I am sure that was a part of his pitch. But yeah I view us having just finished year 3 with him making controlling decisions. But that is because from about August on of the year he stepped down from Tampa I kept hearing that was already the case. I have heard from multiple people that Holland went to fire Blashill after our rough start in October of his last GM season and was going to install Bylsma only to be overruled by Yzerman. So they can push that we had no contact but people were talking about them coming in and out of metro Detroit restaurants all year, he was flying around the world watching players that had no chance to play with Tampa.
It is worth noting since both Zadina and Rasmussen had people that were lower on them around the league that perhaps Yzerman doesn't really view them as top 10 picks.
He clearly feels we need a very deep rebuild and has directed us into a deeper one. I can see the logic, but it is a really dangerous path. Maybe we luck into Wright and this whole things works out, but he does need to figure a way to pull us out of this tailspin in my opinion. People can have all the patience and love for him in the world, but in reality we need to start seeing a lot more progress here over the next couple years or Stevie is in big trouble at some point.
He has scrubbed the cap a bit, something frankly any GM was going to do, even his predecessor seemed committed to that in his last two years too. It is a methodical build, but we are to the point where this thing goes up or you are staring at what Phoenix, Buffalo and Edmonton have gone through to name a few in the recent decades. I will watch all the games, but being the worst team in hockey for a decade really isn't a good idea, it is time to start getting tangibly better, evaluation time is over, time for the bigger fixes in my opinion. Next year is the last year I am mildly okay with trying to have the best lottery odds. I know Bedard is good, but at some point I don't care to look at that, we have to surge forward and get better or this loser culture will take this team for a while in my opinion.