A PGP Guide to: The Detroit Red Wings

A PGP Guide to: The Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings aesthetic is Hockeytown, the Winged Wheel, Original Six history, octopuses flying onto the ice, old school hockey royalty, Russian superstars, Swedish superstars, one of the greatest rivalries the sport has ever seen, and a fanbase that remembers exactly what it feels like to expect a Stanley Cup. Detroit isn't just an old hockey team, it’s one of the franchises that built NHL history. The Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cups, more than any other American based NHL franchise, appeared in 24 Stanley Cup Finals and once made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons. The problem is that the current Red Wings have spent the last decade trying to become that kind of Red Wings team again.

The Basics

Team: Detroit Red Wings

Conference: Eastern Conference

Division: Atlantic Division

Arena: Little Caesars Arena

Location: Detroit, Michigan

Franchise Founded: 1926 as the Detroit Cougars

Became the Red Wings: 1932

Team Colors: Red and white

Stanley Cups: 11 – 1936, 1937, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2008

Stanley Cup Final Appearances: 24 — second most in NHL history!

Biggest Rivals: Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins

Detroit currently plays at Little Caesars Arena, which opened for the Red Wings in 2017 after the team said goodbye to Joe Louis Arena, simply “The Joe”, their home for nearly four decades and the building where they won four Stanley Cups. Detroit is also one of the NHL's Original Six, alongside Boston, Chicago, Montreal, the New York Rangers and Toronto. BTW, “Original Six” doesn’t mean they were literally the NHL's original six teams, it refers to the six franchises that made up the entire league from 1942-43 through 1966-67 (aka before the league doubled in size).

The Origin Story

The Red Wings actually weren't called the Red Wings when they entered the NHL. Detroit joined the league in 1926 as the Detroit Cougars, then the franchise became the Detroit Falcons in 1930, before James Norris purchased the struggling club and renamed it the Detroit Red Wings in 1932. After that, they became one of hockey's giants.

Detroit won its first Stanley Cup in 1936, repeated in 1937 and built another dynasty during the 1940s and 1950s around names like Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel, Red Kelly and Terry Sawchuk. By the end of the 1954-55 season, Detroit had won seven Stanley Cups.

Then things got ugly as the franchise went 42 years without another championship, including a particularly miserable stretch during the 1970s and early '80s that became known as the “Dead Wings” era. Everything started changing after Detroit drafted a teenager named Steve Yzerman 4th overall in 1983… idk but you may have heard of him.

The Vibe Check

The Red Wings are basically what happens when a hockey franchise has so much history that the history becomes part of the pressure. The logo and uniform have barely changed, the numbers hanging in the rafters include some of the greatest players who ever touched a hockey puck, the fans call their city Hockeytown without irony and throw literal octopuses onto the ice. And for decades, making the playoffs wasn't considered an achievement in Detroit, it was basically the minimum requirement.

That makes the modern version of this team a bit sad, yet fascinating because the Red Wings are trying to restore an identity their fanbase still remembers very clearly. This is a franchise trying to remember how get back to their roots of winning.

The History You Need to Know

Detroit's first golden age came during the Original Six era. The Wings won Cups in 1936, 1937, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955, with Gordie Howe eventually becoming the centerpiece of one of the greatest teams in hockey history. The 1952 team was especially dominant as they went a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs, sweeping both Toronto and Montreal. That run also accidentally created one of hockey's strangest traditions, but we'll get to the octopus later.

After the 1955 championship, Detroit entered a brutally long drought. They still produced great players, but the championships disappeared. By the late 1970s and early '80s, the organization had become bad enough to earn the Dead Wings nickname.

Then came Yzerman. Detroit drafted Steve Yzerman in 1983, named him captain at just 21 years old in 1986 and slowly built a powerhouse around him. By the 1990s, the Red Wings had become terrifying with names like Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Osgood, Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov, Slava Fetisov and one of the greatest coaches ever in Scotty Bowman. They also had a group of Russian players who would become known as the Russian Five: Fedorov, Konstantinov, Kozlov, Larionov and Fetisov.

And then Colorado happened. Detroit lost the 1996 Western Conference Final to the Colorado Avalanche, but the series became infamous after Claude Lemieux checked Kris Draper from behind into the boards, leaving Draper with devastating facial injuries. The next March, the teams met again and all hell broke loose, with that game being deemed the “Fight Night at the Joe”.  There were nine fights in total. Darren McCarty went after Lemieux, Patrick Roy came flying out of his crease, Brendan Shanahan collided with him, goalies fought, and everybody seemed to hate everybody. Oh, and Detroit eventually won the game in overtime. The Wings themselves have described that night as a turning point in their championship era. A few months later, Detroit swept Philadelphia to win the 1997 Stanley Cup, ending a 42 year championship drought. 

But what happened afterward became one of the most emotional chapters in franchise history. Just days after winning the Cup, defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was critically injured in a limousine crash following a team golf outing. His hockey career ended because of the brain injuries he suffered. Detroit returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1998 and won again, and during the celebration, the team brought Konstantinov onto the ice in his wheelchair so he could share the Cup with them.

Detroit added another championship in 2002 with an absurd roster featuring Yzerman, Lidstrom, Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hašek, Luc Robitaille, Brett Hull and Pavel Datsyuk. Like, hello? They were STACKED! A younger generation took over when Lidstrom became captain after Yzerman retired, while Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg became stars. Detroit won another Stanley Cup in 2008, defeating Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The exact same teams met again in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, but that time Pittsburgh won Game 7 in Detroit.

Through all of this, Detroit built one of the most ridiculous consistency streaks in sports with 25 straight playoff appearances from 1991 through 2016.  Then the bill finally came due as the dynasty aged. Lidstrom retired, Datsyuk left the NHL, Zetterberg's career ended because of his back, and the Red Wings finally entered the rebuild they had managed to avoid for decades. Unfortunately… that rebuild has taken a while.

The Icons

Gordie Howe

Mr. Hockey.

You really can't explain NHL history without Gordie Howe. Howe spent 25 seasons with the Red Wings, won 4 Stanley Cups with Detroit and became one of the most dominant, complete and intimidating players hockey has ever seen. His combination of scoring, toughness and longevity made him the standard against which generations of players were measured. Wayne Gretzky grew up idolizing him and that’s basically all you need to know.

Steve Yzerman

The Captain.

Not a captain, The Captain. Detroit drafted Yzerman 4th overall in 1983, and he spent his entire 22 season NHL career with the Red Wings. He captained Detroit for 19 seasons, led them to Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998 and 2002 and helped drag the organization from the Dead Wings era into one of the greatest dynasties in modern hockey. He eventually came back to run the team as GM.

Nicklas Lidstrom

The Perfect Human.

That is genuinely his hockey nickname. Lidstrom spent his entire NHL career with Detroit, won 7 Norris Trophies, 4 Stanley Cups and the 2002 Conn Smythe Trophy. When Yzerman retired, Lidstrom became captain. When Detroit won the Stanley Cup in 2008, he became the first European born captain to lead an NHL team to the Cup. Lidstrom is one of the greatest defensemen ever. Period.

Sergei Fedorov

Fedorov was absurd.

Fast, skilled, defensively brilliant and capable of playing essentially wherever Detroit needed him, he became the first Russian player to win the Hart Trophy when he was named NHL MVP in 1994. He won 3 Stanley Cups with Detroit and was one of the central figures of the Russian Five.

Pavel Datsyuk

The Magic Man.

If you like hockey players who make other NHL players look silly, go watch Pavel Datsyuk highlights. That’s all I would do as a child.  His hands were ridiculous, his defensive instincts were elite, his takeaways became a genre of highlight reel. He won multiple Selke Trophies, multiple Lady Byng Trophies and helped Detroit win the 2008 Stanley Cup. There is an entire generation of hockey fans who learned what a “Datsyukian deke” was before they could probably define half the penalties in the rulebook.

Henrik Zetterberg

The next great Red Wings captain after Lidstrom.

He was talented, responsible, clutch and basically everything Detroit wanted a player to be. During the 2008 Stanley Cup run, Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

His career eventually ended because of a degenerative back condition, but he remains one of the faces of the last great Red Wings era.

Ted Lindsay

Terrible Ted

Terrible Ted wasn’t just part of Red Wings history, he helped change professional hockey. He was nicknamed “Terrible Ted” because of how aggressively he played despite being relatively small, won 4 Stanley Cups with Detroit and starred alongside Gordie Howe and Sid Abel on the famous Production Line. He also helped organize the players' association movement that ultimately became the NHLPA, which made him hugely important to the history of player rights.

Terry Sawchuk

One of the greatest goaltenders ever.

Sawchuk backstopped Detroit during its 1950s dynasty and won three Stanley Cups with the Wings during that period. 

The Current Era

Okay, this is where Detroit gets messy. For years, the modern rebuild was basically synonymous with one phrase: The Yzerplan. Steve Yzerman returned to Detroit as general manager in 2019 after previously building much of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization that became a powerhouse. The idea was that the Captain was coming home to save the Red Wings again. Detroit accumulated prospects and young pieces including Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka and others, while Dylan Larkin remained the bridge between the old era and whatever Detroit was trying to become next.

The team gradually improved, but the playoffs never came. Detroit missed in 2024, and again in 2025, and then came the 2025-26 Centennial season, which was supposed to feel different. For a while, it did, but they finished sixth in the Atlantic Division, and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 10th consecutive season, now the longest active playoff drought in the NHL and the longest drought in Red Wings franchise history.

This offseason, everything exploded. Captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade after the season. Yzerman confirmed the request in June and revealed that Larkin's camp had supplied a short list of teams for which he would waive his no-trade clause. Then Detroit announced that Steve Yzerman would leave his positions as executive VP and GM and transition into a senior adviser role while the franchise searched for its next head of hockey operations. Finally, Patrick Kane left Detroit and returned to Chicago on a two year contract.

As of August 31, 2026, Larkin has not been traded, and remains on Detroit's roster as the official captain, but Detroit is still searching for its next permanent hockey operations leader. So yeah, Hockeytown is going through it.

The Players You Need to Know

Dylan Larkin

The captain who asked to leave.

You couldn't manufacture a more complicated storyline if you tried. Larkin is from Michigan, he played at the University of Michigan, and Detroit drafted him 15th overall in 2014. He became captain in 2021, and has spent his entire NHL career as a Red Wing, and after another season without playoff hockey, he requested a trade. Larkin actually had one of his strongest individual seasons in 2025-26, scoring a career high 34 goals with 67 points in 74 games. He has five years remaining on his contract, but as of today, he’s still a Red Wing, so the biggest story surrounding Detroit isn't resolved yet.

Alex DeBrincat

The goal scorer.

Alex DeBrincat is a Michigan kid who came home. Detroit acquired him from Ottawa in 2023, and his offensive production has become increasingly important as the Wings try to escape their rebuild. Last season, DeBrincat tied his NHL career high with 41 goals and set career highs with 44 assists and 85 points, leading Detroit in scoring.With Patrick Kane gone and Larkin's future uncertain, DeBrincat suddenly feels even more important.

Lucas Raymond

The young star.

Lucas Raymond is definitely part of the next great Red Wings team.  Detroit drafted Raymond 4th overall in 2020, and he’s grown into one of the team's best offensive players.

He finished last season with 25 goals, 51 assists and 76 points, second on Detroit behind DeBrincat. He's skilled, creative and still only 24 entering the season. Basically, whatever Detroit's next era looks like, Raymond should be a major part of it.

Moritz Seider

The defensive cornerstone.

Detroit shocked a lot of people when it drafted Moritz Seider sixth overall in 2019, then Seider immediately made everyone look stupid for questioning it. He won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 2022 and has developed into Detroit's number one defenseman. Last season, he posted career highs across the board with 10 goals, 50 assists and 60 points, while averaging 25:40 of ice time per game. He's physical, blocks shots, plays huge minutes, and he's one of the clearest pieces Detroit already knows it can build around.

Simon Edvinsson

The giant Swedish defenseman.

Edvinsson was selected 6th overall in 2021 and has gradually become another major part of Detroit's blue line. At 6 '6, he gives Detroit size. Seider + Edvinsson = the defensive backbone of Detroit's next contender.

John Gibson

The goalie Detroit is asking to help end the drought.

Detroit acquired John Gibson from Anaheim in the summer of 2025 because the Red Wings desperately needed stability in net. His first season in Detroit wasn't perfect, but it was useful as he played 57 games, his highest total since 2018-19, and finished with a 29-22-4 record and 4 shutouts. He remains Detroit's expected starting goalie for the new season, with newly signed Daniil Tarasov behind him.

Justin Faulk

The trade-deadline gamble.

Detroit decided it was serious about making the playoffs in March 2026 and paid accordingly. The Red Wings acquired veteran defenseman Justin Faulk from St. Louis for Dmitri Buchelnikov, Justin Holl, a 2026 1st round pick and a 2026 3rd round pick, but they didn’t make the playoffs.

Viktor Arvidsson

The big new offensive addition.

With Patrick Kane gone, Detroit needed another veteran winger who could actually score. Enter Viktor Arvidsson. The Red Wings signed him to a 2 year contract after he recorded 25 goals and 54 points in 69 games for Boston. He's also familiar with Todd McLellan from their time together in Los Angeles. Detroit desperately needs more 5-on-5 scoring, so Arvidsson is going to be needed.

Emmitt Finnie

The seventh round surprise.

Detroit drafted Emmitt Finnie 201st overall in 2023, then he made the NHL team and played in all 82 games as a rookie. Finnie finished 2025-26 with 30 points and was named Detroit's Rookie of the Year by the Detroit Sports Media. For an organization desperately waiting for prospects to turn into legitimate NHL players, finding one in the 7th round is a very nice development.

Marco Kasper

The young center Detroit needs more from.

Kasper was selected 8th overall in 2022 and showed a lot of promise during his rookie season, but his sophomore year was harder. After recording 37 points in 2024-25, Kasper fell to 19 points in 81 games in 2025-26. So if Larkin eventually leaves, Detroit needs someone from its younger center group to become much more than just promising.

The Rivalries

Colorado Avalanche

This is the biggest one. It isn't as active today because Detroit and Colorado aren't even in the same conference anymore, but historically this rivalry was insane. Detroit and Colorado were two of the NHL's best teams during the late 1990s & early 2000s as both teams had Hall of Famers everywhere competing for Stanley Cups, and they legitimately despised one another. Everything escalated during the 1996 Western Conference Final when Claude Lemieux's hit on Kris Draper left Draper with a broken jaw, cheekbone, orbital bone, nose and a concussion. Then came Fight Night at the Joe in 1997, more playoff series, more goalie fights, and more hatred. From 1996 - 2002, Detroit and Colorado met in the playoffs five times and combined to win five Stanley Cups.If you're learning Red Wings history, you need to learn this rivalry.

Chicago Blackhawks

Detroit-Chicago is pure Original Six history. They first played each other in 1926, when Detroit was still called the Cougars. For decades they shared divisions, traveled constantly between Detroit and Chicago and played one another more often than basically anybody.  The rivalry cooled after Detroit moved to the Eastern Conference in 2013, but the history isn't disappearing, especially that Patrick Kane just left Detroit to return to Chicago.

Toronto Maple Leafs

This one is more ancient hockey hostility as Detroit and Toronto are Original Six franchises separated by only a few hours who have spent decades playing each other constantly. They’ve met in major playoff series and Stanley Cup Finals, and geographically, Detroit is actually much closer to Toronto than it is to several American NHL markets. Games between the teams tend to bring out plenty of traveling fans from both sides, and there's always that Original Six “our hockey history is better than your hockey history” energy.

Pittsburgh Penguins

This rivalry originates from 2008 and 2009. Detroit reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2008 and beat Sidney Crosby's Penguins in six games. Then the exact same teams came back in 2009 and that series went seven games with Pittsburgh winning & lifting the Stanley Cup on Red Wings ice. It isn't a constant geographic rivalry, but two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals tend to leave some emotional damage behind.

The Fanbase

Detroit doesn't call itself Hockeytown casually. The Red Wings officially launched the Hockeytown branding campaign in 1996, right before the franchise entered one of the greatest periods in its history, then they won four Stanley Cups. So, the name stuck.

The Red Wings fandom has a very different relationship with history than a lot of NHL fanbases because so many generations have their own legendary Detroit team. Your grandparents might have Gordie Howe, your parents might have Steve Yzerman, you might have Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg (like I did!), and the younger generation is currently waiting for Raymond, Seider and company to create something worth remembering the same way.

And then there's the octopus… yeah so, the fans throw octopuses onto the ice. The tradition began during the 1952 playoffs, when Detroit needed 8 wins to capture the Stanley Cup. An octopus has 8 tentacles, so fans tossed one onto the ice and Detroit then went 8-0 to win the Cup. Naturally, everyone decided they should keep doing this forever. The number of victories needed to win the Cup has obviously doubled since then, but the octopus remains, because hockey traditions don’t need logic, they need commitment.

The Retired Numbers

Detroit officially has 9 retired player numbers, but 1 additional unofficial one!

No. 1 — Terry Sawchuk

One of hockey's greatest goaltenders and a cornerstone of Detroit's 1950s dynasty.

No. 4 — Red Kelly

Hall of Fame defenseman who helped Detroit win 4 Stanley Cups before eventually becoming a star with Toronto.

No. 5 — Nicklas Lidstrom

The Perfect Human with 7 Norris Trophies, 4 Cups, and one of the greatest defensemen EVER.

No. 7 — Ted Lindsay

4 time Stanley Cup champion, Production Line legend and one of the most important players in the history of NHL labor rights.

No. 9 — Gordie Howe

Mr. Hockey. Enough said.

No. 10 — Alex Delvecchio

A lifelong Red Wing who played more than 1,500 games for Detroit, won 3 Stanley Cups and later served the organization as both coach & GM.

No. 12 — Sid Abel

Captain, Hall of Famer and center of the legendary Production Line with Howe and Lindsay.

No. 19 — Steve Yzerman

The forever Captain. If Detroit ever gave this number to someone else, I genuinely think the city might riot.

No. 91 — Sergei Fedorov

Detroit officially raised Fedorov's No. 91 to the rafters on January 12, 2026, honoring the 3 time Cup champion and Russian Five superstar. 

No. 16 of Vladimir Konstantinov is not officially retired, but no Red Wings player has worn it since Konstantinov's career-ending 1997 limousine crash. 

The Team Identity

For most of modern NHL history, Detroit's identity was basically: “We don't rebuild. We reload.” Meaning they drafted stars, developed them patiently, found elite Europeans before many other organizations were doing it consistently, turned late draft picks into Hall of Famers, and made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons. The modern Red Wings are trying to recreate pieces of that formula. They drafted Raymond, Seider, Edvinsson, Kasper, found Finnie in the 7th round, but have players like Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Nate Danielson, and Goalie Trey Augustine still developing.

The problem is that eventually development has to turn into winning. Detroit is entering 2026-27 with a 10 season playoff drought, a captain who asked to be traded and an organization searching for its next hockey-operations leader. Even the draft showed how strange this moment is as Detroit traded top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa to Utah for the 23rd pick in the 2026 Draft, then used that selection on Michigan born forward J.P. Hurlbert. They added Viktor Arvidsson, traded for Keegan Kolesar, signed Daniil Tarasov, but they also lost Patrick Kane, and the question hovering above literally everything is what happens with Dylan Larkin? That answer could completely change what this version of the Red Wings is supposed to be.

Why You Should Watch Them

You should watch the Detroit Red Wings because there might not be another NHL franchise where the contrast between what they were and what they're trying to become is this dramatic. This is Hockeytown with 11 Stanley Cups and names like Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg. This is a franchise known for The Russian Five, the Fight Night at the Joe, and the octopus. They’re a team with 25 straight playoff appearances!! They have 4 championships between 1997 and 2008.

And now, this franchise has gone 10 straight years without playoff hockey, stuck with a captain who wants out. The legendary captain who came back to rebuild the franchise is no longer the GM. Patrick Kane just went back to Chicago. A new hockey operations regime is coming and somehow Detroit still has enough legitimate young talent that this doesn't feel hopeless. Alex DeBrincat just scored 41 goals, Lucas Raymond is becoming a star, Moritz Seider just had a 60 point season, Simon Edvinsson is still developing, Emmitt Finnie came out of nowhere, and there are more prospects coming.

So the 2026-27 Red Wings aren't really entering a normal season, nor are they entering a rebuild, rather, they're entering a crossroads season. Detroit spent a century building the expectation that the Winged Wheel belongs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now we get to find out who is actually going to lead them back there.