Where did Yzerman go wrong with the rebuild?

Winger98

Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
23,261
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Cleveland
Edvinsson was never going to play on the team last season.
I don't mind the d-men stop gaps, just some got too long contracts to my liking.

I think there's a lot of truth to this. If the Wings really wanted Ed up earlier they could have easily made room for him just by sending someone else down to GR. We had the cap space to just swallow a cap hit like that.

I can't find the interview but Yzerman talked about how they wanted some guys to just stay in GR for the year and not get yo-yoed. Kaspar, Mazur, and Ed I'm betting were those guys. Wouldn't surprise me if Nate is that guy this year.
 
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Oddbob

Registered User
Jan 21, 2016
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He didn't draft Gretzky and he was there for the taking too! What a bonehead!
 

RedHawkDown

still trying to trust the yzerplan
Aug 26, 2011
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I still think acquiring all of Holl, Petry, Chiarot, Maatta, and Gustafsson is a bit much. 3 of those guys, fine. All of them is truly just an unnecessary logjam of shit and a lot of wasted dollars. Especially Holl, who's always been trash and will always be trash.

I'm a fan of the Seider and Raymond contracts. I still think Benson was the right choice over Danielson but otherwise 1st round drafting has been great for where we've had chances to pick.

Copp is a bad contract but thats the only real bad contract on forward. D is where he's really wasted dollars.

Overall it's going okay. Are we allowed to have nuanced opinions here or is it just "you love Yzerman or you hate him? "
 

heyfolks

Registered User
Apr 30, 2007
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I still think acquiring all of Holl, Petry, Chiarot, Maatta, and Gustafsson is a bit much. 3 of those guys, fine. All of them is truly just an unnecessary logjam of shit and a lot of wasted dollars. Especially Holl, who's always been trash and will always be trash.

I'm a fan of the Seider and Raymond contracts. I still think Benson was the right choice over Danielson but otherwise 1st round drafting has been great for where we've had chances to pick.

Copp is a bad contract but thats the only real bad contract on forward. D is where he's really wasted dollars.

Overall it's going okay. Are we allowed to have nuanced opinions here or is it just "you love Yzerman or you hate him? "

D - That D was a train wreck when Yzerman came aboard. I won't argue that a few of these signings were shots in the dark, but I think the organization thought, why the hell not. The Holl signing is the one call out I completely agree on. Stevie was given bad intel. That guy is an AHL player, given a golden ticket by Detroit.

Copp sucks. This is a signing I am surprised occurred. Way too much money on a player who had good season (what will be his career best) and has now returned to his median level of play. Call him Abby or Frans Nielson like but in every way this was a horrible deal.

So, while I agree with the general statement, I do not see Yzerman as having gone wrong, just that mistakes are a natural part of rebuilding a team from the prospects on up. If it is love or hate, love. If nuance is allowed, I really, really, really like Stevie. hahaha
 

OgeeOgelthorpe

Riccis per 60 record holder
Feb 29, 2020
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D - That D was a train wreck when Yzerman came aboard. I won't argue that a few of these signings were shots in the dark, but I think the organization thought, why the hell not. The Holl signing is the one call out I completely agree on. Stevie was given bad intel. That guy is an AHL player, given a golden ticket by Detroit.

Copp sucks. This is a signing I am surprised occurred. Way too much money on a player who had good season (what will be his career best) and has now returned to his median level of play. Call him Abby or Frans Nielson like but in every way this was a horrible deal.

So, while I agree with the general statement, I do not see Yzerman as having gone wrong, just that mistakes are a natural part of rebuilding a team from the prospects on up. If it is love or hate, love. If nuance is allowed, I really, really, really like Stevie. hahaha

Nobody expected Copp to suck as bad as he did, especially when he looked realgud playing for NYR. He was mostly in a 3rd line role prior to his big UFA season. Then that core surgery really robbed him of a lot of mobility and strength on the puck.

In hindsight, Trocheck was the right move. Or Danault the year before. It sucks that Copp became what he is now, but hopefully the Wings can dump him in 2025 for a bag of pucks. They really shouldn't ride it out with him after this year.
 
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ricky0034

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Jun 8, 2010
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I think he went wrong by not winning the lottery from 2019-2021. And he should've drafted Savoie, Benson, Perreault and Eiserman. Defense be damned, we need small skilled offense only easy to play against forwards!

then why should he have drafted Benson?

it's funny how nobody who says things like this ever seems to have any idea who Benson even is other than that he has below average size and put up a bunch of points in juniors
 

JediOrderPizza

Registered User
Apr 15, 2012
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then why should he have drafted Benson?

it's funny how nobody who says things like this ever seems to have any idea who Benson even is other than that he has below average size and put up a bunch of points in juniors
I'm pretty sure that is sarcasm, since they opened it up with Yzerman failing to win a lottery.
 

JohanFranzenstein

Registered User
Dec 6, 2013
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then why should he have drafted Benson?

it's funny how nobody who says things like this ever seems to have any idea who Benson even is other than that he has below average size and put up a bunch of points in juniors
I was being a weeeee bit sarcastic, my b :help:
 

ricky0034

Registered User
Jun 8, 2010
15,469
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I'm pretty sure that is sarcasm, since they opened it up with Yzerman failing to win a lottery.

well yeah obviously

but Benson makes the parts I quoted not make logical sense he's basically the opposite of offense only and easy to play against
 

heyfolks

Registered User
Apr 30, 2007
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Nobody expected Copp to suck as bad as he did, especially when he looked realgud playing for NYR. He was mostly in a 3rd line role prior to his big UFA season. Then that core surgery really robbed him of a lot of mobility and strength on the puck.

In hindsight, Trocheck was the right move. Or Danault the year before. It sucks that Copp became what he is now, but hopefully the Wings can dump him in 2025 for a bag of pucks. They really shouldn't ride it out with him after this year.

Completely agree on the hindsight moves. I don't think Copp was robbed of anything with the surgery. He was just lucky to have a career year, in the ideal situation when he going into UFA status. Sort of like Marty LaPointe.

With this roster, the optimal end is for ND, the Golden Domer, Nate the Great, whatever his nickname is to earn that #2 center role with Kane and Tarasenko on his wings. This pushes Compher to #3 and Copp to a role he will excel at, #4 center. Heavy price to pay for this role, but ND will offset that pay until Copp is off the roster.
 

Snuggs

Registered User
Jun 24, 2018
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I think we should change the title to: Where did the people who think Yaerman's rebuild went wrong go wrong.

full
 

Retire91

Stevey Y you our Guy
May 31, 2010
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I feel like the only criticisms are
1.) we didn't make the playoffs by some arbitrary time frame
What exactly were you expecting from a team that was driven through the floor into a dumpster that was on fire in the basement? Any signing that would been made to try to climb out of that hole would have been a boat anchor that never would have let the team build. Its a strength that Yzerman has convinced management to be patient to stay the course and it has paid off with an actual core

2.) a handful of signings were not great. We do realize these signings were plugs right? To get through the interim period when we were playing throw away seasons of hockey as a result of Holand's streak. What exactly is the criticism when you take into account that the future was not banking that any of these players amount to something? None of the contracts last beyond a term where they would start to hinder the team. A handful of plugs that played below averages has absolutely zero impact on the rebuild. Are they bad signings, yes, does it matter zilch notta that they were bad signings, also yes.

Criticizing the GM for missing the playoffs by one point with a fraction of the team he is actually building, and for signing some stinker plugs through meaningless rebuilding seasons, I mean, got anything else?
 

Pengu

Registered User
Jun 24, 2016
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The biggest critism you can point to is the fact that he is really poor in the UFA market.
This leads both to overpayment of the UFA's coming in and blocking promising young players to develop and get their chance getting stuck in the AHL.
 
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Scottgaf1

Registered User
Nov 11, 2020
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The rebuild is taking longer for two mai reasons.

1. Detroit hasn't had any lottery luck.

2. Their division is loaded. Even a solid season like last year has them on the outside.
 
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The Zetterberg Era

Ball Hockey Sucks
Nov 8, 2011
41,228
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Ft. Myers, FL
Completely agree on the hindsight moves. I don't think Copp was robbed of anything with the surgery. He was just lucky to have a career year, in the ideal situation when he going into UFA status. Sort of like Marty LaPointe.

With this roster, the optimal end is for ND, the Golden Domer, Nate the Great, whatever his nickname is to earn that #2 center role with Kane and Tarasenko on his wings. This pushes Compher to #3 and Copp to a role he will excel at, #4 center. Heavy price to pay for this role, but ND will offset that pay until Copp is off the roster.
We have agreed that Danielson's nickname will be the "Karate Kid". I really don't want to see another one used.
 

jkutswings

hot piss hockey
Jul 10, 2014
11,557
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I don't think there is a "went wrong" issue, unless we're counting awful luck in the lottery. Overall I don't like the free agents he's signed. But at least to an extent I can understand several of the moves, and even the worst of them will be off the books in the next few years.

The one piece I'm still not convinced on is whether Fester is the right coach. I understand that if you give some blame for the losses, you also have to give some credit for the wins. But after all the blunders with time outs and other in-game management issues, the dude needs to learn his lesson. And it's ok if that just translates into having the self awareness to know that everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and this is his particular Achilles heel, so he hires somebody or entrusts some degree of responsibility to an existing assistant for that facet of the game. (Provided that he lets the guy do his job, and listens to the "timeout analytics guy" during those moments.)

But if this year there's zero change, and Detroit keeps giving games away from the head coach refusing to intervene when a situation starts to get out of hand... The guy needs to hit the road. Yes, in the grand scheme of things it's not a very big factor. But it's a needlessly frustrating one that should get rectified one way or another.
 

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