2024 could not. However, if you think fans are getting impatient now, just wait and see what will happen if the Red Wings regress this season….
Who do you think has something to prove this season? Let us know in the comments section below!
