The 5 Things the Detroit Red Wings Have to do this Offseason

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Apr 5, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) skates with the puck as Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (52) defends in the second period at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Upgrade the defense

The defense was at times some of the worst parts of this Red Wings team. Watching them was hard at times. Players missed their spots, others sometimes seemed like they had forgotten how to in general just play hockey. Defense has to get a big upgrade for the Red Wings this season or this team is going to continue to have great offensive games or great games kept close by their goaltender, only to lose it because the defense helped them so little.

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One player that the team needs to take a look at is Jonathan Ericsson. He has frustrated fans all season with his sometimes horrible play. In this postseason series with the Tampa Bay Lightning Ericsson played in five games. He averaged 19:15 of ice time in those games he also racked up 4 points, a 0 +/- and 8 penalty minutes. While that isn’t a bad showing for the games he played in, he was the cause of some goals scored due to being the player the puck bounced off of, or that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be and left the goaltender out to dry.

Ericsson is with the team until 2019 with his contract, he makes $3.25 million dollars a season. So the team can either buy him out or trade him. His trade value seems like it might be low, but it doesn’t seem impossible to try to get at least some draft picks for him. They will be more than likely be later picks, but he can become someone else’s headache instead of ours.

Next: The goalie problem

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