At a press conference yesterday, Steve Yzerman discussed his plans for the Draft and off-season beyond. Here's what he said.

Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman gave a pre-Draft press conference Tuesday morning in Detroit.  Among the topics he discussed were his plans for next week's draft (now just a week away), the calculations that go into trading away draft picks for an NHL player, the type of core he wants to build in Detroit, and the decision-making hierarchy on draft night(s).  Here are the highlights from his remarks:

On using draft picks to trade for a player who can help right away:

"I don't know that there's a real science to it.  We gauge how interested we are in the player, what the fit is for our organization, what the cost to acquire the player is, and then it simply goes 'would we rather have pick X or that player?' That kind of explains it right there."

On whether the pressure to get back to the playoffs is growing:

"Not really.  Not from my perspective.  I'd rather make them sooner than later, but it's not affecting what I'm doing right now.  Using any of our high picks will be for players that will be here for a long time, will be part of our core for a long time and not just improve us enough to get into the playoffs sooner than later."

On interest in trading up:

"I think it's just general practice leading into the draft, you check with the teams around you to see what their interests are and the costs to move up or back.  I think pretty much every team looks into that.  I think ultimately the decision to do that—whether you want to or decide to or not—really comes as your pick is coming up.  So to sit here today and say I definitely plan on moving up or back, no.  I plan on picking ninth right now."

On trade market in a year with a dubious free agent market:

"I can't say I've talked to every team in the league, but the vast majority, I think for the most part have an understanding of what most teams are looking to do at this stage of the off-season.  I don't think teams are necessarily trading their players because there's no free agents out there.  I think for the most part teams are looking to trade their players...for different reasons, whether they have salary cap concerns or looking  to change their roster."

On flexibility with five picks in first two rounds:

"I don't anticipate moving the ninth pick.  In all likelihood as we stand here today, I expect to use the seventeenth pick on the first night of the draft as well.  It certainly does give you options potentially. I've never had three picks in a row, particularly three in the second round.  Those picks tend to be valuable.  If you look at every team's draft grid, a lot of teams don't have firsts, don't have second-round picks, so potentially are looking to acquire that.  Those will be options, but again, as we stand here today, that's more things that will happen at the draft."

On Kasper, Edvinsson, and Walman Injuries:

"They're all tracking the healing process fine.  No concerns at this stage."

On whether playoff results altered his team-building philosophy:

"Vegas winning the Stanley Cup probably not a major surprise to anyone.  They would be one of the teams I think everyone felt had a good opportunity.  I can't tell you I saw how the playoffs actually played out.  I wouldn't have predicted that...but I don't think there's any set formula for playoff success."

On Dan Watson, new coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins:

"Obviously, having Dan close by in Toledo and having a chance over the years to talk with him a little bit.  I personally hadn't spent, and probably Shawn Horcoff as well, a lot of time sitting down talking about coaching philosophies, systems, coaching styles, and as we went through the interview process, we were more and more impressed with Dan and the way he presented himself and his ideas on coaching.  Ultimately felt after talking with him at great length and a lot of people that had worked with him and players that have gone through the system playing for Dan, we thought it was a really good transition for our organization and a really good fit for us."

On value of draft picks on the trade market for a rebuilding team:

"What I'm trying to do is build a nucleus of young players that's gonna be the core of the team for a significant period of time or for the future.  So if we give up those pieces, and again these draft picks there's no guarantees that they're gonna turn into that, we have to feel that the player we would be acquiring is going to be a part of that core for a long time.  It doesn't make sense to acquire a player, give up pieces that we need, and in three or four years that player is retired or moved on and we still don't have that core in place."

On the strength of the draft class:

"Draft classes seem to be measured on how good is it at the top, and this year, it looks very, very good at the top.  And as you go through each round, it gets more random as you move along.  As we go through our meetings and talk about the players, you create your lists, we sit down at the end of it and say 'We're excited.  We're optimistic at pick 43 that we're gonna get one of this group of players,' and it's an educated guess who's going to be there...Today we think it looks like a pretty good draft, and we know it's a really good draft at the top."

On team needs to complete the core:

"Position-wise, we need players at every position honestly.  I'm not gonna rhyme off what I consider our core to be, and that'll change throughout the summer a little bit...You look at the good teams in the NHL, they have a really good starting goaltender, they have a solid—whether it's three or four, I don't know that anybody can really afford to have a core of six really good d-men anymore—and you've got your top group of forwards.  And depending on the stage of their career, that has a big influence on the AAV of their contract, so I don't you can necessarily target allocating so many dollars to each position.  

"You have to have a group of forwards and probably a smaller group of D than we would have had prior to the cap, and a good goaltender.  That's pretty much your core.  You can look at our group and everybody can deduce on their own what you think our core is.  We're still not there in my opinion to have that core to be a Stanley Cup contender.  We'll see how this off-season goes...We've got work to do as an organization to build the depth of the core, and I'd like to that ideally with younger players that are going to be here for a long time."

On number two NHL goaltending slot behind Ville Husso:

"We've got a decision very soon with free agency coming up.  Do we bring back one or both of our two guys if we can agree to some type of contract, or do we go into the market?  We'll have to make that decision coming up with free agency on the first [of July]...It's a hard question for me to answer right now, and it's something that we're really mulling through and have to make a decision soon."

On G Sebastian Cossa's progress:

"We're pleased with the season that he had.  He's evolving or improving or developing.  I'd say he's a better goalie today than he was in September.  And we'll keep going.  We're very optimistic.  I like his attitude, his size, his athleticism.  He's got work to do and experience to be gained...He hasn't played a ton, and that was part of the reason we kept him in Toledo, to play a lot.  And he still needs to play a lot before he's ready to play in the NHL."

On qualifying RFAs:

"I can't say with 100% certainty that we're gonna qualify all of [RFAs Matt Luff, Joe Veleno, and Gustav Lindstrom].  Obviously that deadline's coming up.  We will qualify more than one of them in all likelihood.  We have interest in bringing them all back...We like them as players, we'd like to have them all back in the organization, but today to say we're definitely qualifying them all? Still a little bit of uncertainty."

On intra-division trades:

"I think the old school approach was...we're gonna trade a guy to the worst team in the league...I don't want this to come back and haunt us in any way.  Today, I'm gonna make the best deal possible for the Detroit Red Wings.  If that's in our division, I might have a few more sleepless nights over the course of the year, but I'm still gonna make the best deal for the Red Wings regardless.  [Because of changes to the scheduling format] there's less concern or less fear that the trade you make is going to blow up in your face and that player is gonna come in and repeatedly make you look foolish.  For me, I'm gonna make whatever the best trade is for the Red Wings, make the trade and then live with it."

On mid-Draft decision-making hierarchy:

"We could sit there and debate forever and continue the debate each day and change the list each day and convince ourselves why it should be changed, so you go through the debates and ultimately somebody's gotta make a decision.  Kris [Draper] is in charge of the amateur scouting department, and he breaks the tie...My role as a general manager really comes in as based on the scouts' information, are we gonna use that pick or use that pick in some form of a trade...The amateur scouting staff, they're the ones that are leading this draft for every team.  The GMs, we're more than happy to stand up and take credit when a guy plays well, but the scouting staff are the ones that are really making the final decision."