Detroit Red Wings fans are beginning to run out of patience with general manager Steve Yzerman. It's always tricky when a legend comes back to the franchise in a high-profile position, whether as a coach, general manager, president, etc. Yzerman is living that right now in Detroit, a historic franchise he helped guide to three Stanley Cup Championships as the captain. Now, the Red Wings are in jeopardy of missing out on the postseason for the ninth straight year. Yzerman is now in Year Six as the executive vice-president and general manager. Full disclosure: As a child of the '80s, Yzerman was my hero and idol growing up. To this day, Yzerman remains my all-time favorite athlete. That doesn't exonerate him from being criticized.
When you scour through the wave of posts online, you will find many people with their claws out defending Yzerman due to their fandom from years past. That group will defend, defend, defend, regardless of the current state of the Red Wings. They'd follow Yzerman blindly wherever he'd lead them. In contrast, there is another group calling for his head. There is no happy medium. A group of fans believe he's in his position because of who he is and what he's done in the past with Tampa Bay, and they won't be satisfied without a championship. It's really the battle of two extremes.
The fact is, Yzerman has done some good things as general manager. He's brought the Red Wings back to relevance. He inherited a depleted farm system with virtually no prospects that move the needle. At the NHL level, Detroit had aging veterans with little-to-no upside in overall value on the open market on long-term, expensive deals. Since taking over, Yzerman has replenished the once bare cupboards with prospects at the lower levels: he's drafted very well, particularly in the top half of the drafts. He hasn't done a good job of acquiring established impact players at the NHL level, whether through trade or free agency. He's had more swings and misses than hits.
Walman is indeed going to Edmonton. The return is not yet confirmed, but chatter of a 1st round pick going to SJ.
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 7, 2025
Detroit hasn't won many trades with Yzerman at the helm. His latest blunder was the Jake Walman deal this past summer. Detroit sent their top-pairing defender to San Jose, attaching a second-round pick to entice the Sharks to take him. San Jose flipped Walman to the Edmonton Oilers at the deadline for a first-round pick. So, let's quickly review this: The Sharks received a first-round (EDM) and second-round pick (DET) for Walman. Walman is in Year Two of his three-year deal that averages just $3.4 million annually. Walman has recorded six goals and 32 points this season while averaging over 23 minutes per night with San Jose.
Yzerman needs to address his pro scouting staff this offseason, which includes his brother Chris Yzerman, and another name familiar to Red Wings fans is Kirk Maltby.
Steve Yzerman did nothing to move the needle at the NHL trade deadline
With the Detroit Red Wings in the thick of things despite a five-game losing skid. March hasn't been kind to Red Wings over the past three years when it felt like Detroit was about to take a step forward in their rebuild. It always feels like a step forward and two steps backward over the past few seasons.
The Red Wings moved fourth liner Joe Veleno to Chicago for goaltender Petr Mrazek and veteran winger Craig Smith. Veleno, a former first-round pick of Detroit, is in the first of his two-year bridge deal that averages $2.275 million. The speedy fourth liner hasn't lived up to expectations, and perhaps a change of scenery will do him some good. One good thing is that Yzerman is shedding that contract, but adding Mrazek will cancel out any cap benefit.
Mrazek, 33, has one year left on his deal after this season at $4.25 million. Smith, 35, earns $1 million this season and is a free agent at the end of the year. Since December 1st, Mrazek owns the league's worst save percentage of 0.866 and is 3-10-1 over that span. Yzerman mentioned Detroit will carry three goalies the rest of the year and liked the fact that Mrazek is under contract next season. Cam Talbot, Mrazek, and top prospect Sebastian Cossa are battling for organizational positioning this upcoming summer.
Detroit needed to add a middle-six forward or shed a bad contract like Vladimir Tarasenko, Justin Holl, or J.T. Compher and add an impactful right-handed defender for this to be a successful deadline, none of which Yzerman accomplished.
Here's what Yzerman had to say about his quiet NHL trade deadline
"First of all, I understand the frustration or the impatience," Yzerman said, h/t the Detroit Free Press. "It’s a hockey market, it’s a hockey city. People know the game, they want the team to do well. And I guess what would I say is, we did what we thought we could to help give us a better chance here at the playoffs. Is it earth-shattering? No it’s not. But the only way we could do something earth-shattering is to give up first-round picks and our best young players and prospects, and I think everybody would agree that just to try to hope for us to get in — this isn’t the time to do that."
“In acquiring Petr Mrázek, we expect him to play games,” Yzerman said, h/t Th Athletic. “How many? I’m not sure, and it’ll be based on performance for all three guys, for that matter.”We didn’t sacrifice or give up future assets, which we weren’t prepared to do probably for a rental player, and there weren’t honestly a lot of options for moves that work for us, or that fit with the age group of our players, on players with terms on their contracts.”