Ville Husso looked healthy and sounded hopeful when he met with reporters a couple days after the Detroit Red Wings' season ended, but the team has to be cautious.

At season's end for the Red Wings, here is one reporter's assessment on each player based on performance and expectations.

Steve Yzerman and Derek Lalonde spoke Friday of how coming so close to the playoffs raised expectations for the Detroit Red Wings.

Yzerman said it’s important the Red Wings continue their upward trajectory. Detroit went 17-49-5 (39 points) in Yzerman’s first full season at the helm in 2019-20, then ended the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign at 19-27-10 (48 points). After going 32-40-10 (74 points) in 2021-22, the Red Wings finished 35-37-10 (80 points) in 2022-23.

Derek Lalonde told the Detroit Red Wings players to be proud of how hard they battled to be in playoff chase till the end.

Detroit Red Wings laud fan base: 'it's been tremendous' Wings stay in playoff race: 'Really hard to knock team’s compete' Red Wings on Lucas Raymond's performances in intense playoff race Red Wings on Lucas Raymond's performance,

DETROIT -- Patrick Kane would have no issues returning to the Detroit Red Wings next season, but neither he nor general manager Steve Yzerman sounded optimistic that would happen, with each speaking of the 35-year-old forward's one-season tenure here in the past tense this week.