Red Wings are in good shape at the Olympic break
It’s been 10 years since the Detroit Red Wings qualified for the National Hockey League playoffs. But 2025-26 could be the season they end that drought.
The Wings have won 33 of 58 games this season, putting them among the top five teams in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Eight teams from each conference will qualify for the postseason.
As a player, Steve Yzerman captained the Wings to three Stanley Cups. Since becoming general manager in 2019, he has struggled to build a consistent winner.
Before the season, Yzerman signed free agent goaltender John Gibson. The 12-year veteran had played his entire career with the Anaheim Ducks before coming to Detroit.
The results were disastrous at first. Gibson gave up five goals in his first game against the Montreal Canadiens. Head coach Todd McLellan pulled him out of the net in the second period. Gibson allowed four or more goals in eight of his first 14 games.
Detroit Free Press sportswriter Helene St. James says Gibson has settled down since then.
“The goaltending has been tremendous,” she says. “Ever since he found his groove, they’ve had a chance to win every single night.”
Gibson has not allowed more than four goals in any game since Dec. 2, 2025 and has collected four shutouts.
Credit the coach, too
St. James also credits McLellan for the Wings’ success so far. Yzerman hired McLellan during the 2024-25 season after firing Derek Lalonde. She says McLellan has made the team tougher.

“Not just physical toughness, but mental toughness,” St. James says. “That has made all the difference.”
While the Wings look like a playoff team, they have shown some cracks heading into the Winter Olympics in Italy. They have lost five of their last seven games, including a 5-0 drubbing by the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 31 at Little Caesars Arena. Two days later, the Wings beat the Avs 2-0 in Denver.
St. James says Yzerman could trade younger prospects or draft picks to get a top forward or defenseman. But she cautions they won’t become a Stanley Cup contender just by adding one player.
“They do not want a rental,” she says. “They don’t want to give up a lot of future [talent] just to improve immediately, unless it’s a player who’s going to stick around.”
The Wings were interested in getting former University of Michigan star Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks, but Hughes’s agent indicated he wasn’t willing to sign a long-term contract with Detroit. Yzerman passed and the Canucks ended up trading Hughes to the Minnesota Wild in December.
Avoid deja vu
Most of Detroit’s players will have a chance to rest during the Olympics. Three of their stars will compete for their countries in Italy, including Dylan Larkin (USA), Lucas Raymond (Sweden), and Moritz Seider (Germany).
Larkin and Raymond played in the Four Nations tournament in 2025. St. James says both players struggled when they returned to the Wings, who lost 15 of their final 24 games and missed the playoffs.
She says the Wings don’t want that to happen again.
“Every one of those [Olympic] games is basically a [playoff] game seven,” she says. “You’re asking them to fly across the Atlantic and play a lot of games in a short amount of time.”
Canada is favored to win the gold medal in Italy. St. James says losing could also take an emotional toll on the players.
Fans will find out when the Wings return to NHL action against the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 26.
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