The ‘subtle tank’ is an argument I don’t buy into

I’m admittedly a bit biased at times, so you’re going to have to excuse me for subtly disagreeing with The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin regarding the suggestion that the Detroit Red Wings are still “trying” to tank, a comment made during an article about Central Division Stanley Cup Windows:

REBUILDING: Detroit Red Wings

Steve Yzerman continues to lay low and subtly tank. Don’t let the slew of respectable veteran roster additions fool you. It’s true that Bobby Ryan, Vladislav Namestnikov, Troy Stecher, Thomas Greiss and so on will help the Wings be less of an embarrassment after posting the lowest points percentage by any team in 20 years last season. But they were all signed to one- or two- year deals. The one-year additions are set up to be trade-deadline rental flips. The two-year additions are expansion-draft bait. And the veteran presences are also there to block Detroit’s youngsters from earning roster spots by default.

Speaking of the youth movement: defenseman Moritz Seider, center Joe Veleno and left winger Lucas Raymond will remain in Europe this season. None is even attending camp. The Wings aren’t rushing their top prospects and clearly have no plans to make a run for the playoffs this year. If they did, they’d at the very least be giving Seider a long look. So we can bet on another run at the draft lottery in Motown.

Continued; roster flexibility does not mean that a GM is saying, “Well, eff it, see you at the draft!” and the Red Wings’ players and coach have been very vocal in suggesting that they want to improve somehow over the course of this upcoming season. What form that improvement may take, we don’t know yet, but these guys have some damn pride here.

Regarding Veleno and Seider, that was the team’s call, certainly, but Raymond can’t come to camp because the team never signed him to an entry-level contract. That’s irrelevant.

I could go on, but, yes, the Red Wings are rebuilding, and no, they are not trying to suck as hard as they possibly can just because it’s an easy narrative to sell.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

2 thoughts on “The ‘subtle tank’ is an argument I don’t buy into”

  1. I didn’t read his BS. He has trouble trying to decide on which washroom to use. BS sells more than the truth.

    1. If this pin head really thinks StevieY thinks about finishing LAST, say it to his face. ps Make sure your Will is done!!!

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