Where did Yzerman go wrong with the rebuild?

[heyfolks]

DRAFT: B+
UFA: F-
COACH: C

 

[Coach Reggie Dunlop]

All I know is at this point his seat should be getting hot. The bad contracts and roster construction while bad, at least I can understand the rationale behind them. But staying behind a lame duck coach that you hand picked as we flounder around in what should have been a competing year is for me inexcusable.

 

[Twinger]

I don't understand this magical age limit of 30 where players are suddenly no longer part of a core. Larkin's game has longevity, he is not one dimensional where if one his one thing declines then his game is toast. Yeah obviously we need players that can fill in or even take over but its not like we need a cup run within 2 years or Larkin suddenly needs to be taken out to pasture. Lots of cup winning teams have 30+ year players in their top 6.

It's more if he's not in his prime at 30 and we don't have someone to replace him. I don't understand this magical drafting where all of our picks make it and are stars. Ed could be the next Myers and that's wheels off the defence rebuild

Larkin plays a high tempo game and is in his scoring prime right now. Kasper and Nate may be 4 years away from a ppg if they even make it.

Sure lots of cup teams can have 30+ in their top 6 but they aren't what drives a cup team, below are 30+ top 6 players.
Panthers - Rodrigues
Vegas would be your best one with marchessalut, smith, stone and karlsson
Avs Kadri
Lightings last cup - Stamkos and headman

I'm going to lean towards the players we have drafted not turing out like your Barkovs, Mackinnons, Kucherovs, Eichels

And I'm not looking at cup run in 2 years, more like playoffs in 2 then 2 years of teeth cutting and then maybe contenders.

Is Lalonde even here next year? Is the next coach the one to take us to the playoffs or is it another 2 or 3 years of finding a coach to put a system in place?

Of the 240 teams to find themselves in a playoff spot on U.S. Thanksgiving since the 2005-06 season*, 184 have gone on to make the post-season the following spring. That’s a 76.7 per cent success rate. Of the 56 teams that fell out of the picture after the Thanksgiving milestone, 31 were hovering within a single point of the final wild-card berth. Just two teams in the salary-cap era have found themselves outside the playoffs after sitting ahead of the final berth by 10 or more points.

(*This statistic does not include the 2019-20 or 2020-21 seasons, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.)

What U.S. Thanksgiving standings tell us about 2023-24 NHL playoff hopes

As most hockey fans know, U.S. Thanksgiving has long been an unofficial marker against which to gauge a franchise’s post-season hopes. But will history repeat itself? Emily Sadler takes a look.

www.sportsnet.ca

 

[minimal]

All I know is at this point his seat should be getting hot. The bad contracts and roster construction while bad, at least I can understand the rationale behind them. But staying behind a lame duck coach that you hand picked as we flounder around in what should have been a competing year is for me inexcusable.

If you thought this was a year that we would compete for the playoff with the roster we have, that's on you. I think if Lalonde is getting fired, it's going to be around mid-December after this series of gameday/off-day is done. Even then, I fully expect it to be an interim coach.

Another year of bad/uninspired hockey is awful, but there's no hot seat until the young players seriously flounder in the next few years.