Detroit Redwings Downfall

[Dread Clawz]

For a Florida fan you seem to be struggling to see value in anything that isn't a scoring forward.

No, I know what it takes to win the Cup. You need quality and depth all over your lineup. And I know from the 2022 team that scoring alone isn't gonna bring you the Cup. Tampa shut us down and brought out the brooms. The fact is, what Detroit has just isn't good enough. And they aim to be a bubble team/playoff team from here on out, so the chances of landing a star in that range of the 1st round is pretty slim. Now, my view is that Yzerman is banking on landing a huge name via trade or free agency at some point. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Otherwise, this rebuild just ain't gonna work. I'm not saying this to be disparaging, I honestly want Detroit to do well. The league is better off when the original 6 teams are good. It's just my honest view, and from one who is a fan of a team who had two failed rebuilds in a row. Florida was Buffalo before Buffalo. Actually, they were worse. I get Yzerman wanted the team to improve ASAP, but what he actually did is killed the rebuild in it's infancy.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

They’d have a better future outlook without Larkin, Seider, Raymond, Debrincat?

Larkin and Debrincat will be declining by the time Detroit becomes a contender (if ever). They botched this rebuild big time.

 

[Puckstuff]

It's not difficult. There's a finite amount of elite players and Detroit does not have them.

They play in Toronto, Florida and Tampa.

 

[norrisnick]

No, I know what it takes to win the Cup. You need quality and depth all over your lineup. And I know from the 2022 team that scoring alone isn't gonna bring you the Cup. Tampa shut us down and brought out the brooms. The fact is, what Detroit has just isn't good enough. And they aim to be a bubble team/playoff team from here on out, so the chances of landing a star in that range of the 1st round is pretty slim. Now, my view is that Yzerman is banking on landing a huge name via trade or free agency at some point. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Otherwise, this rebuild just ain't gonna work. I'm not saying this to be disparaging, I honestly want Detroit to do well. The league is better off when the original 6 teams are good. It's just my honest view, and from one who is a fan of a team who had two failed rebuilds in a row. Florida was Buffalo before Buffalo. Actually, they were worse. I get Yzerman wanted the team to improve ASAP, but what he actually did is killed the rebuild in it's infancy.

Only in the sense that he no longer wanted a bottom 5 team as that helps absolutely nothing if you don't get the ping pong balls to drop. None of the moves Yzerman has made say "win now and fast". Not in the least. It's insulate the few kids on the roster while he waits for the other kids to be ready. Yes, some of the insulation has worked better than others, but he'd rather a 30yo get hammered on the 2nd pairing than a teenager or even 20yo.

At this point, people just need to listen to his press conferences if they aren't going to listen to Wing fans explain it. There is nothing mystical or magical expected. It's incremental improvement because shortcuts can't be forced. They either fall in your lap (via lottery or RFA/UFA demanding to play for you) or they don't. Is what it is. Fans that didn't know what was going on placed hero status on Yzerman. And fans that don't know what is going on are hammering him for that alleged hero status that neither he, nor the fans in the know, ever ascribed to him.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Only in the sense that he no longer wanted a bottom 5 team as that helps absolutely nothing if you don't get the ping pong balls to drop. None of the moves Yzerman has made say "win now and fast". Not in the least. It's insulate the few kids on the roster while he waits for the other kids to be ready. Yes, some of the insulation has worked better than others, but he'd rather a 30yo get hammered on the 2nd pairing than a teenager or even 20yo.

At this point, people just need to listen to his press conferences if they aren't going to listen to Wing fans explain it. There is nothing mystical or magical expected. It's incremental improvement because shortcuts can't be forced. They either fall in your lap (via lottery or RFA/UFA demanding to play for you) or they don't. Is what it is. Fans that didn't know what was going on placed hero status on Yzerman. And fans that don't know what is going on are hammering him for that alleged hero status that neither he, nor the fans in the know, ever ascribed to him.

Fair enough. I just don't think he was patient enough with the ping pong balls. After a couple tries it seems he decided to change course and improve the team through other methods. I think if he stuck with the tanking, things would be looking better now. But we'll see what happens. It'll be interesting to revisit this discussion in say, three years.

 

[Bank Shot]

And this season the Wings are 3rd from the bottom of the league in shooting % 5v5.

Shouldn't math tell us they aren't as bad as they've been thus far this season?

They are still one of the worst teams in the league in all the underlying numbers like corsi, shots% and expected goals %.

I would expect the math expects them to miss the playoffs yet again.

 

[Dotter]

No, I know what it takes to win the Cup. [...]

I get Yzerman wanted the team to improve ASAP, but what he actually did is killed the rebuild in it's infancy.

Pure gold. Random hockey forum member/armchair GM telling HHOF 3 time Stanley Cup champion who Captained his team to over 25 playoff appearances, and is part of the Gold club what it takes to win a cup. Lol

I promise you there's more Red Wings fans on this board that know more about what it takes to win a cup in their pinky tip than your one time experience streaming a cup game online.

Wings can't bottom out, Yzerman drafted too good of talent to sink the ship. Yzerman has more talent coming up through the pipeline. You haven't even seen 25% of their potential yet. They are still keeping pace in the Atlantic division despite off to a slow start. Just 3 points behind Boston with 3 games in hand.

I don't know who you are comparing DRWs rebuild to... but from where I am sitting, Yzerman has done a good job. If you want to call Holland's (pre-2019) rebuild a botched attempt, I'll give you that. Yzerman had to start from scratch.

If you compare Wings rebuild to Ottawa's for example, this phase of OTT's rebuild has been going on since Chabot 2015. They are almost 10 years in and still can't make the playoffs.

Your Panthers has been rebuilding since Jonathan Huberdeau 2011. That was a sick trade for Tkachuk! But it took them 14 years to win anything and lots of luck.

Yzerman is in his 5th year....