Patience, Honesty, and Accuracy: Steve Yzerman Looks Ahead to the '23-24 Red Wings

At his pre-training camp press availability, the Red Wings general manager took stock of the offseason and the path back to contention

As he spoke to the press two days before the start of training camp, Steve Yzerman had a veritable litany of questions to answer, but in the end, there were really only two, and those could probably be understood as one:  Is this the year the Detroit Red Wings return to the playoffs, and is the rebuild over?

"I think every team would love to make the playoffs," Yzerman told the press.  "We'd be thrilled to make the playoffs.  Is it playoffs or bust?  When you say playoffs or bust, I guess you're prepared to trade all your draft picks and whatever you have to do.  So, no, it's not playoffs or bust, [but] we're gonna try to win every game, and we're gonna try to make the playoffs.  To me, it's not at the expense of the future...we're trying to build the nucleus of a team that can make the playoffs on an annual basis."

It was a coy answer but also an honest one.  

Since returning to Detroit in April of 2019, Yzerman has advocated for patience, never shy about his willingness to privilege the organization's long-term health over its short-term results.

The man who captained these Red Wings for 19 seasons and won three Stanley Cups along the way, before assembling the backbone of a Tampa Bay Lightning team that would go on to win two Cups of its own, could hardly have more equity as an executive in the eyes of a fan base starved for long-term thinking and a return to the success he once taught them to associate with the organization.  If the Yzer-plan required patience, it was a patience its architect had earned through his track record.

Now things have changed, if only slightly.  For the first time in a long time, there are expectations in Detroit.  Expectations brought about by the new toys acquired in the offseason, another summer of growth and development for the team's top prospects, and a sense of instability amongst a number of the Atlantic Division's traditional powers.  

For the first time since Yzerman's return, there is a hint of impatience in the air as Red Wings fans can't help but wonder when what has been rebuilding for several years now will at last be rebuilt.

What will that look like to Yzerman?  According to the Detroit's executive vice president and general manager, Red Wing fans will know the rebuild is over when their team is no longer a seller at the trade deadline.

"Each year, we've tried to add draft picks, we've tried to sign any of our unrestricted free agents that we could or wanted to, and the players that we couldn't or weren't, we traded at the deadline, and I guess you're out of your rebuild when you're not doing that at the deadline," he said.   "We're still being patient. We're waiting for our younger players to develop," he added.

Internally, that outlook puts an onus on Yzerman and his staff to determine when exactly the Red Wings will be ready to cross that threshold.

"I think you have to have an honest assessment or an accurate assessment of where you're at," Yzerman contended. "There can be a danger to [trying to] jump ahead, and what does that mean? All of a sudden you're trading your top prospects and trading your draft picks before you have that group. If you're acquiring players that are gonna be with you for an extended stretch of time, that's good. 

"We talked about the playoffs last spring—when are we gonna make it—we did this summer, and we are today. We all wanna get there and [we all feel] that desire to make that move that puts you over the top as far as being a playoff team. I think there's some judgment in when that time is. Being patient, being honest, and being accurate in your assessment of what's going on in your organization. And then do what's necessary at the appropriate time."

If we take Yzerman at his word here, this summer's trade for Alex DeBrincat would seem to reinforce the notion that Detroit is on the precipice of exiting its rebuild and embracing contention but still not quite across that line of demarcation.

Bringing in DeBrincat required sacrificing assets that would otherwise have helped usher the Red Wings to a brighter future, but none of those assets were central to Detroit's desired future.  The return for DeBrincat involved a roster player in Dominik Kubalik, but it also featured a prospect in Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first round pick, and a fourth round pick.  

Detroit had no appetite for parting with premium prospects (the likes of Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper) but proved willing to say goodbye to some futures (even if they were comparatively modest) to acquire DeBrincat.  Meanwhile, DeBrincat is not a pure "win now" acquisition but rather a player whose aging curve (and new extension) figures to align neatly with the Red Wings' continued march toward contention.

Patience, honesty, and accuracy also informed the Red Wings' decision to acquire other veterans who figure to slot into depth roles.  Bringing in the likes of J.T. Compher, Christian Fischer, Jeff Petry, and Justin Holl served to simultaneously reinforce an NHL roster that needed the support and afford greater patience to the prospects who are closest to claiming NHL roles.

"I'd rather go to the free agent market instead of hoping or forcing any of our young guys," Yzerman said.  "Filling our roster...with some of the free agents is to be patient and allow these younger players to develop and play at a reasonable pace, instead of just throwing them into the NHL and hoping they're okay and hoping we're going to win games." 

Yzerman recognizes that prospects like Kasper or Edvinsson or Elmer Soderblom or Carter Mazur will arrive in training camp eager to prove they belong in an NHL lineup.  Where some Red Wing fans may worry that those depth acquisitions are complicating young players paths to the NHL, Yzerman expressed confidence that the organization will find a way to incorporate any prospect that proves their NHL worthiness.

"Everybody wants to play," Yzerman said. "Every young player that comes into training camp, whether they're on an invite or a first-round pick, has something in the back of their mind that says 'I'm going to show these guys something and just maybe if all goes well, I'm going to make that team.' Every player does. It's the natural competitiveness and confidence that good athletes have. 

"For our younger players, if you're ready to play, and you're ready to play a significant role, we'll figure it out. Nobody's crowded out. Any time we've gone into a season leaving a spot open hoping a player's ready to take it over, it's a dangerous spot to be in. One, you're not as deep, and you're always gonna have injuries somewhere along the way, so you need the depth. Signing players to give you more depth is a good thing."

To reinforce, this point, Yzerman cites the example of Lucas Raymond defying organizational expectations by proving he deserved a spot on the NHL roster out of training camp in 2021.

"Two years ago, we expected Lucas to start in the minors," Yzerman recounted. "We had players signed, and we didn't anticipate him making it, and then he was really good and we kept him. We'll figure it out if we have a player that is too good for the minors. That'd be my message to our young players."

To Yzerman, the risk of forcing youngsters into NHL roles for which they are unprepared is much more acute than that of being unable to accommodate a player who out-paces the team's internal expectations.

"We aren't just throwing them into the NHL," Yzerman said. "One, it's not good for them, and two, it's not good for helping our team win. And we're talking about playoffs and things like that, well you want to put your best team on the ice, and you want to try to win every game, and if you're putting players out there that aren't ready, it's not going to work out well for a whole host of reasons."

What does that mean for Detroit's 2023 training camp?  It means competition will abound.

"The new players are going to want to come in and make a good impression on the coaching staff and earn a more increased role," Yzerman predicted.  "Some of our younger players—we mentioned Joe Veleno, Michael Rasmussen—they want a bigger role, they want more ice time, they want to play on some of these special teams, they want to take face-offs in the last minute of a game.  So there's competition there.  We've got a couple of young kids that have their heart set and their mind set on potentially making this team.  I do think there is competition at all levels, not only to be on the roster but for ice time and spots on special teams and what not."

"I'm hoping they give us some reason to really think hard," he added of the tier of prospects knocking loudest on the door of NHL roster spots.

For Yzerman, there is no reason to conceive of the coming season through the prism of binary success or failure as determined by the team's place in the year-end standings.  Instead, it appears, to Yzerman, 2023-24 will provide further clarity in an ongoing experiment in re-establishing the Atlantic Division hierarchy.

"I look at our division and I'm not sure what to expect from some teams that are going to continue to get players and some teams that lost players—whether it was due to cap or retirement or whatever—what are they gonna be like?  There's a lot of uncertainty, so we'll get into the season and see how we match-up, see how we do through the first three-quarter of the season and then have a better idea of where we're at."

Where will the Red Wings find themselves when it all shakes out?  Well, that's what they play the games for.