Did the Game Pass Red Wings Yzerman By?

In looking back over his seven years as GM of the Detroit Red Wings, is it unfair to suggest that perhaps the game had passed Steve Yzerman by?

Certainly, it’s fair to say that during his tenure as GM of the team, several other teams passed by the Red Wings. Even the woeful Buffalo Sabres were able to leapfrog Detroit and end their NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.

That’s left the Red Wings holding the longest active absence from the NHL postseason at 10 years and counting. And it’s certainly accurate to suggest that lengthy absence played a role in Yzerman’s departure from the GM’s chair.

Is his way of doing things in today’s game so out of touch that Yzerman could be labeled a dinosaur? Was the Yzerplan in fact nothing more than Yzermanasaurus Wrecks?

That seems harsh. And yet, when a team goes 10 years without playing a single playoff game, deep scrutiny of company policies are certainly warranted.

Let’s be brutally honest here. A few years from now, Yzerman could become the Al Avila of the Red Wings.

The Tigers fanbase campaigned for years for the removal of GM Avila. Then after he left, the Tigers began making the playoffs with some Avila draftees filling key roles.

Yzerman’s draft fingerprints are already on the Red Wings roster. Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson, Emmitt Finnie, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, and Albert Johansson are all Yzerman picks.

His ultimate legacy will be determined by how much players such as Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Mazur, Nate Danielson, William Wallinder, Carter Bear, Trey Augustine, and JP Hurlbert, among others, contribute to the future of the franchise.

However, you only have to look at last spring’s Stanley Cup final to recognize reality. The draft is only one element in building a championship roster.

The Vegas Golden Knights basically eschew the draft.

Each of the past two Cup winners, the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, made use of blockbuster deals and free-agent signings to supplement homegrown draft picks. Yzerman was too reluctant to attempt the kind of transactions that would boldly move the needle in the team’s development.

Red Wings Failed to Embrace a True Youth Movement

The Red Wings did insert some young players. In the case of Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson, they were able to count on them to fill key roles.

Still, it always seemed that they were only half-committed to a youth movement.

Yzerman stayed with the traditional Detroit philosophy of letting prospects ripen on the vine with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins. It meant that they traded goalie Sebastian Cossa, a 2021 first-round pick, after he’d played less than a full game in the NHL.

The Wings inserted way too many mediocre journeymen into roles that could’ve been filled in house by prospects.

Meanwhile, teams like Buffalo, Ottawa, and Montreal fully embraced youth and sailed past Detroit in the standings.

To be clear, analytics aren’t the only metric that a team should be using to determine their path for the future. At the same time, to not embrace what the data can tell you, or to blatantly ignore it, would be foolhardy.

The Red Wings did give lip service to the concept. How many times did we hear former coach Derek Lalonde refer to the underlying numbers?

Still, you just never got the sense that the club was fully on board with the value of analytics.

It’s known from sources within the organization that Red Wings owner Chris Ilitch is quite enamored with Tigers GM Scott Harris. Ilitch admires the way the Tigers are utilizing analytics in that club’s turnaround from basement dwellers to playoff team.

Was Ilitch alarmed by the lack of the same from the leadership group of his hockey team?

The hiring they make to replace Yzerman could reveal that answer.