3 players the Red Wings already regret signing this past summer

A frustrating season reached a new low on Monday for the Detroit Red Wings, as they were blown out at home by the St. Louis Blues. They lost their third in a row, their seventh in their last ten games, and their 21st game out of 34. At 13-17-4, the Red Wings not only sit in second to last in the Eastern Conference, but they have the fifth-worst points percentage in the NHL. Fans, understandably, are extremely frustrated.

Whether you believed that this Red Wings team would maintain the momentum it gained by its strong finish to the 2023-24 season or not, this kind of start to the season was far from expected. The Christmas break is here, and it feels as if the Red Wings season is already on life support. Nobody would've expected that based on the talent that this roster has.

Virtually everything has gone wrong for Detroit this season. General manager Steve Yzerman doesn't deserve all of the blame for their faults, but he made several mistakes over the offseason that have come back to bite the team.

3) Erik Gustafsson has been more of a negative than a positive for the Red Wings

The Red Wings curiously let Shayne Gostisbehere depart in free agency and replaced him with Erik Gustafsson, a player who was coming off a strong year with the New York Rangers. Gustafsson didn't come with the track record Gostisbhere had, but was expected to provide a spark to Detroit's power play as the quarterback.

So far, the Gustafsson signing has aged quite poorly. The 32-year-old has yet to score a goal and has just five assists in 26 games played. Despite seeing regular time on Detroit's power play, Gustafsson has only three assists this season with the man advantage.

On the flip side, Gostisbehere has averaged nearly a point per game with the Carolina Hurricanes thus far, and has been his usual lethal self on the power play. Yes, Gostisbehere required one more year than Gustafsson and has a higher AAV as well, but he's clearly the far superior player. Gustafsson is a better defender than Gostisbehere, but the offensive drop-off has been stark.

For a Red Wings team that ranks towards the bottom of the NHL in goals per game, they could've used a lot better offensive production from a different defenseman like Gostisbehere than they've gotten from Gustafsson. The fact that they're stuck with him for another year only makes things worse.

2) Vladimir Tarasenko has not added the depth scoring that the Red Wings needed

The Red Wings entered the year with a good amount of talent in their top six, but it felt as if they needed one more piece to really solidify themselves as a playoff team. Vladimir Tarasenko, a player who had 23 goals and 55 games last season and has a track record of being an outstanding goal scorer, certainly felt like a good fit. It hasn't played out that way, though.

Through 33 games, Tarasenko has just four goals and eight assists for a total of 12 points while playing most of the year on the team's top six. Despite all of the talented forwards on this team that he's gotten to play with, he's been unproductive.

Part of his rough start to the season is luck-based. Tarasenko is shooting just 6.9 percent - a steep drop-off from his career mark of 12.7 percent. Even with the bad luck, though, Tarasenko is posting career lows across the board, which has undoubtedly led to the team's inability to score goals.

1) Patrick Kane has been the most disappointing player on the Red Wings

Re-signing Patrick Kane was as obvious of a move as Yzerman could've made this past offseason. He was healthy, and produced like the star we all remember, scoring 20 goals and putting up 47 points in 50 games. His high level of play played a huge role in the team going on the run it did down the stretch.

For whatever reason, this season has simply not been the same for the 36-year-old. Through 29 games played, Kane has scored just five goals and dished out nine assists for a total of 14 points. He went from averaging nearly a point per game to averaging nearly half a point per game despite most of the talent around him still being there.

Kane went from being the team's most dynamic offensive player to being tied with Andrew Copp - a middle-six forward who sees no power play time - for sixth on the team in points. Kane has never been great defensively, so when he doesn't produce offensively, he doesn't add much value.

Kane, like Tarasenko, has also been a bit unlucky, as he's shot just 8.3 percent so far. No matter how you slice it, though, five goals and 14 points in 29 games is completely unacceptable. All Red Wings fans can do is hope he finds his groove eventually. Without Kane producing, it's hard to see this team making the kind of unbelievable run it'd take for them to squeak into the playoffs.

Again, this is a move any GM would've made, but it simply has not worked out at all.