DETROIT — The Red Wings missed out on the playoffs on the final night of the regular season on a tiebreaker, after finishing with the same number of points as Washington.

The Wings certainly had the look of a playoff team, the feel of it. And heading into this season, after the first week of unrestricted free agency, general manager Steve Yzerman feels the Wings should be just as good next season.

"I don't think it's any different than I felt last year," Yzerman said during Thursday's media conference. "We're in that group of teams that has a chance to compete for the playoffs if we stay healthy and if our goaltending is good and you get some, maybe unexpected production some players outplay your expectations, you might get in.

"Or you might miss by a point on the last game of the season. That's the fine line of it all."

The Wings have missed the playoffs the last eight seasons, including the last five with Yzerman managing the Wings. Yzerman admitted to feeling some pressure to get into the playoffs, but he's not going to change his master plan.

"Our fan base wants to win and we came close last year in making the playoffs," Yzerman said. "The finish of our season was very exciting and dramatic. Maybe a little misleading in that we have to really improve like we've talked in some areas, we have to get deeper. We'd love to make the playoffs this year and I'm hopeful, but we'll continue to build a strong nucleus of players that will be around here.

"Pressure, whatever you want to call it, will not change what I'm trying to do."

The Wings were able to re-sign free agent forwards Patrick Kane and Christian Fischer, and signed forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Tyler Motte, goaltenders Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell (Port Huron) and defensemen Erik Gustafsson and William Lagesson.

They didn't re-sign forwards David Perron and Daniel Sprong, defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and goaltender James Reimer, and traded away defenseman Jake Walman (San Jose) and forward Robby Fabbri (Anaheim) to create financial space under the salary cap.

"I like our group, our roster today," Yzerman said. "Compared to last year's group, it's a little bit different, might be a little bit better fit as far as roles for players. I expect it to be a comparable team next year."

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