It’s been five years since Steve Yzerman arrived in Detroit as Red Wings general manager and cautioned, “This is going to take time.”
He was returning to a franchise still in the early stages of a rebuild in 2019, and he quickly indicated he had no specific timeline for how long that process might take — only that a lot of work needed to be done.
A lot has happened in the five years since. Of the players on the roster when Yzerman arrived, only Dylan Larkin and Michael Rasmussen remain. This season, the Red Wings for the first time under Yzerman made a serious run at the playoffs, tying for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot, but ultimately missing the cut on the tiebreaker.
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There will, no doubt, be plenty of debate this summer around whether that progress is enough, and about whether the Red Wings’ rebuild is on track.
Yzerman, for his part, noted Friday that as close as Detroit came to the postseason in 2024, it is “probably going to have to get more than 91 points next year to get in.” He said he’s “looking more so at the overall growth of the organization, of all of our young players, and I see that progressing.” And of course, he hopes “that translates into more wins for us next year, and actually getting into the playoffs.”
With the 2023-24 season in the books, though, and the proud franchise’s playoff drought now at eight years, one thing is clear: Expectations have begun to arrive in Detroit.
Arriving at the same time, however, is a complicated, challenging reality: Though the Red Wings took steps forward this year, they did so with a roster made up largely of veterans — not all of whom will be back next season. Yzerman has said he has interest in bringing all six of Detroit’s unrestricted free agents back, but realistically, he will have to prioritize certain players over others — and likely also do some subtracting elsewhere to make room on the roster and salary-cap ledger. Especially with young cornerstones Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond in need of new contracts.
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And when some of those veterans inevitably depart, that will leave holes to fill and lost production that will need to be made up. Likely, those will be filled at least in part by younger players.
In some ways, that possibility is exciting. Yzerman’s conservative approach to promoting young players has been among the most criticized aspects of his GM tenure, and this season, despite the team’s rebuilding status, only one player with rookie status dressed for Detroit: Simon Edvinsson, who played in only 16 games.
Edvinsson looks locked into next year’s lineup, after an excellent stint to close the year, and in addition to him, Yzerman singled out forward Jonatan Berggren and defenseman Albert Johansson as players the team will need to make space for, as both will no longer be exempt from waivers.
“As far as young guys, anyone else, I wouldn’t rule out anybody,” Yzerman said. “Whoever it may be, pick a name, in GR (Grand Rapids) — I don’t want to say today that they definitely won’t be here, but because they’re just winding down their regular season and hopefully going to have a good playoff run. And things can change over the course of a long playoff run, and we could see potentially more players pushing for a spot on the roster.”
Certainly, for a team that has been stockpiling prospects for the entirety of Yzerman’s tenure, there is significant appetite from the fans to see those prospects reach the NHL level. Most notably, forward prospects Carter Mazur and Marco Kasper have been key parts of that playoff push at the team’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, and 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson was highly impressive in the 2023 NHL preseason and is having a strong WHL playoff run of his own.
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .