Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Busy Summer?

06/13/2019 at 12:03pm EDT

Rory Boylen of Sportsnet has a question for every NHL team,

Detroit Red Wings: How active will Steve Yzerman be in his first summer back with the Winged Wheel?

When Yzerman first took over the Lightning in 2010, the team improved by 23 points and went from missing the playoffs to the East final. That team didn’t change too drastically though. Simon Gagne was Yzerman’s biggest trade pick up in that first summer and he was their fifth-highest scorer. Dwayne Roloson was added at Yzerman’s first trade deadline and that was key for the playoff run. But the biggest pieces were pretty much already in place.

So what does that mean for these Red Wings? They’re not exactly in the same spot as the 2010 Lightning; these Wings still feel sort of in the middle of their rebuild. Don’t expect Yzerman to try and expedite it either. Detroit has the sixth-overall pick and the most likely way this plays out over the summer is Yzerman stays quiet and keeps building up the young assets Holland left behind.

“The Draft is so important,” Yzerman told NHL.com. “You have to acquire your talent some way. To do it through unrestricted free agency, you’re not going to build a team that way. At least I don’t think you can build a team that way. How you do it is acquire the young talent and try to develop them.”

Detroit has $13.67 million in projected cap space this summer and though a number of RFAs will be up for raises in 2020 some expensive UFAs could come off the books as well. So along the lines of acquiring young talent, Yzerman could take on an expensive contract if it means acquiring a prospect. Maybe he turns to his former team and helps them out by taking Ryan Callahan?

the rest of the NHL teams...

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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