Detroit – Can’t argue with the moves. Can’t deny the necessity of them. And also, can’t ask Red Wings fans to enjoy them forever.
Steve Yzerman still is playing a game of pickup – pick up picks – which can be tedious and short-term unrewarding. In the space of three days, he dealt away four roster players and collected six draft picks, including two No. 1s. If you examine each trade in a vacuum, they make smart sense. Put them all together, it’s fair to wonder when the Wings will graduate from pickup games to higher-stakes games.
I suspect it starts now. Flush with draft capital and salary-cap space, Yzerman’s next moves will – or should – be more immediately impactful. After dealing 25-year-old defenseman Filip Hronek and 28-year-old forward Tyler Bertuzzi for first-round picks and other parting gifts, and cashing in Jakub Vrana and Oskar Sundqvist for lower picks, Yzerman wasn’t trying to fool anyone. Even before the Wings got pummeled twice in Ottawa this week, he said the Wings weren’t going to be buyers at Friday’s trade deadline.
The blowouts to the Senators confirmed what Yzerman thought, that the Wings aren’t ready for the next stage. But they also can’t stockpile picks endlessly, with 10 this year. I think there’s a decent chance Yzerman doesn’t end up drafting with either of the first-rounders he just acquired, instead bundling them for players. The Wings are barely half-a-dozen points out of a playoff spot but much farther behind the top teams in their division – Boston, Toronto, Tampa Bay and even Ottawa and Buffalo.
“Do I think we’re a Stanley Cup contender this year? No,” Yzerman said Friday. “Did I think we had a chance to make the playoffs? Yes. If I thought we were a Stanley Cup contender, I would not have traded our unrestricted free-agents. I say to the fan base, I understand the frustration and disappointment, I get it. If our ultimate goal is to compete with the best teams in the league, this is what I’m doing. If doesn’t work out, it’s on me, I understand that.”
Based on Yzerman’s drafting acumen and team-building prowess in Tampa, I’d still bet heavily it’ll work. Most NHL observers strongly believe it will work, and Yzerman was widely praised for fleecing Vancouver out of a top pick for Hronek, who’s having a good offensive season but was awful a year ago.
Fans can be aggravated, especially because the Wings are in the seventh year of a rebuild – the fourth under Yzerman – and traction is slow. It doesn’t help that the Tigers tried a similar path and ended up in a ditch. Scott Harris replaced Al Avila and is starting completely over, in almost every way.
Eye for talent
But Yzerman’s eye for talent is renowned, and his track record buys him time and patience. As he warned, and as we’ve seen, rebuilding the prudent way also happens to be the hard way and the long way. Now that he has a solid core – Dylan Larkin, Mortiz Seider, Lucas Raymond – and a bunch of promising youngsters, he has options.
The free-agency class this offseason is sparse, so that’s not a great option. But with five first-rounders and five second-rounders in the next three drafts, the Wings have lots of trade bait, and teams slipping out of contention windows will crave high picks, perhaps in exchange for a high-priced star.
“Good teams haven’t just done it through the draft, they made good trades to kind of complete their teams,” Yzerman said. “But you need draft picks, you need prospects, you need good young players to make those trades to put you over the top. We’ve got to turn these picks into prospects or NHL players, one of way or another. I’m gonna stick with it and try to make moves along the way that can expedite it.”
More:Red Wings wrap up deadline day by trading Sundqvist, Vrana
Moves like the trade for goalie Ville Husso last summer, who came from St. Louis for a third-round pick. He’s 28 and can be a solid No. 1 goalie, but needs help. Other trades weren’t as fruitful, such as the acquisition of Vrana from Washington for Anthony Mantha. Vrana can be a productive scorer but dealt with personal issues and played only five games this season. The Wings also got a first-round pick in that deal.
Yzerman is betting on himself, a worthwhile gamble. He and his scouting staff plucked stars in Seider and Raymond in the first round, and added touted Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper the past two years. When drafting is your forte, hey, load up on picks. But the Wings are reaching a saturation point, another reason it was important to lock up Larkin for eight more years at a hefty price.
Bertuzzi is due to be an unrestricted free-agent, but he and the Wings were far apart in negotiations. The soaring, aging Bruins pulled a classic 1990s Wings move and loaded up for the Cup run, willing to part with a first-rounder (via the Islanders) whether they can sign Bertuzzi or not.
Yzerman is operating this rebuild by the book, and bookwork requires emotional detachment. He saw the tears Larkin shed after learning his buddy, Bertuzzi, was gone, but in Yzerman’s mind, Bertuzzi was planning to leave regardless.
Yzer-plan the wise approach
Two sentiments can be true. The Yzer-plan can be the wise, necessary approach. It also can be exhausting. Detroit sports fans have spent the past five years celebrating first-round picks. They’re getting antsy to celebrate actual accomplished athletes.
So is Yzerman, and you shouldn’t be confused by his calm, steady demeanor. The Wings’ recent successful road trip gave him pause about selling off players, but he wasn’t deluded. Bertuzzi and Hronek are good, not good enough to make the Wings great, especially with uncertain contract statuses. With first-year coach Derek Lalonde’s strong emphasis on defense, the Wings have improved, prompting Yzerman to sign defensemen Jake Walman and Olli Maatta to longer terms.
I asked him if he thinks this is the last deadline he goes hunting for picks instead of players.
“That’d be great,” Yzerman said. “That would mean we’re making progress. Is it next year? Honestly, I don’t know. And I won’t say, hey, the rebuild is over. We’re going to continue to stick to the plan, acquire young players and assets.”
On the Wings’ current roster, any player talented enough to draw a first-round pick likely would be a trade untouchable. The Wings have upgraded their skill and depth, with more on the way.
“Overall, it’s been a positive season to date, our younger players for the most part have continued to develop,” Yzerman said. “I think our team has improved in general. We can debate if we’re ahead or behind, but I’m not going to debate it. I believe were going in the right direction.”
First-round picks are Detroit’s mood-boosters these days. Eventually, teams and fans must be weaned off them, replaced by established talent. Yzerman can’t say which stage the Wings are in, but he surely knows which stage is next.
Twitter: @bobwojnowski