For the past decade, there is just one team in the National Hockey League that has not made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and after the Buffalo Sabres bounced back to make the post-season in 2025/26, that unfortunate award goes to the Detroit Red Wings.
Unfortunately, this off-season hasn’t gone a long way to helping them bounce back, and after parting ways with Steve Yzerman and having the Dylan Larkin trade saga hanging over their heads, the future remains very bleak in the Motor City. In that decade, there’s been very little for Red Wings fans to be positive about, and ahead of what could be another ugly campaign, they’ve been given a very unwanted title.
Red Wings Named NHL’s Most Mediocre Team
GettyMoritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings.
Deep in the off-season, some are looking forward to the 2026/27 campaign while others prefer to look back on the past first, and recently, the Daily Faceoff crew did the latter, looking back at the past decade. On Tuesday, they decided to name the five most mediocre teams from 2017-2026, and unfortunately for the Red Wings, with no post-season appearances and just one pick in the top-five of the NHL Draft, they were named the NHL’s most mediocre franchise in that time.
Have the Red Wings been the NHL’s worst franchise in the past decade? No. But have they struggled to break out of the middle? Unfortunately, yes, as the team have struggled to land elite talent in the draft, and with a lack of depth right now beyond a few young players, they could be a team that finishes between 6th and 12th worst in the NHL standings again.
Sure, the team have Lucas Raymond (their only top-five pick) and Moritz Seider along with the likes of Axel Sandin-Pellikka leading the way into the future, but with very few game breaking talents beyond that, it’s unclear if this team will be able to break their Stanley Cup Playoffs drought anytime soon.
Detroit Red Wings Fail to Improve This Off-Season
While the Red Wings have had opportunities to land major upgrades in recent years, it just hasn’t happened for them, and with the team currently having no General Manager or President of Hockey Operations, they’ve potentially missed out again this summer.
That is also perhaps the reason why the team have not yet dealt current captain Dylan Larkin, who requested a trade at the beginning of the off-season, and while he’s hampered the team by giving them a very short list of teams he’d accept a trade too, a trade may be one of few ways this team can actually land another young difference maker.
Only time will tell when Detroit can break out of their Stanley Cup Playoffs drought, but with 0 post-season appearances, 1 top-five draft pick and the 30th overall win percentage between 2017 and 2026, it’s easy to see why they have been named the NHL’s most mediocre franchise of the past decade.
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