Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff examines the negative reactions to Steve Yzerman’s free agency moves this morning:
From the moment he became GM of the Detroit Red Wings in 2019, it was appearing that Steve Yzerman was bulletproof. With each move he made in the rebuild of the franchise, the faithful were greeting the transaction with absolute certainty that it was the right thing to do. Stevie Y could do no wrong.
Trust in the Yzerplan was the mantra of the masses.
Has the bloom come off that rose?
Saturday, as the Red Wings began dipping their toes in the NHL UFA pool, it was impossible to drown out the noise from the Detroit fanbase as they began panning each move. Suddenly, they were also questioning Yzerman’s management acumen.
“Guys it’s looking like Yzerman is a bad GM,” posted someone billing themselves as Source on Twitter. “It pains my heart. I almost named my son after him in 2006.”
Many Detroit fans who in the past have walked in lockstep right alongside Yzerman on this journey were doing a harsh 180 in reaction to his latest personnel decisions.
I am puzzled by Steve’s post 1st round draft comment that the Red Wings aren’t ready to make big moves, that they are still in rebuild mode. How does this resonate with the current team and their hopes for the new season. It sounds like we are in for another season of being the plucky annoying team that falls short of the playoffs again. Steve didn’t address the biggest need, more goal scoring. So many scoring chances weren’t finished last year. I better have plenty of hot cocoa and bourbon on hand this winter.
Agreed. If anything, these free agent signings make us a nudge better but still nowhere near a contender and we most likely miss the playoffs but finish in the 15 range aka stuck in hockey purgatory. I wasn’t happy with the Yzerplan last offseason (especially the awful Chiarot signing) and this year was even worse. He literally said he wasn’t gonna spend money just because we had cap room, and yet that’s exactly what he did. Replacing mediocre players with more mediocre players. How many bottom six forwards and big lumbering d-men do we need? Honestly, I’ve been hoping Draper would get plucked away by another team because he seems to have a lot of influence in the front office and I can’t stand his “2 way forward” defensive mentality. This isn’t the 90s anymore, you are not gonna win many 1-0 games. People bring up Vegas, but they scored 26 goals in 5 Cup Final games. Wings have a hard time scoring that many goals in a full month.
So, yeah, I’m no longer fully onboard the Yzerplan. I’ll watch and hope for the best, but this offseason had a Ken Holland feel to it and I think Yzerman is gonna have a lot more critics from this moment on. If Kasper/Danielson/Pellika don’t turn into great NHL players, you basically wasted two years worth of top notch draft capital without making much of a difference. Instead of trading for a Connor you signed JT Compher, instead of getting an elite goal scorer in DeBrincat, you signed more reclamation projects.