The Detroit Red Wings do not have a first round pick in the 2026 National Hockey League draft. They traded it, along with a third round selection, to the St. Louis Blues for defenseman Justin Faulk in March.

At the time, the Wings were in a good position to reach the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs. They thought adding Faulk would bolster their chances of making the postseason for the first time in almost a decade.

Instead, Detroit collapsed, losing 13 of their last 19 games. The team now has the longest playoff drought in the NHL at 10 seasons.

Besides giving up a first round draft pick, the Wings could lose their team captain this offseason. Dylan Larkin has asked for a trade, preferably to a playoff contender. Larkin has played his entire career in Detroit. But he turns 30 in July and wants to win a Stanley Cup while he can still play at a high level.

Helene St. James covers hockey for the Detroit Free Press. She says Larkin’s desire to leave traces back to the Winter Olympics in February, when he and Team USA won the gold medal.

“I was there covering the team, and I’ve never seen him look happier,” she says. “I think it really hit home to him what he has been missing out on in Detroit.”

Larkin has a no-trade clause but can waive it if General Manager Steve Yzerman finds a team willing to acquire Larkin.

Deal or no deal?

St. James says Yzerman doesn’t have to trade Larkin. If he does, he would want a similar player in return.

“He would need to get an established NHL player in his mid-to late-20s who can play center,” she says. “They really need value players now.”

Larkin listed the Florida Panthers as one of his preferred destinations. They won the Stanley Cup in 2025 but missed the postseason in 2026. And they have already made a big roster move that makes a deal for Larkin unlikely.

Florida acquired Larkin’s Olympics teammate Brady Tkachuk from the Ottawa Senators on June 21. Like Larkin, Tkachuk was a team captain and their statistics are similar. But Tkachuk is three years younger than Larkin. And the Panthers gave up several draft picks, including two first-rounders in this year’s draft.

St. James says trading Larkin for draft picks would set Detroit’s rebuild back by several years.

“Those guys are not going to materialize into NHL contributors for a few years, especially later in the draft,” she says.

A new leader waits in the wings

If Yzerman refuses to make a trade, then it would be up to Larkin to decide if he wants to play in 2026-27 or sit out the season. Either way, Yzerman and head coach Todd McLellan could pick a new captain to replace Larkin.

St. James says defenseman Moritz Seider would likely be that player.

“He has emerged as a leader in every respect, on the ice and off the ice,” she says. “He shows up all the time.”

Seider, 25, captained Germany’s national team in the 2026 Olympics. He was also the first player Yzerman drafted when he became GM in 2019.

Michigan has seen 22 confirmed tornadoes 2026, including three in Metro Detroit.

The National Weather Service has issued more than 50 tornado warnings statewide this year. Joel Fritsma has tracked every one of them online.

Fritsma is the chief meteorologist for Michigan Storm Chasers. The website launched in 2022 and hired Fritsma straight out of Central Michigan University, where he studied meteorology. He says their goal is to fill communication gaps between NWS and the public so people watching online have time to take shelter. 

“Every time there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning in the state, we’d be covering it live,” he says. “Since 2024, we haven’t missed a single warning.”

It’s “go” time

Fristma says he and his team start live streaming as soon as the weather service issues its first warnings for any severe event. And they don’t stop until the last warning comes out.

“Sometimes, it’s upwards of 10 to 11 hours,” he says. “It just depends on how long the storms want to go.”

And it doesn’t matter what time it is. Fritsma was live streaming when a brief tornado hit Lincoln Park between 2 and 3 a.m. on April 15. He doesn’t mind.

“I kind of like taking the night shift,” he says. “We always have at least one person on call throughout the day.”

Fristma says when the weather is fine, he’s still working full-time.

“We’re looking at the forecast multiple days in advance,” he says. “We host live streams prior to an event so that people can ask questions.”

A lot of people tune in

Fritsma says the website’s staff has grown from a handful of people to about 30 since 2022. And he says its audience has grown, too.

“We have over a million followers between all of our platforms,” he says. 

People can watch and interact with the live streams on Facebook and YouTube. And soon, they’ll be able to download a new mobile app.

Fritsma says the app will allow followers to get live streams on their phones and let them report storm damage.

“We have Messenger, we have Discord, there’s so many options,” he says. “And that information will be very crucial when we send it to the National Weather Service.”

The app is set to launch this summer.

Have you ever wondered which communities in Metro Detroit are part of the Downriver area, and how it got that name?

Listener Scott Troia of Ann Arbor wonders.

“I was curious about where the term ‘Downriver’ originated from: Who, when, why they started using it. Is it a geographic boundary, or is it cultural? Who identifies as being from Downriver?”

WDET’s Pat Batcheller does. He was born and raised in Trenton and has lived in Southgate with his wife Amy since 1999. Pat’s happy to answer Scott’s question.

What does “Downriver” mean?

As the name suggests, Downriver refers to those communities on the Detroit River as it flows down into Lake Erie. Humans have lived in the area for thousands of years. The term Downriver is more recent. It appears as two words in a 1917 magazine published by the city of Wyandotte. In 1963, Thomas J. Anderson wrote a book called “The History of Southgate and Downriver”—one word. Today, the term covers a lot more territory than just the riverfront.

Which communities make up Downriver?

That depends on who you ask. Lisa Wayne is the CEO of the Downriver Community Conference. The nonprofit helps people find jobs through the Michigan Works program. It also coordinates grants for its 20 member communities. 

“We serve Allen Park, Brownstown, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Flat Rock, Gibraltar, Grosse Ile, Huron Township, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, River Rouge, Riverview, Rockwood, Romulus, Southgate, Taylor, Trenton, Woodhaven and Wyandotte,” Wayne says.

The DCC started with 11 communities and includes Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. Many consider those cities to be outside of the traditional definition of Downriver. Ron Hinrichs grew up in Dearborn but didn’t consider himself a Downriver resident. 

“I remember someone asking me once, ‘where are you from?'” Hinrichs recalls. “And I said, ‘I’m from Dearborn.’ And they said, ‘oh, so you’re—you’re from Downriver.’ And I said, ‘I’m not from Downriver, I’m from Dearborn.'”

Hinrichs leads the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber, which promotes the Downriver area. He says if you ask ten people where Downriver is, you’ll get ten different answers.

Where does Downriver end?

Downriver does not have defined borders, but most descriptions stop at the Huron River separating Wayne and Monroe counties. That would make Rockwood part of Downriver, but not its next-door neighbor, South Rockwood, a village in Monroe County’s Berlin Township. Stephanie Hawkins is the president of the Berlin Charter Township Historical Society. She says if you ask South Rockwood residents, they’ll say they feel closer to Downriver than Monroe.

“They mentioned that when they want to do something like go shopping, they go north because it is closer than driving all the way down to Monroe,” Hawkins says. “So, I think that’s why you’ll find that the folks who live in the village itself do identify with being Downriver.”

So do people in Taylor, which is not on the Detroit River. Karl Ziomek is Taylor’s communications director and a former journalist at the area’s paper of record, the News-Herald. He recalls newsroom arguments about how far west Downriver reaches.

“And there are a lot of people I think to this day who would believe that Taylor is even stretching it,” Ziomek says. “Certainly, Romulus does. It goes on the other side of Metro Airport, then people start going, ‘well wait a minute, is this really Downriver?”

Pearl Varner laughs at the suggestion that Romulus is part of Downriver because of its distance from the Detroit River. Her family has lived in Romulus for over a century. She runs the city’s historical museum. But Varner says if it brings more visitors to the museum and the downtown area, she’s fine with being considered Downriver.

“You want people to come and see what you’re doing, what your museum is like, what your city is like, what your people are like,” Varner says.

What are people like Downriver?

Each community is unique, but they all share common roots. Many are descendants of European immigrants who worked in factories or started their own businesses. Some settled in Wyandotte, where Ted Butkin has lived his whole life.

“We had a German festival, a Polish festival, a Mexican festival and there was one other that were just huge because everyone was represented in this melting pot of Wyandotte,” Butkin says.

Wyandotte is the second oldest incorporated city in Wayne County, after Detroit. Joe Gruber is the city’s economic development director. He says its vibrant downtown attracts people from Downriver and beyond.

“All of the small business owners and entrepreneurs in our community are really, really engaged and hard working,” Gruber says. “We try to offer a lot of fun quality-of-life events and opportunities for families to come, especially those events that are free.”

Anthony Beitel moved to Wyandotte a couple of years ago. Before that, he had lived in Detroit and the northern suburbs. Beitel says he didn’t know much about Downriver before relocating with his partner, who is from the area. He says he loves how people support the local economy.

“They have this whole ‘Shop The Dotte’ initiative, which is all about promoting small businesses,” Beitel says. “And it’s just really great to see that sense of community and everybody kind of supporting each other and lifting each other up.” 

Industry drove Downriver for decades, for better or worse

Small businesses have always been a vital part of the Downriver economy, but through much of the 20th century, heavy industry was the main source of jobs and tax revenue. It was also a major source of pollution, such as coal dust. Lisa Donovan lives in Brownstown Township but grew up in Wyandotte. She says sometimes when the wind blew, it turned houses black with ash.

“And they would have piles of coal next to the park in Wyandotte that’s on the waterfront, and you’d come home with ash on you.”

More: New book explains how working class shaped Downriver

Because of that, Donovan says some people—mainly outsiders—saw Downriver as a dirty place to live. That reputation lingered long after downturns in the automotive and steel industries forced many factories to close. Business and civic leaders suggested dumping Downriver in favor of something they thought sounded more attractive—Metro Shores. But, unlike coal dust, that name didn’t stick.

People have pride in Downriver, even those who are new to the area

Michael Echols moved from Detroit to Ecorse a couple of years ago. Ecorse started as one of Wayne County’s original townships in 1827. Today, the cities of Ecorse, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, River Rouge, Southgate, and Wyandotte comprise what used to be Ecorse Township.

Echols says Ecorse is a peaceful place.

“It’s a different variety of people down here, but it’s everybody getting on, and that’s the most beautiful part,” he says.

The river itself defines the region

Just a few hundred feet offshore from Ecorse is Mud Island, part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. John Hartig once managed the refuge, which includes Grosse Ile and the entire Michigan shore of Lake Erie. He says it took decades to repair the industrial damage to the environment and restore the river’s natural habitat.

“We’ve seen some dramatic improvements in water quality,” he says. “Bald eagles are back, and peregrine falcons, osprey, lake whitefish, lake sturgeon, river otter and beaver are back.”

Downriver has its own culture

Hartig says the river’s revival is changing perceptions of Downriver, its people, and its culture. Linda Francetich is trying to do the same. 15 years ago, she started a website called Discover Downriver to promote the area’s cultural activities, such as festivals and concerts. Francetich says the area might not have the vibe of Royal Oak or Birmingham, but that’s OK.

“Everyone has their own regional culture,” she says. “But I think Downriver has a very unique culture because of how close everybody is and how supportive everybody is.”

Francetich says Downriver has a lot of musical talent, including bands such as 50 Amp Fuse and the Transit Brothers. Chris French plays trumpet for the Transit Brothers and the Downriver Community Band. He also owns a family law firm and organizes yearly concerts to benefit Downriver veterans. French says the region has a lot to offer, including a variety of real estate.

“You want a farm, we have farms,” he says. “We’ve got water everywhere, so you can buy a house on the water.”

Some of the most impressive homes on the water are on Grosse Ile, which sits in the middle of the Detroit River. Tony Krukowski is the vice president of the Grosse Ile Historical Museum. He says the island’s scenery is a big draw.

“People just love to drive around the island, especially around East River Road and West River Road to take in the natural scene,” he says.

Two bridges connect Grosse Ile to the rest of Downriver.   Listener Scott Troia, who asked the question, says he understands the area better now that we’ve connected the dots for him.

“What are the boundaries of it and do people from different communities actually self-identify with being part of Downriver that might be on some of those fringe cities? You very much covered those topics, really.”

Thanks, Scott. It’s why we’re here. 

WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question about Southeast Michigan’s history or culture? Send it our way at wdet.org/curious or fill out the form below. You ask, we answer.

Metro Detroit’s Downriver area is where heavy industry meets nature, creating a complicated dynamic between the economy and the environment.

Steel mills and other factories that once lined the Detroit River employed thousands of people from River Rouge south to Rockwood. Workers enjoyed the benefits of well-paying manufacturing jobs that bolstered the middle class. But they also recognized the environmental threats those factories posed to the land, the water, and the air around them.

Labor unions and other groups fought to protect the Downriver area’s natural resources and the recreational opportunities they provided.

Michigan State University labor historian Lisa M. Fine has studied the working class’s relationship with the communities where they live. She studied those bonds and wrote a book about them. It’s called “Downriver Detroit: The Working Class, the Environment, and the Bonds of Place.”

WDET’s Pat Batcheller, a Downriver native, spoke with Fine about her research. Here’s a transcript of their conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

Pat Batcheller: Why did you write the book?

Lisa Fine: I cast out to find a place where I could test my theories that working class people cared about not only the natural world around them, but also the community, the region, the place in which they lived. My first scholarly exploration was Pointe Mouillee, the game reserve down there. And it was to my great delight and surprise to find a site Downriver that the people of the region and beyond wanted to preserve once it became available for sale to the state, so that everybody publicly can hunt there for ducks or whatever else they wanted to hunt for.

And to me, that just seemed like a great validation in some ways, or sort of an invitation in many ways, to explore this throughout the entire region. I wanted to uncover the ways in which working class people living in a particular region expressed their identities and their actions through the things that define them by that region.

PB: And what do you think connects people to Downriver?

LF: Since I’m a historian, the first thing that I’ll say is I think it’s history. So for many people, like Native American communities or immigrants, it’s the ways in which the region has become their home, the ways they’ve been able to make a living there, to establish families and communities, and to create a working-class way of life. There’s such a powerful nostalgia that I uncovered.

These things were threatened during the 1960s and 70s because of the kind of employment, because of the kind of life that people could build, because of the place itself. It’s not a place that you would normally associate with natural beauty. But in fact, the people that live there do love the waterfront, and they do love the terrain and the spaces there. People connected to that as well.

PB: You mentioned Pointe Mouillee, which is only a few miles down the river from what used to be heavy industry. You still have Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse. But a couple of steel plants dried up. DTE Energy tore down its coal-fired power plant in Trenton not that long ago. You’ve got this balance that you have to strike between preserving the natural features and at the same time maintaining the tax base, the job base. How difficult was that for people to balance?

LF: It was a constant negotiation. Pointe Mouillee was originally an elite hunting ground owned by industrialists from all over the northeast. But then when it was being sold, there was a groundswell to make this available as a public space, which is incredible. Federal, local and state funds became available to do that.

But there were also other developments later such as the creation of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, which was an incredible effort to preserve spaces up and down the river and even down to Lake Erie. All of those were negotiations that were affected by historical circumstances, availability of resources, public input, and sometimes pushback around it.

One of the labor leaders that I feature in my book, Harry Lester , said, “you have to have jobs. They have to work.” And so, the responsibility to make that balance or to engage in that negotiation should not rest solely on the working people. We’re not going to give up the desire to have a Detroit River that we could use, that we could fish in, that we could swim in one day. This responsibility should be shared by local, state and federal officials.

PB: You mentioned in your book the role that unions played in those negotiations. Why was that important?

LF: It signaled at least at the beginning of the environmental movement in the United States. Working class people, through their labor unions, were going to be lobbying for and engaging in activities on behalf of the environment. Unions recognized this: what good is bargaining for more spending money and more free time if the places that they want to spend their money and engage in their outdoor activities are unacceptable, trashed or polluted?

PB: What did you learn about the people who call Downriver home?

LF: I learned that they were both similar to places all around the country and also completely unique, which I know sounds contradictory. But for me, that’s the importance of the study.

On the one hand, very few communities of working-class people live in an environment like this. They don’t live beside a boundary water and a river with all the concentration of industry. But on the other hand, there are so many downrivers and downwinds and downstreams all across the United States.

Working class people who live in those communities never sign on to the fouling of their environments and never sign on to be pushed out of their communities. Those kinds of things are not unique. And yet the ways that the people of Downriver responded, with this powerful nostalgia, this commitment to improving their resources and their desire to stay I found very compelling.

PB: How important is the river itself to the region’s identity?

LF: It’s all about the water. I’ve visited many times down there and it does dominate the landscape, certainly among the communities that are right on it. People from the very beginning lived near there because of those waters. Industry came there because of those waters. It’s the magnet that brought both of these constituencies together—industry and people. It’s sort of the font of all activities in Downriver. And it’s not just the Detroit River; it’s all the different tributaries emptying into Lake Erie. It’s a very defining, important, feature of this. It’s the thing that makes Downriver what it is.

PB: Why is the bond to this place so strong?

LF: I think it’s history. I think it’s legacy. I think it’s the kind of life that working class people were able to create there. I think it’s the proximity to the resources, natural resources that they had access to, and that they created access to.

I mean, these were things that weren’t just handed to they, they worked to do this. And once that era of deindustrialization, or as I refer to in the book, the ‘Downriver disaster’ happened, all of these things were challenged so profoundly.

I think the importance of this comes to the forefront and they realize that they’re losing more than just a job. They’re losing a way of life that they had participated in creating.

And there are certainly people who left. I quoted some people who actually did leave because of the pollution and some of the challenges of living in Downriver. Nevertheless, once this is challenged, it is a very difficult obstacle to overcome because of the loss of the tax base when firms and companies left, and something that they had personally felt that they had been participating in creating.

PB: What was the “Downriver disaster?”

LF: It was the departure of jobs, companies, corporations, and plants. These were good union jobs that allowed them to support their families and to live close to a middle-class kind of life where they can engage in the different kinds of outdoors activities, if that’s what they were interested in. It didn’t just threaten their livelihood, but it threatened an entire way of life and communities as a whole. Plants just picked up and left or went out of business. It changed the whole character of the region.

One scholar that I quote believed that it was a collective trauma. They thought, “oh, this is just a downturn. It’ll come back.” And then over time, people began to realize maybe it wasn’t. And we have to think of a different plan for the future. It was a disaster for many of the communities and certainly for the families that live there.

PB: How has Downriver managed to survive these kinds of economic and industrial upheavals?

LF: There certainly was some outmigration. There certainly was a shift to different types of employment. There have been, as I talk about at the end of my book, different ways of thinking about the future of Downriver. Ironically, using the deindustrialization as a way to promote Downriver as a place of physical beauty and a place where people can come to take advantage of that has been one arena. The creation of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has been one way to do that. But there is still some industry, and that’s continuing. There have been some efforts to promote it as a good place for people to live.

Again, there’s been a lot of different strategies here. I’m not sure that there’s one silver bullet or perfect course of action. but people have been staying and trying to make Downriver a ‘go’ even through the difficulties that have happened.

PB: People don’t necessarily consider Monroe as part of Downriver because it’s not on the river, it’s on Lake Erie. Why did you include Monroe in your book?

LF: I thought about that a lot because I knew the different characterizations of Downriver and the different towns and cities that have been included in it. It was purely to tell the story that I wanted to tell.

First of all, steel is an important industry, and some of the earliest steel strikes took place in Monroe in the 1930s, which I do recount. They’re part of that steel industry history.

I also didn’t want to leave out the Fermi atomic power plant story. It’s just north of Monroe, but a lot of the opposition and a lot of the activism around it comes from the Monroe area. So again, that would have been, I think, a little artificial to leave out.

And then finally, one of my favorite organizations that I feature in the chapter on water is the Lake Erie Cleanup Committee. It emerged out of the little beach communities north of Monroe and recognized that the pollution that they experienced at Sterling State Park was a result of what was going on upstream. So, it was impossible to separate that out.

And that brought on all of the efforts to try to clean up the Detroit River, even though it was originally a clean up Lake Erie committee. A whole bunch of individuals came together— sportsmen, environmental groups, conservationists. So to me, it seemed artificial to separate out all those efforts just because they happen to be a little further down and on Lake Erie.

I hope that some of the stories that I told explain why I thought it belonged there.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects this year’s harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie to be moderate. 

The agency monitors the lake for potentially hazardous algae growth every spring and summer.

NOAA researcher Rick Stumpf says cyanobacteria thrive in the lake’s warm, shallow environment. He also says they feed on phosphorus, a key ingredient in farm fertilizer.

Stumpf says rain can wash phosphorus from farm fields in northwest Ohio into the Maumee River, which runs through Toledo.

“It is most of the water into the western basin of Lake Erie, where these blooms form,” he says. “It warms up quickly, which these algae like, and it allows the phosphorus to stay at a fairly high concentration, which favors them.”

Early rain provides a clue

Based on the amount of phosphorus already in the lake, Stumpf projects this year’s bloom will range between mild (2.5) and severe (5.5) on a scale of 1 to 10. Last year’s bloom was mild (2.4). At its peak, it covered more than 400 square miles.

Lake Erie has not experienced a severe bloom since 2019.

The key to controlling harmful algal blooms is reducing the amount of phosphorus that feeds them.

Stumpf says injecting the chemical directly into soil instead of spreading it on top could make a big difference.

“Injecting phosphorus into the soil help keeps it on,” he says. “There’s also a big push on testing because if there’s enough phosphorus in the soil, you don’t need to add it.”

Blooms can be toxic

Cyanobacteria can produce microcystin, a toxin capable of sickening people and pets. In 2014, microcystin contaminated Toledo’s municipal water system. That left more than 400,000 people in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan without drinkable water for several days.

Stumpf says pets are especially susceptible to microcystin poisoning. Many dogs who ingested contaminated water have died.

He advises people to keep their pooches out of the lake if they see a bluish-green scum or something like sawdust floating on the surface.

“Keep in mind its mouth is going to be right in the water, and then they often lick their fur when they’re done,” he says.

Stumpf says if the water looks fine, don’t worry about it.

NOAA updates its harmful algal bloom projections every week.

Drivers can expect to pay at least $1.50 more for a gallon of gasoline this Memorial Day weekend than they did a year ago.

AAA says it expects more than 1.3 million people in Michigan to travel at least 50 miles from home between May 22 and May 25 despite high fuel costs.

But is that estimate realistic?

Gas Buddy published its own seasonal travel survey. 56% of the people who responded say they plan to drive more than 2 hours to their destination this summer. That’s down from 69% in 2025. 

67% said gas prices are directly impacting their driving plans. 36% said rising costs are causing them to take fewer road trips.

Gas Buddy Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says the average price could reach $4.80 per gallon between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“That would be higher than 2022’s summer average of $4.43 a gallon,” he says. “But much of that is going to be contingent on whether or not the Strait of Hormuz reopens, and when it does.”

War fuels uncertainty

Iran has restricted ship traffic in the strait since the U.S. attacked the oil-rich country in March. DeHaan says that’s costing the world about 20 million barrels of oil daily.

The U.S. and other nations have released some of their strategic oil reserves to minimize the war’s impact. But DeHaan says that’s only a short-term fix.

“It’s kind of like replacing a broke water main with a paper straw—it’s just not enough,” he says. “And once those releases end, we could see a bit of whiplash with higher prices.”

Rolling back or suspending state and federal fuel taxes may help temporarily. But DeHaan says he doubts drivers will set any travel records this summer if prices climb.

“Those types of big increases are hard for many Americans to stomach,” he says. “And that is why we’re likely seeing a little bit of a decline in the amount of Americans willing to hit the road.”

Health experts and urban planners have long believed that planting more trees in residential areas is good for everyone in those neighborhoods.

A new study shows that’s not necessarily so.

Researchers at Michigan State University found that while trees do reduce stress and extend longevity, the benefits vary based on other factors.

Professor Amber Pearson led the study. She and her team examined the relationship between residential tree canopies and allostatic load. That’s the cumulative wear-and-tear that stress has on the human body. Pearson says they confirmed that trees improve human health.

“What we found was that having higher percentage of residential trees was associated with lower allostatic load scores,” she says. “In other words, it’s good for your health.”

But Pearson found something surprising: It wasn’t good for everyone.

Researchers used federal health data on 40,000 people across the country. They also looked at satellite data from tree canopies in about 10 million U.S. census tracts.

Pearson says health benefits varied based on things like education, income, and employment.

“We found a relationship in those that were more socioeconomically advantaged, but not the more vulnerable or disadvantaged participants,” she says.

The study found that Hispanic and non-Hispanic white participants saw significant improvement, while non-Hispanic Black participants did not.

Pearson says social and economic stress may override nature’s health benefits. 

“Trees alone may not be enough to overcome those stressors in those populations,” she says. “We really need to do more to understand those stressors and that’s an area of future research.”

Pearson says the findings could challenge people’s assumptions about trees.

“Trees are not a panacea,” she says.

The study appears in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas.

This story is a part of WDET’s on-going series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project. 

Highland Parkers have been telling WDET what they want people to know about their city as part of our Crossing the Lines series. Reporters have been listening to residents as well as people who no longer live there but still have deep connections to the city.

That includes Marsha Battle Philpot. She’s a writer, musician, and historian. And she was a Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts in 2012. Her father, Joe Von Battle, owned Joe’s Records on Hastings Street in Detroit’s Paradise Valley before the thriving Black neighborhood was demolished.

Battle recorded all of Reverend C. L. Franklin’s sermons and was the first person to record Aretha Franklin’s voice. Battle bought a home in Highland Park when his daughter was about 2 years old.

“Marsha Music,” as many call her, tells WDET’s Pat Batcheller what growing up in that house was like.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Marsha Battle Philpot: It was a home with oak walls in some of the rooms, and pocket doors, and beveled glass, and a huge mantle that ran the length of the room. And it was a magnificent home, one amongst many magnificent homes in the city that were on akin to the homes of [Detroit’s] Boston Edison, but on a smaller footprint, making them, many of them more achievable for working class people. But it was a very, very affluent place to live.

Schools were jewels

MBP: “People were desperate to try to get their children into Highland Park schools. During those days of the 1950s and 60s, they were some of the best schools in the United States. I remember the schools that I went to were voted or deemed to be the best schools in state of Michigan. It was really an extraordinary place to live. Even our elementary schools had swimming pools. All Highland Park kids could swim. All of us who deigned to do so went to musical classes and band and all kind of extracurricular activities. There were two or three bands in Highland Park. It was just an extraordinarily prosperous place.

The City of Trees

MBP: And if you put that prosperousness on top of the physical lushness of the city, it was such a lush, verdant green atmosphere in Highland Park. The trees would create archways over the streets. So, I would come home from school, and if it was raining, I wouldn’t get wet, because the trees oftentimes bowed over the over the skyline, and they would protect you from some of the rain. It was just an extraordinary place to grow up.

Pat Batcheller: Where we’re talking right now is in your dining room, which is technically in Detroit. It’s just on the south edge of Palmer Park. Where were you before?

MBP: I had been married and lived in a couple of other areas of the city, and so I was very glad to be able to come back to Highland Park when my mom decided that she was not going to be able to keep the house.

PB: The house that your dad bought her?

MBP: “Yes, our family home. Because she was ill, and she went to live with her sister, who was helping care for her. And she finally made a decision, “would you like to take the house?” And so, I did. But in about 2007 is when I had an electrical fire, and it was caused—I learned later from the fire investigators— by a dehumidifier. It was in August of 2007 it was probably 90 degrees. It was hot, and air conditioning those big houses is very challenging. And our basement was always soaking wet, and I ended up with a dehumidifier there that apparently had been running. And the fire people later told me that that that scenario is the cause of many fires.  It’s still standing, but it destroyed the house.

The home of her heart

PB: You said you were happy to come back to Highland Park. What made you happy?

MBP: Because it’s my home. And even though it had experienced so many challenges over the years since I had been gone, it was the home of my heart. And I always loved Highland Park because of its separation, even from Detroit. We’re in our own world in Highland Park.

And there were so many of the elders that were still there since I was a child and had done their best to try to hold on to this city. It’s the essence of the Black experience of perseverance in Highland Park. These people had been holding on despite all manner of reversals and in their big homes, these big, beautiful homes that they’re trying to take care of as best they can. Even in a situation in which the actual light poles were repossessed. Come on, now! You take the light poles out? Oh, my goodness!

PB: You’re only about a block away from Highland Park, so you’re not far away. Do you go into Highland Park?

MBP: Every time I go anywhere, I have to basically go through Highland Park. And I call Highland Park my happy place. You know, I love Highland Park. Even when I’m up on Woodward Avenue and I’m just up there shopping, because I’m not going to get in my car and go to the suburbs and shop. I’m going to shop where I live.

And when I’m up there on Woodward, I literally can feel my mother. And she’s been gone for many years. But I think of her walking up to the stores in Highland Park or driving to the stores and shopping in the days in which we had Sears and Winkelman’s and the various national chains. I think of my people in Highland Park, because we’re very much embedded there.

More Crossing the Lines: Highland Park

Highland Park is an odd shape—a trapezoid to be exact. Its borders include West McNichols Road on the north side, railroad tracks along the eastern edge, alleys behind Tennyson and Tuxedo streets to the south, and the Lodge freeway forming part of its western boundary.

These have been Highland Park’s city limits since officials incorporated it 1918.

That’s how it managed to avoid becoming part of Detroit, which had already annexed most of the surrounding land.

Leaders and residents wanted autonomy

Jeff Horner is a professor at Wayne State University‘s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He says Detroit wanted to absorb Highland Park even before the latter became a city.

“Highland Park was not open to the idea of being absorbed,” Horner says. “They wanted to have some local autonomy.”

Michigan’s Home Rule law in 1909 made it difficult for one city to annex another. That same year, Henry Ford finished building his Model T factory in Highland Park. It was the first Ford plant to use an assembly line. Horner says the city’s population exploded.

“From the 1910 U.S. census to the 1920 census, the population of the city grew by over 1,000% from about 4,500 to about 45,000,” Horner says. “That is remarkable growth.”

Auto industry drove growth

Highland Park kept growing until 1930, peaking at almost 53,000 people. Marsha Battle Philpot grew up in the city and has written about its history. She says Henry Ford’s offer of $5 a day to work on his assembly line drew thousands of people from across the country.

“This was an astronomical sum in those days,” she says. “Maybe an average person might make $5 a month”.

The city’s population steadily declined through the 1930s and 1940s. But it was still relatively prosperous. Philpot says the schools were among Michigan’s best in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Even our elementary schools had swimming pools,” Philpot says. “It was really an extraordinary place to live.”

But good schools were not enough to keep people from leaving the city decade after decade. Ford eventually closed its Highland Park factory, which is now a Michigan historical landmark. Chrysler moved its headquarters, established in 1925, from Highland Park to Auburn Hills. The city’s tax base evaporated. It had so much trouble paying its bills its streetlights were repossessed. State-appointed emergency managers ran the city and the school district for much of the early 2000s, closing the McGregor Library and the high school. Glenda McDonald, Highland Park’s mayor since 2022, says those decisions hit young people especially hard.

“Children need a place to go, and literacy is a very important part of our children’s learning,” the mayor says. “It kind of put a very bad taste in people’s mouths.”

Lansing takes over

McDonald says emergency management didn’t solve Highland Park’s long-term financial problems. One was literally bubbling under the surface: leaky water pipes, some more than 100 years old. The city incurred tens of millions of dollars in debt to the Great Lakes Water Authority. Each side sued the other with the city accusing GLWA of overcharging residents who were too poor to pay for water. The legal dispute pushed Highland Park to the brink of financial ruin.

In 2023, the state intervened again, this time giving the city $100 million to pay its debt and fix its water infrastructure. McDonald says workers are now replacing every lead water line in town.

“We’re working with the state, we’re working with GLWA, and hopefully we’ll continue moving forward that way,” McDonald says.

Had the state not thrown Highland Park that lifeline, the city likely would have filed for bankruptcy. The financial crisis raised a question: would Highland Park be better off becoming part of Detroit? The mayor demurred.

“Blasphemy,” she says.

Legal hurdles, local pride make merging difficult

For one local government to absorb another, state law requires residents of both communities to vote in favor of it after weighing the pros and cons. Stephanie Leiser directs the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. She says uniting Detroit and Highland Park could reduce bureaucracy.

“You can eliminate some layer of management there,” she says. “They don’t need to have an additional mayor and a clerk and all of those things.”

But Leiser says there’s not a ton of evidence that it would help Highland Park financially.

“They’re not going to save money necessarily on like plowing the roads, picking up trash, or maintaining the infrastructure,” she says.

Leiser says Highland Park’s finances are in better shape than they were when officials were considering bankruptcy in 2023. But it still has challenges, such as high property taxes.

Highland Park has some of Wayne County’s highest millage rates

In 2025, the city’s millage rate for principal residences was 63.221. That’s $63.22 for every $1,000 of a home’s taxable value. The non-homestead rate as over 79 mills. Rates for industrial and commercial personal property were over 57 mills and 67 mills respectively.

Former Highland Park Councilman Ken Bates says the city’s millage rates and pervasive poverty make it hard to attract new investment.

“We have to look into the future as to what will help Highland Park become sustainable,” he says. “What kind of industry should we count on?”

Bates says city leaders need a plan and the expertise to implement it.

“If not, it’s just you maintaining the status quo year after year,” he says. “You’re just one disaster away from financial calamity.”

More than just lines on a map

Bates says Highland Parkers are fiercely loyal to their community and that most want to remain a city within a city. Resident Michael Williams, Sr. admits he wouldn’t rule out becoming part of Detroit.

“We would get more popularity, probably more services,” Williams says.

But other residents, like Kim McDade, don’t see the benefit of giving up Highland Park’s identity.

“Highland Park needs to be given a chance to continue to build,” McDade says. “Our mayor is doing a great job in doing some things and making connections with the right people.”

Mayor Glenda McDonald says the city’s greatest strength is its people.

“They’re resilient, they’re loving, they’re kind, and we take care of each other,” she says. “I know a person on every single street.”

The mayor says that resilience defines Highland Park more than its shape on a map.

Highland Park is a small city that once had a relatively large population for its size. At the height of Detroit’s automotive boom, more than 50,000 people lived within Highland Park’s 2.9 square miles. Today, the population is less than 9,000.

WDET’s Crossing the Lines series features conversations with and stories about Highland Park’s people, culture, and history.

Detroit Public Radio’s Citizen Vox project gives residents a chance to express how they feel about their communities and the issues that matter to them.

WDET’s Pat Batcheller spoke with Highland Park resident Ken Bates at a coffee shop on Woodward Ave. on April 10, 2026.

Bates was born in Detroit but moved to Highland Park with his wife more than 25 years ago. They bought a Craftsman-style bungalow in a historic district of the city. Voters elected Bates to the city council in 2018, where he served until 2022. He chairs the board of an energy nonprofit called Soulardarity. Its mission includes installing solar-powered streetlights in Highland Park’s neighborhoods.

Bates shares his thoughts on housing, poverty, community pride, and development.

Ken Bates: We know that there’s a housing crisis, a housing shortage nationally, affordable housing. Highland Park has an abundance of land that is underutilized, that really could be put forth in terms of development. So, we could look at land trusts. We could look at affordable housing, low-income housing, market rate housing, duplexes to grow the population because that’s what we have in abundance.

Manufacturing? I doubt that will ever come back to the extent that Henry Ford and Chrysler and some of the other manufacturers had here. That’s a bygone era.

And so, we have to look into the future as to what will help Highland Park become sustainable. What kind of industries should we count on?

You have to get education on board. You have to get private development. You have to get your government funding all in order, and you have to have a plan and a vision and the expertise in order to do it.

If not, you’re just maintaining the status quo. And year after year, you’re just one disaster away from some financial calamity, whether it be a natural disaster or something like the Great Lakes Water Authority suing us for $19 million and threatening to put it on our tax rolls.

Pat Batcheller: What do you like about being in Highland Park?

KB: Highland Park is centrally located. It’s convenient. There’s a sense of—like with my block, I never expected it to be so diverse. And yet you’ve got immigrants, you’ve got people of different faiths. You’ve got people who are ascribed to different lifestyles. I mean, it just it goes on and on, different political beliefs, and we all live together in the same community, and we’re able to communicate and talk and look out after each other.”

PB: From the conversations I’ve had with you and some of the other folks I’ve talked to, it isn’t really the borders that define Highland Park, it’s the people. Would you agree with that?

KB: Well, yeah, I would say the people do define Highland Park because, because again, they’ve been here. Most have been here quite a long time. And even if you travel outside of Highland Park and talk to people that formerly lived here, many people will tell you, ‘Yeah, my grandparents lived here.’ They remember it as a great city. They’ve had fond memories.

The historical district is obviously something that has gained attention. People are looking at those homes and, if they have the means to renovate them, are coming in and deciding, “well, let’s renovate this home.” Because you can’t rebuild those anywhere for anything that I would consider reasonable.

Highland Park has just had its own identity for a long, long time. And so, I can’t see that changing because it would be so difficult to incorporate us into the Detroit culture. We’re not Detroit. We’re not Hamtramck. We’re Highland Park.

PB: What’s the most pressing issue facing Highland Park right now?

KB: It’s poverty. You’ve got to figure out how to raise people’s incomes up, so to speak, their standard of living. So, whether it be through employment, homeownership, because poverty impacts everything around us. For example, ALDI is usually out of shopping carts because people abscond with them. If you’re running a business, that’s not helpful. We were fortunate in that Foot Locker moved into the old CVS building because CVS, Rite-Aid, and another drugstore left.

Convincing businesses to come here is a real challenge because the landscape has changed. Brick and mortar stores aren’t necessarily how people are going about retail experiences. You would think that we would have a thrift shop or something of that nature in a community like that. We don’t.

So, trying to look at trends that will allow people to be gainfully employed, increase home ownership, educate their children are things that should be made priority.

The appearance of the city has to change because we have a lot of blight. We had a press conference celebrating the announcement of Highland Towers on Woodward being torn down. We’ve got to have news that is uplifting, that is showing progress now. Yes, the building should be torn down because it’s caught on fire sixteen years ago. But we need to be announcing opportunities for growth projects that will bring about change.

What do you know about Highland Park?

WDET reporters have been visiting the city since March, getting to know Highland Park, its history, and its people. These conversations are part of our Crossing the Lines series, which explores what unites and divides metro Detroit as a region.

Highland Park is a city within a city, an enclave of Detroit. At its peak, more than 45,000 people lived in Highland Park, mostly auto workers. Ford and Chrysler called the city home for years. When they moved out, people left in droves. Today, the population is less than 9,000.

One person who stayed is Glenda McDonald. She came to Highland Park as a child in the 1970s and still lives in the city. Voters elected her mayor in 2022.

WDET’s Pat Batcheller spoke with the mayor about her life in Highland Park and her efforts to make the city better.

People, not borders, define the city.

Pat Batcheller: How has Highland Park managed to survive as a city despite enormous financial challenges?

Mayor Glenda McDonald: It’s a place where you come and you’re in a neighborhood, but it’s also a city, so everybody in the city rallies around each other, supports each other. We get our support from our partners, Wayne County, the state of Michigan, and others. And they continue to believe in the city, just like I know that right now, I’m believing in this city, and we’re going to move forward, and it’s going to continue to grow.

PB: What makes you believe in it?

GM: I believe because I’ve been here, I saw what the possibilities are, and I know the endless possibilities for Highland Park. You don’t find a place like this, like the housing stock is 100 years old and it’s still standing and they are beautiful. You don’t find neighbors and community the way you do here. This is one community, and that’s what I use as one of my models, is we are one community, even though it’s 2.9 square miles. I know a person on every single street here. You can’t find it in Detroit because it’s so large.

PB: So, it’s not just the borders that define the city, that make it unique?

GM: It’s the people. The people make it unique. It’s hard to explain that we love each other. We take care of each other when it when it’s necessary, and then also we can disagree with each other and move forward and continue to move forward.

Grow the tax base

PB: No city can survive long without a stable tax base at a stable population. As mayor, what are you doing to keep businesses and residents that you already have here and then attract new ones?

GM: One is to make sure that everybody knows that they’re loved and needed here. That’s one thing we have to do is to make sure that people in those businesses and in this community understand we are a people of unity. And you know, we have to make sure that they all already know, that they’re doing a service for folks that some other people are not willing to do.

And a lot of people stay here because they just love the space, they love the area. They love the fact that Highland Park is just a small community.

Yes, our budget is low right now, but it’s not going to always be that way, and that’s the hope for the future. And people that stay here know that there’s a future.

Fix the infrastructure

PB: Tell me about some of the work that’s going on in Highland Park.

GM: We’re replacing every lead line in this city. We were blessed to get some appropriations from the State of Michigan, and they are having us replace every single lead line in the city. Some of them were over 100 years old. Some were wood. There was, at one time, a lead problem, but there’s not anymore. We have our testing, and our testing show that there’s not lead in the water so. But it’s inevitable that [the lead lines] need to come up, because there’s popping going on.

You know, we have water main breaks, like every other city. And so, at this moment, it’s a great thing to be able to change. And that will help businesses come here, because they didn’t want to come to a failing infrastructure that they would have to replace on their own. Right now, it’s being replaced.

It’s a good opportunity for everyone to come now and start the developments that they would like to see, to start the growth of Highland Park again, get in on the ground floor and be the beacon of light for Highland Park.

PB:  This was something that you’d been going back and forth with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) for years. You were looking, as I recall, at the prospect of maybe having to go through bankruptcy if you couldn’t work all that out.

You did make a deal. As you mentioned, the state came in with $100 million to help pay off not only the debt [to GLWA], but to fix the root cause of the problems. If you had not been able to secure that money, would Highland Park still exist?

GM: I think it would. I mean, we’re resilient. If we couldn’t go in directions that we needed to go, we could always find another direction. We have been surviving now with this water situation for 20 years. It’s been ongoing and ongoing, and I decided, and along with my team, we’re going to put an end to it right here in some kind of way. And so we got that tentative agreement taken care of.

We’re working with the state. We’re working with GLWA, and hopefully we’ll continue that moving forward. I would say that I would have used whatever was necessary for us to do, to survive in Highland Park, to stay alive.

The state took over in 2001

PB: Going back the beginning of the century, the state appointed an emergency manager for the city that lasted about eight years and then state returned control. That fixed some of the immediate problems, but it didn’t really fix all of the financial difficulties. What did the state get wrong?

GM: Emergency management! I mean, I think the biggest issue we had was that eliminating the things that brought people to the city or kept people here caused a flight. And that would be a reason for the decline of revenues.

So, I think if it should have been a different plan of, how do we keep people in the city? What do we do to make sure that the children, the working-class people, the seniors, and everyone else benefit from what we’re about to do? And I didn’t see a benefit in that. I think that especially closing our library, that has been a devastating point for the city of Highland Park.

PB: What kind of shape is the [McGregor Library] in after being closed this long?

GM: Well, we did have an evaluation done, and there are some things that need to be done to it, to get it back in place. And it will take some doing. But it’s not impossible to do.

Attract business

PB: Do you have any businesses coming in in the near future?

GM: Yes, we have, I think, three that’s going to be opening up by the summer. One, there’s a coffee shop coming. Two, there’s going to be a restaurant, and three, there’s going to be a juicing bar, all coming in the same building. One of our developers has a building that has a mixed use at the bottom, and he’s starting to rent it out. So there will be spaces there for them and other businesses that are in the queue.

Here to stay

PB: You say you’ve been here since you were 11. Why did you stay when so many other people left?

GM: Why should I leave? That’s the question. I mean, I own my home. I raised my children here. They were born here in Highland Park. Well, they were born in hospitals, but they grew up here, and it’s beautiful place to me.

It’s the people. You can’t match the people here that stay in Highland Park. They’re resilient, they’re loving, they’re kind, and we take care of each other. Like I said, we have our issues sometimes, but all in all, we love Highland Park, and I love Highland Park.

My children have started to convince me to leave for years, and I will not. I don’t want to go to Atlanta. I don’t want to go to North Carolina. I don’t want to go to where they are. I want to stay right here in the city that raised me and bring it back to where it should be so future generations can feel the same way I feel when they’ve been here 54 years.

PB: What gives you pride in Highland Park?

GM: Everything. The people, the places, the possibility. I have a connection to every aspect of the city, the industry, the auto industry, everything like that, is something that has been a part of my life since I’ve been here. The schools, bringing back the school system, Highland Park Public School System, and we’re still working with the charter system that we have.

We are people who believe in in good things. We are people who believe that things are possible. And I’m one of those people that believes that things are possible if you just put your mind to it. It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge. As long as I live here, I’m going to do whatever I have to do to try to make sure that the city survives.

What happens in Detroit affects Highland Park

PB: Even though Highland Park and Detroit are different cities, their fates seem to be intertwined. The things that happen in Detroit have an effect here. We do now see some things, some progress in Detroit. Do you hope that Highland Park will benefit from that?

GM: I know it will. We’re the next leg of the development chain they have developed from Woodward downtown all the way up to the north end in Detroit. And when you’re the nucleus of a large city—and we call ourselves the capital of Detroit because we sit right in the middle—everything affects us. Because you can’t go to Pontiac without coming through Highland Park, leaving from downtown. Even coming through a freeway, you’re going to enter Highland Park off of Chrysler. You’re going to enter Highland Park off the Lodge. You’re going to be connected to the Davidson, which was the first freeway.

We have a connection that is like a bond. What affects them affect us, and that’s why we need to be working together to make sure that every aspect of this is healed, and Highland Park needs to be healed, and that’s what I see for it. I see a healing coming.

PB: Why wouldn’t being physically part of Detroit foster that healing.

GM: Blasphemy! I had to clutch my pearls. I’m sorry [laughs]. Because then it wouldn’t be Highland Park. Most people in Highland Park do not claim Detroit.

I love Detroit. Don’t get me wrong, I go to visit there. But if it’s just looking at Detroit, then you’re missing out on the opportunity to see what Highland Park has to offer, what Hamtramck has to offer. And I’m not advocate. You know, I love Hamtramck too, but my city has a lot to offer, and you miss out on that.

Everywhere I travel, the first thing they say is, “where are you from?” I said, “Highland Park.” “Oh, you’re from Detroit?” “No, I’m from Highland Park. And you need to look that up.”

PB: So, sell me. If I’m looking for a place, either to open a business or perhaps buy a home, what does Highland Park have to offer?

GM: Highland Park has a lot to offer. We have two corridors that are ripe for the picking right now to run a business. You have Woodward Avenue. There’s over 100,000 people who travel up and down Woodward Avenue every single day. And then you have Hamilton Avenue, which is what we used to call the antique row. We had all of these small businesses, and we’re building back that. We have a lot of people ready to build up on Hamilton.

Our housing stock here is one of the best in the country. We have had people travel from across the country to come buy houses. When we’re selling in the auction, we get people from California, from everywhere, who has done the research about Highland Park and the stock here, and why you can’t beat this. For the price of a house that you get here, you’re going to take that house and pick it up and put it in California, and it’s going to be $500,000 to almost $1 million.

So yes, you have to come here. You have to check out what we have. As far as housing stock, it’s amazing. It’s beautiful. We have Craftsmen houses. I live in a Craftsman bungalow. Those houses are very unique. We have Tudors, we have Colonials, we have a variety of housing here. We even have ranches and smaller ones, but they are here. So that’s the uniqueness of Highland Park. There’s every type of house that you imagine.

The Detroit Red Wings once epitomized excellence in the National Hockey League.

They have won 11 Stanley Cups, more than any other U.S.-based franchise. Between 1991 and 2016, the Wings qualified for the playoffs every year except 2005 , when the NHL locked out its players in a labor dispute and canceled the postseason..

It has now been a decade since Detroit’s last playoff appearance. The Wings won exactly half of its 82 games in 2025-26, finishing sixth in the NHL’s Atlantic Division.

This is the third straight year the team has faltered in the final weeks of the regular season. They were competing for a wild card spot before fading in March 2024 and 2025.

But this collapse might be the worst of all.

Deja vu

The Wings were in good shape on February 4, when the league took a break for the 2026 Winter Olympics. They stood in second place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division. Three players—Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, and Lucas Raymond—went to Italy to play for their home countries. Larkin ended up winning a gold medal with Team USA. 

After they came home, things fell apart. Again. Detroit lost 16 of its last 24 games and finished sixth in their division. They won exactly half of their 82 games, ending up with 41 wins, 31 regulation losses, and 10 overtime losses. Teams get 2 points for a victory, and 1 if they lose in OT.  That adds up to 92 points, seven short of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Detroit Free Press hockey writer Helene St. James says doubts started creeping in after the Olympics.

“They were really chafing when they started getting a lot of questions about holding up in March,” she says. “They can blame outside noise all they want, the noise was created within the locker room.”

That noise resulted in too many slow starts and mental lapses on the ice. In several games, the opposing teams scored early and often, and the Wings couldn’t find a way to come back. St. James says the team will have to address that before next season.

“It’s on the players to come out with energy at the start of games,” she says. “None of the players have an answer for that.”

Trust the Yzerplan?

Some of the responsibility for this year’s collapse falls on General Manager Steve Yzerman. When he took the job in 2019, he inherited a mess. His predecessor, Ken Holland, built teams that won four Stanley Cups between 1997 and 2008. After the NHL imposed a salary cap in 2005, Holland had trouble signing top free agents. At the same time, he awarded lengthy and expensive contracts to subpar players and developed few if any young players through the draft.

It has taken Yzerman, a former Wings captain, years to overcome Detroit’s salary cap woes and restock its once-barren farm system. 

Statistically, the Wings have improved under Yzerman’s watch. Although 92 points wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs, it is the most they’ve collected in his seven seasons at the helm.

St. James says it’s fair to question some of Yzerman’s moves.

“He has made some free agent signings that haven’t worked out,” she says. “He’s tried to find somebody to be great on that second line center spot, and they haven’t found it.”

Follow the leader

Some fans have questioned Dylan Larkin’s leadership as team captain. Many say he doesn’t hold his teammates accountable for their performance or motivate them to be better.

St. James rejects that narrative.

“They’re adults,” she says. “There needs to be accountability, and if it’s not from the player himself, maybe it’s time to move on from this player.”

Even if Larkin is reluctant to call out his teammates, head coach Todd McLellan is not. At one point, he compared some of his players to empty jerseys. Talk like that can cause players to “tune out” their coaches. St. James doubts that’s the problem.

“He may have the safest job in the NHL,” she says. “If they have tuned him out, which I don’t think is the case, then shame on those players.”

How to fix it

Yzerman tried to acquire defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Minnesota Wild during the season. Hughes, who played college hockey at the University of Michigan, was a member of the U.S. Olympic hockey team that won gold in Italy. He reportedly nixed a trade to Detroit because he wouldn’t sign a long-term contract extension.

The Wings did trade its first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft to get veteran defenseman Justin Faulk from the St. Louis Blues. Faulk played in 17 games for Detroit, scoring five goals and assisting on three others.

St. James says she would keep Larkin, Seider, and Alex DeBrincat, the team’s leading scorer this season. But she says Yzerman could package other players in a trade to get someone better.

“You have to move on from some of the bottom six guys,” she says. “Michael Rasmussen has not made an impact for them in three years.”

Rasmussen and Larkin are the only players who were on the roster before Yzerman became GM.

Help is on the way, but when?

If there’s any hope for the future, fans will find it in Grand Rapids. The Wings’ top minor league affiliate, the Griffins, won the American Hockey League‘s Central Division this season and are among the favorites to win the Calder Cup.

The Griffins are loaded with young talent. Three players began the season as Red Wings: center Emmitt Finnie, forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and defensemen Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Finnie was the only rookie to play in all 82 games for the Wings. Sandin-Pellikka appeared in 68 NHL contests. Brandsegg-Nygard played in 14 games. 

A key player going forward is Detroit’s top goaltending prospect, Sebastian Cossa. The Wings called him up for one game in March, but he didn’t play. He’s been in the farm system for four years. 

St. James says Cossa is out of waiver exceptions, which means the Wings must have him on the roster next season, or another team could claim him.

“It usually takes a year, two years, three years before they start becoming impact players, and more so with goalies,” she says. 

Yzerman could package young players together in a trade for a high-scoring second line center. If he stands pat in the offseason, the Wings’ playoff drought might go to 11 in 2027.