I always hated Steve Yzerman.
It’s nothing personal, really. He seems like a nice guy. It’s the player from 1997 that I hated.
Growing up without an NHL team in your city sucks, but on the other hand, it did afford me the chance to pick a team fandom to join. And the team I loved when I was young was the late 90’s Colorado Avalanche. I jumped aboard that bandwagon as soon as I started watching NHL hockey. (Of course the reason I picked them is that they were good, what do you expect from a 5-year old?) Patrick Roy was an absolute madman and is still probably my favorite player to this day. In 1996 they won the Stanley Cup and I got to rub it into my Red Wings-loving brother’s face because that’s what brothers are for. The next season rolled around and so many of my favorite guys were back. Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Sandis Ozolinsh, they were going to do it again.
Except they couldn’t beat Stevie Y and the Wings.
Detroit foiled Colorado’s plans for back to back championships the next season. After beating the living hell out of each other in their final regular season game (which Detroit somewhat ominously won in overtime), the Red Wings put the final nail in the coffin of Colorado’s grandest hopes and dreams by taking the Western Conference Finals in 6 games.
Steve Yzerman had a goal and 2 assists. He followed it up with 3 goals and another assist in the Finals against an incredibly overmatched Philadelphia Flyers. And you know what the captain of that team did next? He took them back the very next year and did it again. The gall. Now I had to live with my brother in his Red Wings jersey for two straight years, holding onto the pain that that red sweater gave me each time I looked at it.
Now, 20 years later, Yzerman is a very successful general manager whose name has started popping up in the shallow corners of Seattle NHL twitter. On Tuesday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Lightning held a press conference to announce that Yzerman would be stepping down from his role as GM and serve in an advisory role for the final year of his contract. What’s he going to do after that?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My first thought, and I’m sure I’m not alone, was that he was heading back to Detroit. He’s basically royalty in that city, and rightfully so. He spent 22 years with the team, 20 of them as the captain, and never once missed the playoffs. He brought home 3 Stanley Cups.
It does seem like a good time, seeing as how the Red Wings are in uncharted territory at the bottom of the league and without a ton of tools to rebuild in the near future. As my man Doug pointed out when Wings GM Ken Holland’s name came up last summer in the search for a Seattle GM:
“The Red Wings currently have 10 players with no-trade clauses, all of which are assigned to skaters over the age of 27. Additionally, four players over the age of 30 have contracts which extend to at least the 2020-21 season.”
This seems less than ideal for a team trying to rebuild for the future. Fortunately for the #YzermanToSeattle enthusiasts, and the 8-year old Avalanche fan still inside me, the Red Wings decided this was worth rewarding Holland with a 2-year contract extension. It seems as though they’re going to give him a shot to take them from the cellar back to the playoffs. They could of course kick Holland to the curb if Yzerman comes calling, but that would be a pretty brutal move to toss out a guy who has worked for the team for 35 years, just one year into his contract extension.
This is just one reason why I have convinced myself that he is feeling that call from the Pacific Northwest.
Yzerman just stepped down from a team that appears to be perennial Cup contenders for the near future. As noted Brad Marchand apologist Rebecca said, “they’re one Erik Karlsson away from god mode.” Would he really do that to start a brand new team, from scratch? Of course he would! He’s a professional athlete, and any athlete worth his salt that has played at the highest level is incredibly competitive. Helming an expansion team is a rare opportunity and an extremely difficult task. And right now Yzerman has a chance to take that challenge head on like he’s Brendan Shanahan throwing his body helplessly against the flying form of Patrick Roy.
But what else does Seattle have to offer you might ask? How about president and CEO Tod Leiweke, who held a similar position for five seasons with...the Tampa Bay Lightning. Leiweke and Yzerman took over the Lightning during the 2010 offseason and built the reigning Atlantic Division champions by adding studs like Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy. It’s been reported that Leiweke is looking to bring in people he trusts. I’d have to assume Yzerman makes that list. Then there’s also big-shot Hollywood producer/long-time Detroit Red Wings fan Jerry Bruckheimer, a key investor in the team. It seems safe to assume that he would be ridiculously happy to land the savior of his original hometown team to run his brand new shiny expansion team. Maybe he’ll even let Yzerman make a cameo in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie if he comes to Seattle.
The Seattle NHL owners have a big meeting coming up next month with the league. They’ll need to secure official word from the NHL that the expansion team has passed go and collected $200 before the city will let them tear apart and rebuild Key Arena. Without that, the renovations could stall and the team would be delayed until 2021. I’m just spitballing here, but you know what might make a really enticing argument? Having a Hall of Fame talent signed on to run the team already.
I always hated Steve Yzerman. But 20 years later, with a much broader appreciation of the NHL and a rabid desire to see the league branch out into my city, I think I can finally get over it.
Steve Yzerman is a fantastic general manager.
Steve Yzerman is a legend.
Steve Yzerman belongs in Seattle.
Comments
I'd be shocked if Yzerman came to Seattle
He said many times in his press conference and in other reporting that he’s leaving primarily to spend more time with family, who still live in Detroit and never moved to Tampa with him.
It doesn’t make any sense he’d sign on with a West coast team under those circumstances.
For more likely that Holland gets "promoted" to team President, opening up the GM spot for Detroit. And Detroit’s outlook isn’t nearly as bad as you’re suggesting, they just picked up two great players in the draft – Zadina and Veleno – and still have 2 additional picks From trading Tatar to Vegas. Yeah, they won’t be a contender in the next few years, but they are restocking quickly and would offer Yzerman the chance do the same thing he did for the Wings as a player – rebuild them into a Cup contender.
By Kyle_G on 09.12.18 9:59am
Seattle is worlds ahead of/better than Detroit in basically every measurable category, except cost of living, which doesn't matter to this family.
Maybe his family wants to make a move. All 3 of his daughters are in college or nearly done and may be leaving town for careers anyway. The time has passed for the entire family under one roof, so what’s next?
I’d say a big reason that his wife and kids didn’t move to Tampa is just that, 3 kids in grade school at the time. Yeah, easier to decide stay when Steve makes/has enough money to fly home frequently. Now it’s entirely different dynamic, and I’d think that his wife may be open to moving to the PNW now that the kids are out of the house and on to being adults. This may be especially true given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a new team.
It’s just a much different situation now. Prepare to be shocked.
By Throbert Bedford on 09.12.18 11:00am
That doesn't explain why he's stepping back now
He could have moved his family to Tampa anytime in the past 8 years and never did. And he’s also choosing now to go back to Detroit. So clearly he wants to spend more time with family and doesn’t want to move them right now. You don’t need to compare Seattle to Detroit, compare Seattle to Tampa. How likely is it that he’d rather quit being GM than move his family to Tampa and then one year later want to move them to Seattle?
It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be GM of the Wings, the team that drafted him, he won 3 Cups with, and played his whole career with. He was rumored to be in line for the Wings GM role before Tampa scooped him up after Holland was kept as GM.
I’m not saying it’s impossible he goes to Seattle or some other team, but it’s probably a 90 percent chance that he is working for the wings this time next season. We should be realistic about that even though it’s nice to imagine what if’s and he’d be a home run pick as GM if we did manage to get him.
By Kyle_G on 09.12.18 12:17pm
Sure it does. 1) he loves the lightning and doesn't want to leave them without a transition period; 2) as a competitive guy, SEA is the best way to prove you're the best in the business;
3) his youngest daughter just started college, so this was really the first year it could happen if they didn’t want to take any of the kids out of their schools;
4) Florida sucks, including Tampa;
5) 90% is wrong, it’s probably not 50/50, but also not 90.
6) why should we be realistic? No thanks. That sounds boring and useless.
Again, prepare to be shocked because it doesn’t sound like you will take it very well.
By Throbert Bedford on 09.12.18 1:35pm
Lmfao
"We should be realistic about that even though it’s nice to imagine what if’s and he’d be a home run pick as GM if we did manage to get him."
What, exactly, about "it’s nice to imagine…a home run pick" makes you think they wouldn’t take it well??? How are you going to take it if/when your attempts to project your own opinions onto somebody else didn’t work? What makes you think he agrees with you that Seattle is better than Detroit or that taking over an expansion team is better than taking over an established team? It’s one thing to be proudly unrealistic, but you sound absolutely unhinged right now.
By Allan White on 09.16.18 4:50pm
Detroit has some fantastic young prospects who will not only be good but a few should be stars
That doesn’t mean you have the pieces in place to develop and use them efficiently. The game is already making its next major shift and Holland is just starting to figure out how to work post-2004-05 lockout.
If Yzerman lands in Detroit it isn’t because the Red Wings have faith in Holland to make headway with their prospect pool or take their team to the next level. It’s because they have an oppertunity to correct all their mistakes and Holland isn’t the guy who will see that through – in fact, he is the cause of many (not all) of them.
By Doug Mellon on 09.12.18 11:28am
Detroit is just starting their rebuild
So they are not done getting pieces yet.
I agree with all your points about Holland, which is why I think the wings will do anything to get Yzerman once his contract with Tampa expires next season. And because of Yzerman’s incredibly deep personal and professional ties to Detroit as a city and the Wings as an organization I have a real hard time he’d chose a GM role at any other team over the Wings if both were offered.
The wings could have made Yzerman their GM like 8 years ago when he was already working in their hockey staff but showed loyalty to Holland and we know how that turned out. I can’t see them making the same mistake again.
By Kyle_G on 09.12.18 12:21pm
Agreed. Hope it happens. #yzermanwatch2019
By Throbert Bedford on 09.12.18 11:02am
I understand Yzerman is a delusional long shot
But what’s been more frustrating is Red Wings fans trying to push Holland onto the next Alaska Airlines to Seattle. Just because alot of us are new fans doesn’t mean we don’t know about Holland.
Yes, he had success with the team in the same years that Yzerman was a captain, but since the salary cap came into play, it’s been downhill. Seems like he likes to over-retain players past their prime, and it wouldn’t surprise me if even a couple of the concession stand workers have no trade clauses at this point.
I’d prefer to have a GM history like Nashville’s, where they made the right choice the first time, instead of like Florida, who seems to have a merry go round as the GM’s office. Success =/= Holland.
By OlyBrandon21 on 09.12.18 12:17pm
I don't know how much Holland is to blame
From what I’ve read (and I admit I’m not a Wings fan so I don’t know all the details), there was huge pressure from ownership to keep the playoff streak going. That kind of strategy results in overpaying in money and term to guys you already have rather than tearing it all down, which the wings should have done years ago.
So how much of what the Wings have been doing a result of owner pressure vs what Holland actually wanted? None of us know and so I’m not willing to say I hate the idea of Holland as GM. I assume those questions would be asked before any hiring choice is made.
I really thought McPhee was a slam dunk hire by Vegas since he totally rebuilt the core of the caps through the draft in the mid 2000s. I don’t know of any names out there with that kind of cachet for Seattle but we have another year. Maybe Chicago fires Stan Bowman if they miss the playoffs again which might be a great option. The former Kings GM Dean Lombardi, who built a 2x Cup winner, is an assistant with Philadelphia and is another option.
By Kyle_G on 09.12.18 12:40pm
I would be ok with Yzerman. I would not be ok with Holland.
By Slica on 09.12.18 12:36pm