This debate is so funny, when comparing to some European teams etc. - how they are build in Finnish Top League.
Some players are just released, for some reasoning, but because there's no draft picks on the play, all the damn bashing fest about winning or losing a trade or good/bad asset management stays away.
Players come and go. That's what will happen in oncoming free agency.
Our 3-time Champion Tappara has been changing their players by 1/3 of roster per year and never looks back. Liiga-level "walmans" go here and there. Don't have to cry after anybody.
That's what I like what Yzerman is doing. He is continuously suffling the room, and not locking long-term on anyone except surefire sure bets, like Larkin is the first 8-year deal guy. Seider will be next, then I don't know.
But let the man build. He knows what it was on the glory days and he will want that environment back. It will mean no rotten apples. Short-term deal deal to taste the personnel. Then they are locked or not.
And this will continue, until we have 20 guys for the perfect room.
This overblown love for a player like Jake Walman is really NHL fans problem. He is just cattle. And I'm not Jimmy Devellano, even though I wanted to be.