Detroit Red Wings Are Back in the Playoff Hunt While Continuing to Develop Their Future

The Detroit Red Wings knew their rebuild would take time, but a change in philosophy means they're back in the playoff hunt while the future continues to look bright.

The Detroit Red Wings were oh-so-close to a playoff spot in 2023-24. That said, their prospect pool has a lot of promising talent as the 'Yzerplan' continues. Here's an excerpt from The Hockey News' Future Watch 2024 issue in February, which is available for you to get at THN.com/free:

After the applause and the thank yous, after recounting his history in Detroit and what the city meant to him, after he had shown appreciation for outgoing GM Ken Holland and expressed his gratefulness for the Ilitch family, Steve Yzerman’s first act as Red Wings GM was to urge the fan base to temper its expectations.

This was April 19, 2019, and Yzerman understood the excitement. It was the return of the prodigal son, even if those are, in no uncertain terms, not the words he would have used. 

But here was Yzerman – a franchise legend whose decorated playing days included three Stanley Cups and a mantle’s worth of individual hardware – back in the Motor City. He had strayed from his adopted home not long after his post-career foray into management, leaving for the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he constructed the foundation of what became a miniature modern dynasty. His executive career included Olympic gold and World Championship gold. And though such things are subjective, Yzerman was considered among the NHL’s best architects, his 2015 GM of the Year award backing up the claim.

Yet, still, Yzerman encouraged calm. He asked for patience, intimating he could not replicate what he had built in Tampa Bay overnight. 

Ushered in by a string of three first-round exits, Detroit’s 25-season post-season streak had ended in 2017. Upon Yzerman’s hiring, the Red Wings had experienced three consecutive early summers. And it had all been precipitated by the departure of stars. Pavel Datsyuk headed for the KHL in 2016. Henrik Zetterberg hung up his skates in 2018. Nicklas Lidstrom’s exit came even earlier, in 2012, but Niklas Kronwall had done his best to paper over the cracks until his own retirement in 2019.

Yzerman wasn’t taking over the Cup-winning Red Wings. He wasn’t even taking over the shell of those teams. So, he levelled with the fan base: this wasn’t going to be easy. 

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Yzerman said. “This organization and this fan base, as you all know, is used to winning and being successful. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and depending on your age, you know that this takes time.”

But even the most pragmatic fan can get swept up in romanticism. It was difficult to look at what Yzerman had accomplished with the Bolts without having visions of a Red Wings resurgence. At their height, the Wings had become the paragon of competitiveness not only in the game but in all of professional sport, a model organization that was, for a time, the destination for the NHL’s title-hungry stars, each of whom knew the path to glory almost inevitably wound its way through the now-shuttered Joe Louis Arena. Surely, the thinking went, the Red Wings would rediscover that former glory now that Yzerman was at the helm. 

Somewhere amid this fervor, ‘The Yzerplan’ was born.

Four-and-a-half seasons later, the Red Wings still haven’t sniffed the playoffs. In a business where careers are made and reputations tarnished on the basis of wins and losses, that might be enough for another GM to get his walking papers. But that Yzerman has been given leniency and more than a little latitude should come as no surprise. After all, he was allowed to take to the business of reshaping the Red Wings following his arrival less with pruning shears than with gasoline and a blowtorch.

When he was unveiled as GM, Yzerman referred to a core, the centerpiece of which was Dylan Larkin. In that regard, nothing has changed: the Michigan born-and-bred Larkin is now the Wings captain, and even then, he was the heir apparent for the ‘C.’ But different fates have befallen Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi and Filip Hronek, the other players Yzerman cited on that day as part of the foundation. None of those four are still with the Wings. In fact, Larkin and Michael Rasmussen are the only NHL regulars remaining from the roster that Yzerman inherited.

Though this dismantling took place over the course of the past four seasons, the broader picture it paints is instructive of what exactly Yzerman’s grand designs were for the Red Wings, at least initially. 

“If we follow the process, we do our job right, and, truthfully, we get a little bit of luck,” said Yzerman during his introductory press conference, “we’ll get back to where we need to, where we’re expecting to be.”

This is an excerpt from writer Jared Clinton's feature in The Hockey News' Future Watch edition, where he took a deep-dive look at the Red Wings and their road back to Stanley Cup playoff relevance. 

To read the full article and much more, they're all available to you with a subscription at THN.com/Free. Your subscription includes access to more than 76 years of exclusive articles at The Hockey News Archive.