Are DRW fans OK with maybe being a contender in 2 or 3 years? The playoff drought is getting pretty long. No guarantee the kids will pan out. Seems like it might be time to cash a few chips in for a difference maker.
Like I get what you're saying and all but players won't wait forever to win
The capped out comment isn't really an issue for this year now with the Fabbri trade so that was definitely a shrewd move. Just the constant stream of middling acquisitions is a bit confusing. Tank and Kane aren't middling but in general there have been many.
I think most of us understand building a great team, that is what is being pitched. A lot of Wings fans, some are much younger now but a lot of Wings fans witnessed a two decade run with constant home ice advantage. Depends on the players you're building it with.
Yzerman has been discussed a lot more harshly the last week than at any other point in terms of Detroit. There is also a pretty big discussion in our fan-base that a lot of the deals that were being handed out were insane. When you constantly gripe about the money spent on x,y, and z well hard to criticize only getting player people are mostly okay with. I think there was a bigger plan to be had, but it didn't materialize so he didn't force it.
I think it is understandable to date the team he took over and where he is. Ownership pushed Holland there and Yzerman is basically like another child to Marian and the late Mike Ilitch. He isn't in the danger that people want him to be and he was ideally situated to have a patient rebuild. He has re-established tremendous organizational depth and the team has gotten better every year. Other teams can mock that but there is a logical build here that I can honestly defend. It is going slower than we have hoped but in our one tank year we got lottery screwed, luckily we got Raymond but it isn't like he has had a ton of breaks and the team has just got progressively better while gaining depth at every level. Again that is his job, run him from a different market, lots do around Detroit. For some of us while progress needs to come, yes the true contention goal really is probably 2 or 3 years out. Need to keep making gains, but the panic and laughs seem to ignore that they have upgraded in goal, are graduating a guy that finished as their second or third best d-man being promoted and have some very projectable prospects that will begin replacing vets as early as this year. Edvinsson going on the second pair was always going to be their biggest and most important gain of the off-season.