Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown wrote an article discussing Steve Yzerman’s drafting as the Red Wings’ general manager a couple of days ago, and today, he continues a series analyzing Detroit’s drafting (called “The Anatomy of the Yzerplan”) by comparing the late Ken Holland regime’s draft record to that of the 3 years‘ worth of Steve Yzerman:
Looking at the entire body of work for both general managers, many of the observations made over the past few years regarding the drafting differences have been backed up statistically. Yzerman has gone heavier in the international leagues while Holland tended to favor the Canadian junior leagues, with 35% of his picks coming from north of the border. The strategy for Detroit paid off in earlier rounds, but the magic wasn’t there as the rounds went later.
A final takeaway here is that Holland and Yzerman had different objectives when drafting. Holland had playoff teams until 2017, using draft capital to acquire talent for long playoff runs. It didn’t pay off, and when push came to shove, Holland started targeting the acquisition of picks instead of peddling.
During Yzerman’s tenure, he’s simply looked to acquire as many picks as he could while rarely, if ever, surrendering them. Though there’s a different mindset, Yzerman has done well with his first round picks, making sure those foundational pieces are being set. The later rounds will come into focus over the next few years.
