So you're basing this purely on team PR? The reality is that right now Detroit and Ottawa are both in roughly the same spot. And while Detroit does have a better prospect pool, Ottawa also has more young players playing in the NHL and contributing; essentially, they're where Detroit will be in 2 years. And technically, Detroit has been in the basement even longer than Ottawa, so it's not like Ottawa had more time to rebuild.
Mind you, this isn't a defense of Ottawa's rebuild, which I think has been pretty mediocre. I just don't think Detroit is in position to criticize.
I am going on what the GM has been repeating ad nauseam since his hiring, and by the evidence of his placeholder contacts.
**EDIT: If Yzerman wanted to make a statement about winning, he would have fired the coach last week.
The opposite where OTT's GM declaring their rebuild is over and started spending draft capital foolishly.
Yzerman is hanging on to his draft capital (and trading for more; Matta) like gold. So far Yzerman has 8 draft picks this upcoming draft. OTT only has 6.
Both teams are equally as bad. One has lots of draft capital and an amazing prospect pool and up-and-coming players, whereas the other looks to be handing out HUGE contracts to overrated goalies and hoping for the best. No clear path in sight.
It's true that Talbot could return something if he continues his good form, though the market for goalies is rarely that rewarding. Chiarot or Petry could probably return a mid-round pick with retention, despite their poor play. But Copp and Compher have too many years left, and Kane and Tarasenko just look cooked. The trade deadline won't do much for Detroit.
Yup Lion or Talbot could return nice pieces. Kane could return something for scoring depth. Fischer or Motte could return for some bottom 6 energy/physical depth. Maybe a team out loses a bottom pairing dman and needs to fill a hole quickly, Petry is available. And probably the most valuable piece would be Berggren. Young player who's shown some tenacity and scoring ability.
It really depends on the demand come TDL. It's like death and taxes that teams love spending draft capital who think they can win a cup but need that extra depth. Yzerman can offer a cheap alternative.
I don't think you realize just how difficult it is to replace AND upgrade 35% of your roster with purely prospects in only a couple years. I actually really like Detroit's current prospect pool, but it's completely unrealistic to expect any development system to achieve this.
I don't think he needs to replace 35% through prospects. I think he just needs some kids to hit then he can fill gaps trading draft capital or UFA options. Right now UFAs aren't too interested in coming to Detroit, but as more kids hit, I think more UFA will be happy to come to an original 6 team with a historically strong pedigree of winning culture.
Let's be optimistic and go along with your scenario: let's say all those prospects (Danielson, MBN, Cossa, ASP and one of the rest) hit and are good NHL players within 2-3 years. Even in this scenario, Detroit still winds short a couple top-9 forwards and one top-4 Dman. And that's a big problem, because it's not like the team can rely on having a lot of elite offensive talent to compensate for a lack of depth. Even with all of Detroit's current most promising young players integrated into the lineup, this team isn't close to being a contender.
And that's ignoring the fact that things never go that smoothly in a rebuild. Detroit core players will inevitably experience bumps in the road, injuries, regression; that's just reality. And we haven't even touched on the fact that Larkin by then will have entered his 30s, and will likely regress (players that rely on their speed as much as Larkin rarely age that well), leaving a big hole at #1C that no current Detroit prospect can realistically fill.
Even if some of those aforementioned players don't hit, Yzerman has been known to trade underperformers for legit talent; see Jonathan Drouin trade Mikhail Sergachev 2017. That trade alone helped push Tampa over the hump.
I think it is easy to be optimistic with how much strong talent Yzerman has drafted, and looks like in 2025 he will be adding more to that.
Yzerman's special trading skills don't seem to have survived the transition to Detroit unscathed, because his trade record has not been that impressive in the past 6 years. Aside from the (admittedly solid) Debrincat acquisition
Yzerman isn't trading draft capital. Debrincat fell in his lap and was willing to sign a long contract, so he did. If say Eichel and Miro Heiskanen both fell in his lap in the same regard, he would more than happy use draft capital on those guys. And we would be having a completely different conversation.
As of right now, there's no need to use draft capital. Lets see what we have in the system before spending... Maybe MBN becomes something special and suddenly Yzerman is set on a #1 centerman for the foreseeable future. Maybe he's a bust. We don't know.
That's what TML did with the Tavaras UFA signing. Leafs could have used his cap hit in other ways so they actually could make it out of the 1st round... Yzerman doesn't appear interested in making those same mistake.
been mostly low-stakes garbage-in, garbage-out trades. The fact that he only added a single good non-draft piece to this team in 6 years is underwhelming. It's also part of the reason why this roster has so many holes right now, too many to be filled purely by prospects.
Refer to the top. He's been saying all along he's rebuilding. That's the bottom line that people can't seem to get to grips with.
Hey, maybe it's not Yzerman's fault that he lost the lottery and didn't get a swing at Stutzle or Hughes. Maybe he is using the cards he was given.
I do think Red Wings fans have a lot to be excited about. But I am sure it is frustrating. Luckily for them they get the NFL Lions to lean on and distract from the ongoing Yzerplan.
