The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses the reasons why the Red Wings’ rebuild, or the “Yzerplan,” has “dragged out” over the past couple of years, discussing the Jakub Vrana trade, the Wings’ struggles to beat the Senators, the Jake Walman trade, and what I believe is the most important issue:
Pro scouting departures and fallout
The Yzerman front office has been in place for six years, but it underwent a fairly significant makeover right around the midway point. Mark Howe, who had been the team’s director of pro scouting since 2005 (and a scout since 1995) retired in 2021. Then, during the 2021-22 season, the Red Wings lost another huge voice in that area when assistant general manager Pat Verbeek left to become Anaheim Ducks general manager.
That’s two prominent executives to lose from a key department in a span of months.
The very next offseason, in 2022, saw Detroit get a bit more aggressive in trying to climb the standings. After moving on from head coach Jeff Blashill and bringing in Derek Lalonde, the Red Wings also made their first real push in free agency that year, signing veterans David Perron, Andrew Copp, Ben Chiarot, Olli Määttä and Dominik Kubalik and trading for goaltender Ville Husso.
That free-agent class has aged a bit better than it once appeared it would, but the player acquisitions since then have been a mixed bag. Despite two big wins in trading for DeBrincat in 2023 and signing Kane four months later, the pro scouting department has taken a lot of valid criticism for the 2023 and 2024 offseasons in particular.
Detroit spent a combined $12.49 million per year on Justin Holl, Jeff Petry, Vladimir Tarasenko and Klim Kostin (a trade acquisition) in those summers, which left the Red Wings squeezed against the salary cap. That led to some difficult departures in 2024, including a key leader in Perron and a significant puck mover in Shayne Gostisbehere (himself a 2023 signing), as well as Jake Walman via trade.
Yzerman defended his pro scouting group — which never technically hired a director to replace Howe — at the end of last season, saying: “I think very highly of these young men (on the scouting staff). … They’re starting to learn the league more, understand what we’re trying to do, understand the value of the dollar amount. So I think as a pro scouting staff, we’re becoming a better team. We just simply have to walk away from some of these contracts.”
Continued (paywall); the Red Wings’ pro scouting department has to do much, much better in terms of recruiting players as both undrafted players and as unrestricted free agents. The team needs to import a goal-scorer and a top-four defenseman, and they’ve got to sign players that are better fits for the organization–or just not sign anybody at all some summers.
