Red Wings: Steve Yzerman Slowly Adding to Roster

Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is turning over the roster fast, and it’s working. Even if you don’t see it yet.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Detroit Red Wings fans, you’re slowly starting to see general manager Steve Yzerman’s fingerprints all over this roster.

For every Justin Abdelkader, Jonathan Ericsson and Frans Nielsen, there’s a Robby Fabbri, Alex Biega and Dmytro Timashov.

Well, not exactly. There’s also Jimmy Howard, Trevor Daley, Darren Helm, and others who are Ken Holland holdovers that haven’t lived up to their most recent contracts, but that’s not the point.

The point is that Yzerman has been active since taking over the reins for Holland in April 2019 and you can see the impact it’s already having on the rebuild.

Sure, the team is last in the NHL standings.

Sure, there isn’t much production outside of the first line.

And sure, not every move he’s made has been successful (looking at you, Valtteri Filppula).

But it’s OK because the positives have outweighed the negatives, and the negatives don’t affect the long term.

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There’s only one more year left of Filppula as a holdover before he’s back in Finland playing with his native country. You didn’t see Ericcson or Daley receive contract extensions this week like defenseman Alex Biega did, did you?

The days of long-term deals to guys like Ericcson, Daley, Helm and others is long gone. You likely will see it with Mantha. You’ll probably see it with Bertuzzi. And you already saw it with Larkin.

But you didn’t see it with Andreas Athanasiou and you weren’t going to. That’s why Yzerman sent him packing to the western part of Canada where Holland will sip the Kool-Aid and give him a warm, long-term contract because they’re friends.

Well, Kenny, this is business, and Yzerman is getting down to it in his first season as the team’s general manager.

It’s out with the old, in with the new.

Now who’s next?

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