Yzerman lacking creativity to make good trades. Instead he's resorted to the tell tale sign that a GM is worried about his job by filling roster spots with overpaid free agents.
Yzerman has had the better end of almost every trade he's made with the wings. Problem is he took over with the cupboard bare of assets bar the ones you don't want to part with.
Great! So, take on cap dumps from other teams, along with the picks/prospects that come with them
That way they're able to fill out the roster, while increasing the number of assets gathered
Cap space is an asset, and Yzerman is giving that asset away on mediocrity without receiving anything in return
1) half of the FAs he's signed over the last two years are deadline trades for picks waiting to happen, so there is still some return.
2) GMs seem to have wised up about getting into panic situations where they are throwing away 1st round picks to sort out cap issues
3) The wings still have 10m+ in cap space, with another 16m+ coming off the cap hit next summer (more than enough to resign RFAs), and thats before the cap goes up.
4) None of the wings best prospects are ready yet bar the ones already in the team, so protecting them by signing players who are able to fulfil different positional and functional roles is pretty sensible.
There is a bit of overpayment or too much term on a couple of the deals, but for the most part the last two UFA crops will likely generate some 2nd & 3rd round picks while having no long-term cap impacts of note
He treated Vrana like crap and had a few bad gambles, but he has to ice a roster that isn't 18 and 19 year old kids.
Detroit fans, what are your expectations for Elmer Soderblom this season?
Stay healthy, get high scoring minutes in the AHL and get NHL games as injury call up or after inevitable deadline sales.
He’s a pretty average GM imo. Not the worst out there but also not the best. People saying these bad signings don’t matter because the Wings have lots of cap space sound a lot like fans of other rebuilding teams that found out that bad contracts really do have a big impact.
Difference is these aren't
terrible contracts. The longer ones are slight overpayments in $ or term for guys who will likely still be useful in some role for the duration of their contracts, and the riskier ones are short enough not to be millstones.
The key thing is no more Frans Nielsen wrong side of age curve for middle ranking player deals, and none of the 'lets give a 31 year old with some injury history an 8 year deal' that certain other GMs seem to like.
None of these signings are particularly exciting or move the needle significantly, but none are going to be problematic unless the wings draft picks develop faster and better than projected.
Definitely getting a desperation vibe from these moves. You dont bring in 5 or 6 new guys if you feel like youre pretty close. Thought it was telling at the draft when the woman point blank asked Yzerman when the Wings were gonna make the playoffs and he couldn't even give a boilerplate semiconfident reply.
Curious to hear Wings fans thoughts on how much longer he will be allowed to flail before ownership makes a change?
He's got plenty more rope. Kenny's last few years were a disaster that not only left a terrible team, but bad contracts and some prospects that were massively overpaid for in draft capital. They basically had a decent-ish first line (though Mantha has seriously gone off the boil and Bertuzzi couldn't stay fit) and nothing else.
He's not on any hotseat because although dull and frustrating, he hasn't made any really bad moves, has regenerated the prospect pool despite getting lottery shafted most years, and we still have an excess of picks next year. Its slow going, but the direction of travel is good.
And frankly, at this stage the division is a nightmare because the powerhouse teams haven't dropped off and the other rebuilders have been at it for longer with a lot more help from lotteries etc
Ultimately, like most GMs it will be the success or failure of his drafting that defines things.
