Tarasov Is in the Net. The Rest of the Roster Is Still a Mess.

The goaltending situation in Detroit has at least a name attached to it now. Daniil Tarasov is signed, his KHL rights have been sorted, and the organization can check that box — which, given everything else that has gone sideways this summer, counts as progress. I noted yesterday that someone had to mind the net after Campbell and Hutchinson retired and Cossa was moved to Colorado. Tarasov is that someone, on a one-year deal, which is about as provisional an answer as you can give to a position question.

The larger problem is what's in front of him. Arvidsson, Rasmussen, and Appleton are all out, and none of them have a timetable attached. Arvidsson was supposed to be the marquee depth addition — signed in July after a 25-goal season in Boston, sidelined 17 days later. That's the kind of luck this organization has had all summer.

Meanwhile, the GM search is still running through a search firm, which means whoever inherits this roster won't have had any hand in building it. They'll get Tarasov in net, three forwards on the shelf, and a forward group that lost Kane to Chicago in July. The core — Larkin, DeBrincat, Raymond, Seider — is real. Everything around it is thin and getting thinner.