There is a simple answer to this question being that Stamkos is a 40 goal scorer and with him Detroit is more likely to make the playoffs and that is that... I get it. The problem here was at the time Stamkos had become a niche 40 goal scorer, I know, sounds weird right? Detroit was in a team building mode and should have been looking for vets that would help define their identity in the future. Players that can help their young players in areas that usually need to be taught at the NHL level. Detroit had just hired Tod McLellan as coach who his known for his tight defensive systems that are usually pretty foreign to players coming out of Junior and College. Stamkos, who was 34 at the time had become more of a complimentary type of scorer in Tampa. He was not asked to play much D or drive play really. He was basically finding spots in the O zone and getting his still wicked shot off. A full sheet player he was not anymore. The Red Wings already had Kane to help with the P.P and mentor the offensive side of the game. Learning to play positionally defensively in all three zones is a huge learning curve for younger players and having players that can model that on the ice is of huge vale. The Sharks did well with guys like Wennberg and Toffoli in that regard but besides Copp there wasn't much in Detroit. For the sake of making the playoffs and maybe giving the team a boost in confidence I could understand the move, but from a team building perspective it made more sense for me at the time to not gamble 8 mil a year on a 34 year old player that seemed to have to be propped up to keep his scoring numbers up. 

Conclusion

Apparently IIlich is much more analytics driven than Yzerman was and was asked for data Stevie Y did not produce a glowing report. I would have had to agree at the time and would also not have made the move. Mistake? Maybe. What i would have done though is realized that a more progressive approach was overdue and moved on from Yzerman at that time. I would like to know how Stevie Y got other contracts like Chiarot under the nose of IIlich though? Maybe it was just time to step in and that should have had alarm bells ringing enough to end it all together.