Red Wings: Trading Athanasiou, Green Shows Yzerman “Gets It”
By John Manzo
First-year Red Wings GM making necessary moves to aid rebuild and improve chances at future success.
Steve Yzerman gets it.
You didn’t need validation, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget amid this disastrous season that has the Detroit Red Wings a preposterous 14-45-4.
How many times in sports – especially with Detroit teams – do you find yourself yelling at the television?
“Why are you running on third and long? What reasoning did you have for pulling that pitcher?”
If I had a dollar for every time this happened, I’d have enough money to pay off the dollar amounts attached to the contracts of Stephen Weiss, Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg that’s still on the books according to CapFriendly.com.
Fortunately, Yzerman gets it.
He’s trying to speed up the rebuild process by acquiring picks, digging this franchise out the cellar left by, wait for it…the guy he made two, not one, TWO, deals with Monday.
It was a win-win in my opinion doing business Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland. Holland added pieces during win-now mode, one of which is a young, albeit undisciplined speeder. But this is a Red Wings fan site, we don’t care what’s happening in Edmonton.
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On the other hand, we do care what Yzerman was up to Monday, and he did what any common-sensed Red Wings fan would want. He moved his most in-demand pieces for future assets to aid the rebuild.
By acquiring two second round and a likely fourth round pick during Monday’s NHL trade deadline, the team now has eight picks in the first four rounds of the 2020 NHL Draft, and another six in 2021.
That’s a lot of dart throws from a guy many of you trust, many in the hockey world respect.
Good riddance, Andreas Athanasiou and Mike Green, we thank you for your services. But in a city where countless poor decisions are made, it feels good to say:
Yzerman gets it.