Did not qualify for the playoffs:
2016 to the present (8 seasons and counting).
Finished 7th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 7th, 5th, 7th, and 5th
This is the most no man's land you can imagine.
Yzerman joined Detroit, April 19 2019. His first draft pick was Moritz Seider. His second 1st round pick the year after: Lucas Raymond. The year after that, Simon Edvinsson, Sebastian Cossa (jury's out) and Carter Mazur. Marco Kasper was the next draft, which by my count has Yzerman hitting bullseye after bullseye in a redraft with Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson and a don't know yet with Kasper.
The year after he drafts Danielson (viewed as an equal foil to Bedard) and then...he drafts ASP and Trey Augustine; Pellika set a record in the SHL for defencemen and Augustine just won the NCAA goalie of the year.
What he is doing is building. When he's done, the effect will not resemble ours. Detroit will have drafted players throughout, with objective reason to be optimistic.
The only bad contracts on the club are Copp and Compher. But they're bad in that they're not ideal. They're movable, but more importantly, they're both under $6M. Count Holl and possibly Chariot as others and it's $3M +$4.5 or something. And its for one more year. And Yzerman has been doing this year after year.
Why? To surround the defining talent with veteran presence while not overextending. It's boring. It seems stagnant and its precisely what we should have done.
The highest paid forward is Larkin, followed closely by Raymond; Both under $9M
The highest paid defenceman is Seider at around $8.5M and those are the bars.
Detroit has all of its draft picks for the next three years plus two more, both in 25: A 3rd and a 7th.
And they'll have room to sign with, plus the cap going up and the biggest forgotten piece of it all?
They're owned by the Illitch Family who WILL absolutely spend. They're simply waiting for the right opportunity, which I suspect is activated exactly when Yzerman says so.
To me its plain as day.
