The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s remarks regarding his decision to not make a blockbuster move at the trade deadline…
“Players that have short term on their contracts, and are younger and going to be part of this group for more than one or two years, I’d be open to doing that type of deal,” said Yzerman, of trading away draft picks or prospects. “That type of deal wasn’t available. Pending UFAs that teams were selling off, we didn’t even get into those discussions.
“Where we’re at, and we’d love to make the playoffs, but to get into that rental thing and giving up our first-round draft picks and all and what we consider our top prospects, we’d all agree whether we like it or not being in that situation, that’s not the thing to do right now.
“I understand the frustration or impatience. This is a hockey market and people know the game and want the team to do well. I would say we did what we thought we could to give us a better chance to make the playoffs.”
And there’s this:
Yzerman is pleased with the turnaround of the team since replacing Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan as head coach on Dec. 26.
“Pleased for the most part with how the team has responded,” Yzerman said. “Coming out of the (4 Nations) break here, a little bit we’ve lost some steam. But I’m very pleased. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t make the change just to give us a little bump. Todd is a very good coach and he’s going to take this team … he’ll do a good job moving forward with us.”