Why Has The Red Wings Yzerplan Failed

When Steve Yzerman was hired as the general manager (GM) of the Detroit Red Wings in 2019, it felt like a savior was coming home. The architect of the Tampa Bay Lightning model franchise was heading back to Detroit to turn the once-dominant Red Wings team, a team that always made the playoffs and often won the Cup, into the next great team.

With the 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Red Wings will miss the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season and seventh under Yzerman. This time, the pressure and public perception has shifted on the GM. The Red Wings went from a team that with time would turn things around to a team that is stuck in the same spot it’s been for the past three seasons while other rebuilding teams are passing them by.

That’s what truly stings for the “Yzerplan” and why this season is a pivotal one in the GMs tenure. The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators are returning to the playoffs for the second season in a row with young cores and successful rebuilds. Even the Buffalo Sabres, a team that missed the playoffs 14 years in a row, passed the Red Wings by and clinched a playoff spot. The Wings instead are looking back at a season that looked a lot like the previous two where they got off to a hot start, fell apart in March, and came up just short in April.

It’s a reflection on the failures of the “Yzerplan” and how the GM, who was successful in Tampa, has continuously come up short with the Red Wings. The question is how this happened? How could a GM who pulled all the right strings with the Lightning fail in with the Red Wings? There’s no definitive answer but there are plenty of explanations.

Yzerman’s Inability or Reluctance To Make a Splash

Two things that GMs and teams overvalue every year are their prospects and their draft picks. They view them as untouchable and impossible to move. Nobody wants to be the GM who trades Nick Suzuki to the Montreal Canadiens yet everyone admires the Vegas Golden Knights for trading players like him in deals to build a team that’s in win-now mode all the time (and has a Stanley Cup title to boot).

The Red Wings had prospects on top of prospects, not just this season but in the past two as well. Moreover, they have Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine, two goaltenders, in their system. Yzerman could have moved either in a blockbuster trade or in a package to land an elite player, especially at the trade deadline when a goaltending prospect could have helped them acquire Robert Thomas or a player of his caliber.

Considering the lack of talent heading to free agency this summer and how the Red Wings have failed to land the big player in free agency in the past offseasons, a splash was a must for Yzerman. Instead, the biggest move he made at this deadline was acquiring Justin Faulk from the St. Louis Blues for a first round pick. Taking a step back, the biggest swing Yzerman took in seven years was acquiring Alex DeBrincat, who is a good player but not a game-changing star who the Red Wings need.

In many ways, the inability to find game-changing talent was the other shortcoming of the “Yzerplan” and his team-building philosophy. He was focused on getting on base or hitting singles when the Red Wings needed home runs. DeBrincat is a good player and so are Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson. Ironically, this was the breakout year for Dylan Larkin and Moritz Seider, two players who started to look like stars with the Red Wings, which is why this season felt different. Finally, the team had elite top-of-the league talent to build around with Larkin looking like a top 10 center for most of the season and Seider making his mark as a Norris caliber defenseman.

Otherwise, the Yzerman tenure has been defined by “mid” talent (as the kids say). It’s reflective of where the team is in the standings.

Chris Ilitch Isn’t Mike Ilitch

When it comes to rebuilds, ownership is nothing until it’s everything. A good owner can’t win a title but a bad one can set a team back, something the Sabres learned in their decade plus of disappointment. Some longtime NHL teams learn that they aren’t the same team when an owner sells or passes away. The Philadelphia Flyers weren’t the same after Ed Snider passed away and only recently have turned a corner on their rebuild. The

The Red Wings haven’t been the same since Mike Ilitch passed away in 2017, the same year the playoff drought started. The difference between Mike and his son Chris is that the former would spend the extra bit to get the Red Wings over the hump. Even with a salary cap, there are ways to spend big and ways to cut corners from front office resources to scouting departments to practice facilities to team travel. Chris isn’t cutting corners but he’s not spending big either.

Yzerman received plenty of help when he was in the Lightning organization from the ownership. The Lightning went the extra mile and still do. It’s why they’ve remained a model franchise even with Yzerman gone and other executives like Mathieu Darche getting poached from them.

This leads into another issue with Yzerman and GMs in general who move from one team to another. Being a GM is more than team-building. It’s about being a CEO of a company and managing the ownership, the front office, and the team. It’s why some teams have a president and a GM who split responsibilities. The Lightning had a lot of the right pieces in place by the time Yzerman had control of the team. He had to build the Red Wings from the ground up and that involved finding the right head coach to turn the team around. It turns out, it’s a lot harder to find the right coach when Jon Cooper isn’t available from within.

Red Wings Goaltending Woes Kept Yzerman a Step Behind

The Lightning were spared a few headaches when they landed Andrei Vasilevskiy in the 2012 draft. Finding an elite goaltender can happen randomly and it’s what happened early on in Yzerman’s tenure. A world-class goaltender changed the outlook for the franchise.

Yzerman never had the same luck with the Red Wings. They went through multiple goaltenders in seven seasons and it was the one position the GM was willing to roll the dice on, hoping the next find would solve his problems. Ironically, John Gibson looked like the goaltender who would solve all of their problems and it’s why this season felt different. However, the veteran ran out of gas late in the season and let the team down.

The inability to find a reliable goaltender best explains why Yzerman refused to move either prospect at the trade deadline. He’s still hopeful that both will make it to the NHL someday and solve his problems. They might but by the time they are NHL ready, they’ll be solving his successor’s problems.

Where Do the Red Wings Go From Here?

It’s always a challenge to fire a franchise icon and it’s why it’s always problematic to hire one in the first place. Yzerman is probably the most iconic living Red Wing and it’s hard to let him go. It’s likely if the GM wasn’t named “Yzerman” he would have been fired already but because of the name and his significance in Hockeytown, he’s been given second, third, and seventh chances.

So, the best path for the Red Wings is the same one the Seattle Kraken took last offseason. They couldn’t fire Ron Francis, who was their GM but also an icon in the hockey world. So, they moved him to the president role while Jason Botterill was hired as the GM. Fast forward a year and Francis is stepping down as president.

The Red Wings ideally have Yzerman fail upward. They make him a president of the hockey operations and a part owner while a GM comes in to run the team. This at least gets the rebuild, which has stagnated, moving at a faster pace.

If Yzerman is still on board as the GM, the other option is for ownership to have a stronger say in the next coaching hire. This isn’t ideal considering ownership might find a worse head coach than the one Yzerman found but the reason for them to step in is they can find a coach who doubles as the GM or more accurately, has a stronger say in roster decisions. There aren’t many coaches running their teams or making trades, certainly not like the days of Scotty Bowman when he was the Canadiens head coach, but a few coaches have that influence and the Red Wings might need one to get this team back to the playoffs and back to contention.