Regardless of how I feel about the approach, I don't see how you can watch this team and not think Yzerman has fully committed to that second option. Nearly the entire roster is made of two categories of players:
1) Long term investment / prospect.
* Berggren
* Debrincat
* Edvinsson
* Johansson
* Kasper
* Larkin
* Raymond
* Seider
2) Band-aid.
* Chiarot
* Copp
* Compher
* Fischer
* Gustafsson
* Holl
* Kane
* Lyon
* Maatta
* Motte
* Petry
* Talbot
* Tarasenko
Other than debating Debrincat, the only guys that could be in a grey area are Rasmussen and Veleno. (Personally I view Veleno as 100 percent band-aid, but I could see the debate based on age.)
Is it frustrating to see such a long list of placeholders? Sure. But how is that not committing to slow playing the kids?