Where did Yzerman go wrong with the rebuild?

[SantosHalper]

Copp has shown some real chemistry with Kane these last couple of games.

The haters are going to be in shambles if he keeps it up.

Whatcha gonna do brother when Copp-a-mania runs wild on you!

 

[ShanahanMan]

Interesting comments from Friedman. Seems to be implying that either the guys aren’t ready or the coach has lost the room

https://x.com/i/web/status/1852029746596430076

 

[Shaman464]

Two problems:

1. Drafting has been going after high character, high floor, low ceiling players that leave the forward core to be severely untalented.

2. Trying to sign players who overachieved in their FA year on more talented teams to fill larger roles on a less talented Red Wings team hoping it would take them to the next level.

If Detroit had a couple more high impact kids bringing on Compher/Copp/Holl like players would be not great but not bad. But these two things combined leaves Detroit in the position to be too good to get high impact players in the draft and too bad to realistically make the playoffs in their current configuration.

 

[Hockeyfan2390]

sometimes a Michelin star chef will have a snack while the entree is baking in the oven. If we are having this same conversation in 2026 then yes I will concede the point. His timeline was and is the long road.

2026????

He cannot have an endless runway. It’s unacceptable if they’re not in the postseason this spring.

He’s in year six. It’s irrelevant what the team looked like when he got here.

 

[Hockeyfan2390]

What year of the Yzerplan is this...6 or 7?

I'm not so sure it's acceptable either way to be still this consistently lousy, ie slow, soft, lack of skill, poor decision-making, poor structure, inconsistent goaltending...

A bottom 10 finish should be seen as an abject failure from top to bottom...

Still lots of time to get going here but hard decisions need to be made

It isn’t. At all. And I’m stunned that there are still people saying that they want to wait until 2026 before really beginning to scrutinize him.

 

[DamonDRW]

I feel that most fans here consider our drafting positions throughout those years as one small thing that didn't matter a lot for where we are now. You can't do good rebuild in this league anymore if you don't draft 1/2 OA on a consistent basis.

frankly speaking, our rebuld already failed. some fans just cannot accept this fact for some reason. we have two options: start over again or build a good D with good goalies and test our luck with drafting star forwards 8n the following 3-5 years. I guess the latter option will be executed by Steve Y. we might get competitive again by 2028-2030.

however, the bottom line is that we are not making the playoffs in the upcoming 3 years.

 

[HisNoodliness]

2026????

He cannot have an endless runway. It’s unacceptable if they’re not in the postseason this spring.

He’s in year six. It’s irrelevant what the team looked like when he got here.

I'm about as frustrated as anyone on here these days. I feel like this team's problems have been entirely predictable and having 100% commitment to Yzerman's type of player has prevented us from building a competent team. If Walman is a problem in the locker room and our second best defenseman, you try to coach him. At least until you can replace him. If Ben Chiarot is your best friend and a terrible hockey player, you invite him to your family barbecue. You don't sign him to play for you. When we have to make a choice on a defenseman, it seems like we choose wrong 80% of the time. We're ultimately full of character guys that play the right way and everyone sings kumbaya at the end of team meetings. They also are just bad hockey players and I'm so excited for their contracts to expire this/next off-season.

However, Yzerman's biggest saving grace has been the draft. Our important picks have all turned into important players under him. I think we hurt their development by consistently holding them back, but they're still ultimately making it and making an impact when they do. It is also clear that Yzerman has set our contract situation up to have maximum flexibility around the time our team is composed mostly of those picks. That transition should happen in a big way this off-season and complete the off-season after.

Thus I think it makes sense to scrutinize Yzerman's moves. If we try to solve our defense with more of the same and things don't improve, I'll be ready to hop on the "firezerman" train. I don't think it makes any sense to do so now when he's clearly 75% of the way to completing his plan. We may as well see what that looks like when it all comes together. If Kasper, Danielson, MBN and ASP all translate to the NHL as well as Seider-, Raymond and Edvinsson have, and our next round of UFA/trade acquisitions isn't Jacob Trouba and his equivalents, we'll be a good team. It's reasonable to hope that that has been Yzerman's vision the whole time, so I think it's sensible to see it through.

Don't change horses in the middle of a stream.