Where did Yzerman go wrong with the rebuild?

[19 for president]

Beginning to think this entire rebuild hinges on finding a quality replacement for Larkin to take over once he's in his thirties. Could stand to find some more LW, too. Don't know how you can't feel good about the defense and goalies going forward.

Beginning to think this entire rebuild hinges on finding a quality replacement for Larkin to take over once he's in his thirties. Could stand to find some more LW, too. Don't know how you can't feel good about the defense and goalies going forward.

Agreed. I actually mostly like where we are going prospect wise, but I this is going to be a slowish rebuild because we never landed that top 1 or 2 pick to get that star center. We are building from backend and those guys typically take a bit longer to hit their primes.

Goalie: With Cossa and Augustine I think we are will get 1 if not 2 really good NHL starters
Defense: You have the top 4 anchors with Seider and Ed. I think ASP has the makings of the PP maestro, and then you just have to hope that one of Aljo, AntJo, Buium, or Wallinder can round out the top 4 with steady play. They don't need to be world beaters and honestly I don't want them to be because we already have probably (2) 8 mil guys in Seider/Ed (Soon) and maybe a 3rd in ASP if he puts up the offensive numbers we think he can. We can't afford more.
Offense: Ray is a PPG star winger. Kasper I think ends up as a great 3rd line center or fills a Bert type role in the top 6. Maybe 2nd line center with more offensive wingers, but I don't see him as an offensive line driving center. (Would love to be wrong here!) MBN has the grit and shot to be a new age PF. Danielson is the one I hope ends up as replacing Larkin, but he still has quite a ways to develop. I think he's a safe bet as a more offensive 2nd line center (than say Kasper). Then you have Lombardi, Finnie, Berg and Buch developing in that offensive winger mold. I like the nice mix of size and grit we have in that potential top 9. We could certainly use another line driving star guy, maybe Buch will turn into that.

MBN- TBD- Ray
Mazur-Danielson-Buch
Berg/Lombardi-Kasper-Finnie
TBD-Savage-TBD

Seider-Wallinder
Ed- ASP
TBD-TBD

Cossa/ Augustine
TBD

This is a team that is going to win on grit and defense largely, but I do like the skill pieces we have. I'd feel better if we had that sure fire 1st C in the system, but its not a terrible setup. It just isn't flashy. Also NHL teams usually don't have 90% drafted guys so we will likely see signings or trades.

I hate the way this years team was constructed and that Lalonde is still coach, but I don't think our rebuild is a disaster either. I just want to get a coach in sooner rather than later that can actually help develop guys like Seider/Ed/Aljo/Kasper/Ray/etc so that they can reach their peaks.