Red Wings may need to get creative as quiet July 1 leaves key needs unfilled

Weve long known this NHL free-agent market wasnt deep.

In recent weeks, it thinned out even more.

And by the time free agency actually opened Tuesday at noon, it was practically barren.

Thats the best explanation for why the Detroit Red Wings were so quiet on July 1, signing veteran left winger James van Riemsdyk and depth defender Jacob Bernard-Docker to a pair of one-year deals, and adding some AHL talent, but at least as of now leaving their biggest needs unfilled.

Advertisement Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman knew something like this was possible in a year where very few needle-movers actually made it to the open market.

He said after the draft he would keep trying to upgrade the team after making a trade for goaltender John Gibson , but acknowledged it was possible the team would have to rely mainly on internal growth for improvement in 2025-26 if he wasnt able to swing more deals.

The first avenue for that was free agency, which dried up fast with the Florida Panthers retaining all of Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad; the Canucks keeping Brock Boeser; and Mitch Marner being traded (with a contract extension) to Vegas.

After all that, there turned out to really only be two impact players actually available on July 1.

One, Vladislav Gavrikov, quickly signed with the New York Rangers .

The other, Nikolaj Ehlers, remains out there with as much leverage as he could possibly hold, and whats sure to be a lengthy line of suitors.

In a rising-cap landscape, the leagues contenders and heavyweights were largely able to keep the players that made them great.

They were also able to jump to the front of the line on those that shook loose elsewhere like Marner going to the already-loaded Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade, or Gavrikov going to the Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes subsequently trading for KAndre Miller in the immediate aftermath.

If free agency is at least in theory an opportunity for talent to be redistributed around the league, that was not the case this year.

In that light, coming up empty Tuesday cant be that shocking for a Red Wings team that is not a premier destination after nine years outside the playoffs.

Detroit can sell history and tradition.

It cannot sell contention.

And in a world where everyone has money, it cant just sell big checks, either.

Advertisement That hints at a vicious cycle, from which its easy to wonder how a team like Detroit is supposed to emerge and become a contender (and thus a destination) if it cant improve via free agency.

Half of that answer is what the Red Wings have already been trying: drafting and developing.

The other half is what they now have no choice but to do to fill their remaining needs: get creative with a trade.

In Gibson, Detroit got around a barren free-agent goalie market by trading for a proven starter with real upside even if he also has some question marks.

But the Red Wings still could really use a top-four defenseman and a top-line left wing, and barring a stunning push for Ehlers, a trade now looks like their only path.

The trade market, of course, has started to thin out as well.

Miller was arguably the best possible fit for Detroit due to his age and profile.

Vegas Nic Hague looked like a good candidate, too, before he was dealt to Nashville ahead of the Marner trade.

The pipe-dream option, Noah Dobson, already moved as well , going from the New York Islanders to Montreal.

There arent many obvious names that remain, especially on defense.

Calgarys Rasmus Andersson and Buffalos Bowen Byram are the two clear impact defensemen still thought to be in play .

Both come with their own challenges.

Can Detroit find an offer Buffalo will accept, as a team also looking to improve now? Would it be able to get Andersson (set to be a UFA one year from now) to extend? Up front, there are perhaps more plausible targets, such as Pittsburghs Bryan Rust, Dallas Jason Robertson or Nashvilles Jonathan Marchessault, whose first year with the Predators was a rocky one for the team.

But whether its those players or someone else, whats become clear is that the simplest avenues are no longer available if, frankly, they were ever available, for a team that increasingly feels stuck.

Advertisement Yzermans point, when he spoke over the weekend of promotions from within driving growth and potential steps from Marco Kasper, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson, was that Detroit may still be able to improve next season without major splashes.

And that is possible, especially considering how the Red Wings played under new head coach Todd McLellan after a midseason swap.

Kasper and Johansson, in particular, really took steps in the second half of the season, and Edvinsson was already looking like a top-four stalwart.

Gibson, too, raises the teams theoretical ceiling if hes healthy and on his game.

But thats only one potential outcome, and it leaves plenty to hope.

And thats not a comfortable place to be for a franchise that has spent this long outside the playoffs.

The Red Wings best player, Dylan Larkin, is soon to be 29.

Their top goal scorer, Alex DeBrincat, is two years from unrestricted free agency.

Their biggest source of star power, Patrick Kane, is 36 and already on his third consecutive one-year deal .

Detroit was never likely to be a Stanley Cup contender in 2025-26, and theres no doubting the scale of the turnaround job Yzerman signed up for.

But for a team with those key pillars in those circumstances, every year outside the playoffs at this point is a wasted opportunity.

And while van Riemsdyk is a nice addition as a veteran scorer (whose 16 goals last season would have ranked sixth on the Red Wings), and Gibson certainly an upgrade on the teams talent in goal, Detroits path to the postseason still hasnt gotten much clearer than what it was at the beginning of the summer.

After a couple of hit-and-miss offseasons in 2022 and 2023 as the team started to try to compete, Yzerman does seem to have drawn a line and avoided any albatross contracts this time around.

Thats something.

But the broader goals and needs of this offseason still hang in the balance.

Can Yzerman get creative and find a way to solve them? Or will the ominous internal-improvement fallback plan be all that remains? Thats the question Detroit is left with, after a July 1 that didnt move the needle.

(Top photo of Steve Yzerman: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images).

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