On Tuesday afternoon, Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman and head coach Todd McLellan held a joint press conference to officially put a bow on the 2024-25 season. From Yzerman's response to captain Dylan Larkin's expressed frustration with the state of affairs to announced changes to McLellan's coaching staff, here's what you need to know coming out of the availability.
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The Elephant in the Room: Yzerman Responds, and Doesn't Respond, to Larkin's Frustration
Yzerman's end-of-year presser had an unusual amount of build-up. Detroit's season ended on Apr. 17 in New Jersey, but the GM (and his head coach) did not hold their year-end presser until Apr. 29. There was exactly one story that filled the void of this delay: Larkin's comments from his end-of-season availability.
Specifically, Larkin expressed his disappointment at the Red Wings' lack of involvement in the wheeling and dealing around the trade deadline, saying of that moment in the season, "It was hard that we didn't do anything, and I felt the group kinda—we didn't gain any momentum from the trade deadline, and guys were kinda down about it," said a visibly frustrated Larkin. "So it'd be nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice and maybe a morale boost as well."
That wasn't a trade request by any means (later in his availability, Larkin made explicit his desire to win a championship in Detroit), but it was, at least to some extent, a shot across the bow of Yzerman.
Yzerman—in contrast to his previous meetings with the media—opened his remarks with a prepared statement, turning to a document sheathed in a red folder for reference for the first five minutes of the 52-minute press conference.
At the heart of this statement seemed to be a re-litigation of the very point Larkin raise. "At the trade deadline...we did make a trade, and it's been talked about a lot," Yzerman said. "I sit here today, and I feel very comfortable—I can't say I'm happy or I liked it—but I'm very comfortable with the fact that we weren't able to make a trade that involved our top prospects, our first round picks, any of those highly valuable assets."
He went on to cite the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues while standing pat at the deadline. Yzerman made a point of saying those two teams were "led by their best players" on the march to the playoffs, as opposed to deadline acquisitions.
The first question after the statement (from the Detroit Free Press' Helen St. James) asked whether the statement was intended as a direct response to Larkin, which Yzerman denied. "I've addressed Dylan's comments directly with Dylan, and I will not elaborate on that in this room," he said. "If Dylan wants to share what I had to say with him, he's more than welcome to."
Despite Yzerman's attempt at down-playing Larkin's remark (which he doubtlessly knew had grabbed the attention of the fan base and hockey world beyond it), it is difficult to read Yzerman's invocation of the Canadiens and Blues as anyhting other than a rebuke of Larkin (or at least Larkin's assessment of Detroit's deadline strategy).
A few minutes later, Yzerman said, "I'm counting on our leaders, our best players, to give us a morale boost. That's what they're paid for and that's what I expect from them." In using that word "morale," Yzerman was now directly invoking Larkin's words (whether he wanted to or not) and turning them around as what seemed an awful lot like a not-so-veiled criticism of his captain.
Again, there's still no reason to believe Yzerman perceives Larkin (unquestionably Detroit's best and most important player throughout his tenure) as anything other than a core piece of the next contending Red Wings team. At the same time, it's obvious that not all is well in Detroit, and there is a sense of mounting pressure weighing on the organization's on-ice leaders and its off-ice ones.
I asked Yzerman about his level concern about the cumulative effects of losing seasons on the overall health of the Red Wings organization and the possibility that such defeats can become self-perpetuating. After a long pause, he acknowledged he did feel those sorts of concerns and spoke to some of the urgency around getting back to the playoffs.
“I know we have world class ownership here, it’s incumbent upon the hockey ops department, led by me, to do a good job and make sure we don’t become a perpetual losing team," Yzerman said. "And you wanted a rebuild 10 years ago after 25 years in the playoffs, we’re living it now and it’s not a lot of fun. And we’re gonna stick with it and eventually this organization will get there.”
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Staff Changes Confirmed: Westlund, Scarpace Out
After starting with something more ephemeral, there was also some tangible news to come out of Tuesday's availability. Namely, the coaching staff shake-up rumored to be in the works was confirmed, with McLellan saying, "We'll have an announcement going out, but these two are aware that they won't be returning: Alex Westlund as the goaltender coach and L.J. Scarpace as one of the video coaches. It might not seem significant in those roles, but those are significant roles. Those are important people in our organization, and those are really good people. I talked about our staff and how they fit in. It's sometimes not a reflection the job they do, but just something that we needed to do in the coaching room to stir things up. We need better goaltending...and as far as the video goes, we'll likely look at promoting from within."
That means that assistants Jay Varady and Alex Tanguay (both hired at the start of the Derek Lalonde regime in the summer of 2022) will both return to the bench along with Trent Yawney (brought in in December as McLellan's right-hand man).
Scarpace's official title was "video coordinator." In alluding to an internal promotion to replace him, Jeff Weintraub held the role of "assistant video coordinator," so perhaps he is in line for that promotion.
McLellan Rues "Pissed Away" Points
After Yzerman gave his thoughts on another late season swoon from his team (naming depth and playing harder as priorities moving forward), McLellan weighed in on the Red Wings' March woes and trade deadline moves or lack thereof.
"This team in my opinion...was good enough to play in the playoffs," proclaimed McLellan. "You look at some of the teams that made it, we were good enough, the way we were constructed, to make and play in the playoffs. We didn't play well enough, and when it got s***y for us, we went deeper into it instead of pulling ourselves out of it. That's on us. It doesn't matter who Steve drops in or who shows up and walks into the locker room. If the mentality of the group as a whole is like that, we can bring three people in, it doesn't matter...We were good enough as a group to make the playoffs and we didn't."
He continued by ruing the way that his team "piss[ed] away" points down the stretch against Tampa Bay, Montreal, Washington, and St. Louis, saying, "There's enough points right there in games that we had control of that we gave away, so it's not about who wasn't here in my opinion. It's about who is here, and who is here has to do a better job."
In that sentiment and elsewhere in the press conference, both McLellan and Yzerman comments suggested that Detroit needs to bolder its leadership core and mental fortitude to take the next step as an organization. The tricky part of that, of course, is that like any form of self-improvement is that it's easier said than done.
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