Steve Yzerman’s Remodel in Tampa is Paying Off; Red Wings Have Hope

Former Detroit Red Wings captain and Detroit legend, Steve Yzerman, spent many years wearing a Detroit Red Wings uniform until later taking up a role in Tampa Bay’s front office.

Steve Yzerman will forever go down as one of the best players to ever wear the Red Wings uniform but he may have another title attached to his name if history is able to repeat itself, yet again.

Steve Yzerman was named general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning back in 2010, and has recently found a great deal of success. Now the success that has came of his time in Tampa, it didn’t come by accident. In his resume he is able to say that he drafted: Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, and Athony Cirelli.

Now although that’s a great deal of success, that wasn’t all that he did. On top of dafting some current day elite players, he also was able acquire: Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev, Patrick Maroon, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Erik Cernak.

With that resume, it would be pretty hard not to see success down the line for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Which, as we are currently seeing, is a true statement as they’ve already won back-to-back Stanley cups. Furthermore, they just took down the Florida Panthers in four games and are moving on the Eastern Confrence finals. But, that’s no longer where his life is. His life is now in Detroit and has been since 2019.

So, in his limited time with the Red Wings, what has he done so far? Well, I’m glad that I asked that question for you.

Since taking over as the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, Yzerman has drafted current Red Wings: Moritz Seider, Simon Edvinsson, and Lucas Raymond. Furthermore, he also was able to trade away Nick Leddy and get LHD, Jake Walman, F, Oskar Sunqvist, and obtain a 2023 St. Louis Blues’ second-rounder. That’s all just going off the top of my head as well. There is obviously more as well.

So far it appears that Yzerman is already turning this team around on paper, but this is only just the beginning. The question that needs to be asked though: Can Yzerman’s remodel of the Detroit Red Wings eventually take down what he built in Tampa Bay?