The Detroit News’s John Niyo posted a column which discusses Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s “lukewarm approach” to the NHL offseason this spring and summer. Niyo critiques the “Yzerplan” without using that word out loud, and he suggests that the Red Wings’ offseason signings have been a net…somewhere in the middle of things…as compared to the all-in approach of Barry Trotz’s Nashville Predators:
Here in Hockeytown, though, it’s a different state of affairs, even if Patrick Kane’s decision to re-sign with Detroit — on a surprising one-year deal — sends an encouraging message about the prospects for another serious playoff push next season. Kane, who produced 20 goals and 47 points in 50 games, coming off hip surgery, is getting a full offseason to train for a full regular season, neither of which he had a year ago.
[Vladimir] Tarasenko’s addition, meanwhile, satisfies Yzerman’s stated goal of adding an “impact” forward to the Wings’ top six. A six-time 30-goal scorer in the NHL, Tarasenko potted 23 last season for Ottawa and Florida, then added five more in the Panthers’ Cup run while showing he still possesses both an elite shot and, at 6-foot-1 and 220-plus pounds, an ability to win puck battles and operate in tough spaces.
That fills some of the void left by David Perron’s signing in Ottawa, but it doesn’t change the fact Yzerman needs to replace upwards of 60 goals from a roster that, according to the analytics, netted more than its fair share a year ago. And the decision to move Fabbri (18 goals in 68 games) certainly leaves the door open for more maneuvering here.
But it also leaves room for some of the young talent waiting in the wings, including former first-round pick Marco Kasper, who proved he’s ready in the AHL last season. That’s something Yzerman hinted at after last season, and it’s where the Wings’ GM has shifted his focus over the last few years. After trying to accelerate the rebuild in free agency in 2022, and handing out a few contracts he likely regrets as the team continued to spin its wheels, now we’re finally getting an acknowledgment of the real timeline here.
“I’m hopeful that somehow in the next couple of years, (with) this nucleus of relatively young players that we have,” Yzerman said last month, pointing to Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat on one end and his most recent top picks on the other, ”all of a sudden, we have a group of 12 guys who are 21 to 29 (years old) and that’s our group for that playoff window.”
Continued; I never thought that this was less than a 10-year rebuild, and that doesn’t make me “Doubt the Yzerplan”; it makes me someone who’s tried to be realistic about the machinations of a GM and front office who sometimes make masterful choices, but are just as prone to make mistakes as any other fallible human beings are wont to do.
