Steve Yzerman’s best move so far for the Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings general manager has made many moves, but this is the best move so far in his tenure.
Prospects are my favorite part of the Detroit Red Wings at this point. It’s no secret, they are my priority when discussing the future of the team and the key to success.
What good is a prospect if his development is stifled?
As Detroit Red Wings general manager focused the first 3 years of his rebuild on the big club and drafting, he let the Grand Rapids Griffins do their own thing. I hear the critics now, it wasn’t detrimental to the system or prospects who were destined to make it.
I hear the argument and I’d say, Victor Brattström and Pontus Andreasson suffered. If Yzerman had focused on revamping the coaching staff for the Grand Rapids Griffins a season sooner, would these players have a different fate? We won’t ever know.
What I know for certain is the coaching staff that was deployed in 2023-24 is lightyears ahead of the previous regime.
The Grand Rapids Griffins head coach selection is the best decision, possibly most pivotal move, of Steve Yzerman’s tenure with the Detroit Red Wings.
I work in the call center realm as my main gig. It’s a mundane industry where we have many sayings. One of the biggest, most applicable is employees not quitting their jobs. They quit on their managers. I think it applies to any job, including ice hockey regardless of level of play.
In my work experience, I have mostly been fortunate, blessed, whatever you want to call it with good to fantastic managers. Some managers who literally saved my life in many ways, let alone gave me a reason to come to work everyday (albeit somedays more willingly than others).
There was also a trainwreck of an experience.
My first job, early morning shift in a coffee/donut shop-type of place (I’m not a morning person). Think Dunkin Donuts, but a locally owned-version.
The ladies who hired me were really nice, but I had no clue what I was doing. In our family, coffee was never a thing. The closest my sister and I could come to caffeinated beverages was coke. No mountain dew or coffee as we already had hyperactivity issues, so that was a no go for us growing up.
As a very shy, on auto-pilot teenager I didn’t properly communicate that i had no clue what I was doing. Literally, I didn’t even know what an equal is (a fake sugar option, me thinks). Someone would ask me for a light coffee. What did that mean? I still don’t know.
Meanwhile, the ladies were chilling, smoking in the backroom.
Eventually, they called me and said they don’t need me again until August. I’m not sure what month or year it was, but I’m still awaiting that August shift.
On the other hand, I had a co-worker in my first call center job. Picture this: Thanksgiving, there weren't many calls coming into our call center, so we all congregated in on big aisle to play a game.
I sat next to a lady from Chicago who struck up a conversation. Months down the line, she helped wake me up from my auto-pilot. She got to know me, what drives me, and built me up. To this day, nobody ever makes me feel so confident in myself than the way she does by just believing in me.
In a job where nobody stays in the same place long, I stayed until the ship literally sank (the entire center was laid off and closed, per usual in the call center world).
To anybody who doesn’t believe that a coach or management can make that much of a difference in development, I beg to differ as I have lived through both ends of the spectrum. They, in fact, make a world of a difference.
It’s up to the player to make it as far as he can, but it’s also up to the management group to find the best coaches to get the most out of their players.
Head coach: Dan Watson
In his question and answer session with season ticket holders, Dan Watson relayed the challenges he would face as the new head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins.
I hadn’t realized the difference in roles for a head coach in the ECHL versus the American Hockey League (AHL).
In the ECHL, Watson mentioned his primary role was searching for enough players to fill out his Toledo Walleye’s roster. It’s quite the contrast to the AHL, which seems to be more like the National Hockey League (NHL) where the head coach is responsible for the lineup, overall systems, etc.
To say I was intrigued in how things would go would be an understatement.
Watson voiced particular goals for the team. The initial focus was gelling as a team. As someone who has worked on teams in the past, my ears perked up and I was very excited.
To me a team isn’t really much without gelling together. Working as a team, building better habits, and focusing on winning becomes way easier when everyone is on the same page and working together. The best way to do that, I’ve found, is gelling as a team.
The initial weekend of the Grand Rapids Griffins season went well. Winning both gamest, it seemed like Watson’s team was unbeatable.
When they visited the Rocky Mountains, things rolled down the mountain and fast. Seemingly no end in sight, the team played like they had in previous seasons and I questioned Watson.
One of my previous managers, another incredible leader, had a 30/60/90 day guideline. The first 30 days was for focusing on learning and absorbing the information about the role and team. At the 60-day mark, it was important to implement changes as a manager sees fit. Then, at 90 days reassessing the changes and their impacts on the team and performance.
Although it was difficult at times, I tried keeping this in mind when assess Watson and his coaching staff.
Remarkably, the Grand Rapids Griffins found their footing around Christmas and didn’t really look back. They might have had a rough game here and there with quite a few games where they didn’t really play until the last 5 minutes of the game (for the record, they won a lot of those less-than-desirable games). More often than not, they got the job done.
In his first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Watson pushed the team to the playoffs (first time since 2018-19, which is wild to me). The Grand Rapids Griffins finished 72 gams with 37 wins, 23 losses, 12 overtime/shootout losses for second in their division in the AHL.
I thought last season, the Grand Rapids Griffins would slay everyone with their roster. There was a promise of all these Swedish saviors joining the ranks. However, it didn’t happen for many different reasons.
Watson, arguably, had even more talent to work with, but talent isn’t a guarantee for success.
He made smart decisions with his lineup. While I don’t agree with all of his choices, Watson clearly knows how to balance egos, talent, reliability, and investing in his players. It’s not an easy task and it’s only going to get more challenging with more prospects arriving.
Based on his relationship with his players, on-ice performance, and growth in 1 season, I’m confident in Watson moving forward.
Conclusion
This coaching selection for the Grand Rapids Griffins has made a world of a difference for not only winning games, but investing in the development of their prospects.
Watson and his staff have players buying in, regardless of if they’re playing that night or supporting their teammates from the pressbox (or treatment rooms as they recover from an injury).
They’re building an invlauable culture in Grand Rapids that should help prospects feel welcomed, heard, and like they matter.
As Albert Johansson referenced when speaking about Watson, he gets to know the individual–not just the hockey player. To me, it’s weird that a coach wouldn’t get to know the individual as that always seemed to be a focus of successful managers I’ve had in the past.
I’m very grateful to Watson and his staff, along with Yzerman for making this change. Watson has made waves for all the right reasons and is everything we can as for in a coach, especially one who is focused on developing players.
It can’t be easy for Watson with his family still residing in Ohio (more family support to help with kids and his wife’s work is there, as well), but they have made it work amazingly well (it seems).
Any hope of building a dynasty will come from within the Detroit Red Wings system and the prospects currently in the oven. Watson may be the biggest key to the foundation in this dynasty.
Without these prospects developing successfully and as close to their highest ceiling as possible, the organization is destined to chase a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Next. June 12 1. Ken Holland on the brink of history. dark
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