Detroit Red Wings: Patiently Trusting and Sticking to the Yzer-plan
By Bob Heyrman
Detroit Red Wings fans couldn’t have been more excited when the organization announced that the cities’ adopted son Steve Yzerman was set to return to the franchise as the teams’ new General Manager.
It was time for Ken Holland to move on, things became stale in Detroit. Whether you like Holland or not; he deserves some credit for the last four Stanley Cup Championships, mainly the final three as he served as the teams’ GM. Many ‘haters’ refuse to give Holland any credit whatsoever, and nothing we can say will change their mind; welcome to sports. The Detroit Red Wings are in the midst of a rebuild; they needed a breath of fresh air, a new plan–insert the Yzer-plan.
If I were to look at the last two Wings drafts, I would say the ’18 draft was much stronger than Steve Yzerman‘s first draft as the franchises’ GM. It’s much too early to make that assumption at this point, but just looking at it today it appears Filip Zadina & Joe Veleno will have a much more significant impact in the future than Moritz Seider & Antti Tuomisto. I’m just saying if I were betting in Vegas, I’d be putting my money on Zadina and Veleno. For the record, we won’t be able to confirm answer until around 2022/23.
That just backs the fact that Steve Yzerman has a plan for the Detroit Red Wings, leaving us to trust it. He operates in a much different fashion than Ken Holland, Yzerman is a wonderful poker player; he never tells you exactly what he’s thinking hence the outside of the box pick with the sixth overall pick. I didn’t see one mock draft, or one expert projecting Seider being taken in the top ten little own the top six.
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The draft didn’t do anything other than give us the fans a reason to dive in and do a tonne of research and learn about the draft choices. The draft was a strong indication that Yzerman recognizes the team is desperate to land a defenseman or two that can become a difference maker at the NHL level; he drafted three defensemen, throughout his first four picks.
I firmly believe if Ken Holland were the GM the team would have selected center Dylan Cozens with the sixth pick, and for the record, I would have been thrilled. In no way, shape or form saying that is the correct move, but it would have followed plenty of NHL expert predictions. Maybe not having Cozens to Detroit but having him somewhere in the top-six.
The pick of Seider is satisfying now because we understand that Yzerman has a plan, he has an agenda, a vision, and unlike others, it appears he will be sticking to it. He realizes he has a plethora of bad contracts to weed out prior to the franchise turning the corner.
Steve is duct taping some holes in the vessel while he waits for his new ship to arrive. The signing of Valtteri Filppula adds a trusted swiss army knife, a player that can play on the power-play, penalty kill, a reliable top-nine forward. He also provides some lineup versatility allowing Andreas Athanasiou to move back to the wing where he was much more comfortable than playing as a center.
Signing Patrik Nemeth is a depth move, the Detroit Red Wings have plenty of third pairing defenders so why add another? Both Mike Green and Trevor Daley are entering the final year of their contract; both players could be moved as a rental piece elsewhere as the season progresses. Niklas Kronwall is still mulling over if he wants to grind out another NHL season or hang up the skates. Dennis Cholowski may not be quite ready to start the season in Detroit; he will likely begin in Grand Rapids for some more seasoning. Jonathan Ericsson is still Jonathan Ericsson, moving on, the Wings need bodies, Nemeth a viable penalty killer fits the mold.
Wings shockingly pick Moritz Seider Sixth Overall. dark. Next
The Detroit Red Wings won’t likely be taking part in the NHL playoffs next season, but no one should totally rule anything out. The St.Louis Blues just won the Stanley Cup; on January 2nd they were dead last in the NHL. A remarkable turnaround, so it proves we need to be patient and stick to the Yzer-plan, maybe that will be Detroit sooner than we expect.