Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

The State Of The Detroit Red Wings

04/19/2021 at 10:45am EDT

from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

Unsatisfying as it may be, Yzerman’s Day 1 decision to not set a timetable was probably for the best. Because while the Red Wings are finally starting to see some fruits of the rebuild (in Zadina, Rasmussen, and soon, Seider), their odds of making the playoffs next season are no better than they were the day Yzerman took over. Moving players like Mantha certainly doesn’t speed up the path to the postseason, and it may well delay it.

More hard years await. And while the arrival of players like Seider and Raymond, on top of growth from the existing core, should result in positive momentum, Detroit can’t expect a neat, step-by-step ascent from the bottom to the middle to the top.

In all likelihood, Detroit will remain at the bottom of the pack next season, barring a major unexpected push this offseason. Even a 2023 playoff berth seems too ambitious at this stage.

Both as the captain of the Red Wings’ last great era and as the architect of the NHL’s current juggernaut in Tampa Bay, Yzerman has built up the credibility to ask for that kind of patience in Detroit. When he said there was a lot of work to do on Day 1, he meant it. And two years later, it looks like he was right.

What’s jarring as his tenure enters Year 3, though, is how much work still seems to remain, and just how long it might take to accomplish.

much more (paid)

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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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