Some of this was inevitable. Time heals all wounds, including the damage Ken Holland did to the Red Wings in the later stages of his tenure as general manager. And some of this wouldn't have happened without the arrival of Steve Yzerman, who's removing the Band-Aid to fix a larger problem.
The Red Wings were still stuck in between when Yzerman took over for Holland, between a young roster and an old one, between talent on the way and talent on the way out. In his efforts to keep a fading team relevant, Holland pushed relevance further out of reach.
Yzerman arrived after the 2018-19 season to find nine players on contracts of at least three years in length, and six players on contracts of at least five years in length. Four of the latter six were above the age of 30. He also inherited four players signed for at least three more years. That might have made sense for a team contending for Cups.
The Wings were coming off their third straight losing season.
At his introductory press conference, Yzerman asked for patience. He avoided putting any sort of timeline on the project at hand, because he knew that would box him in. And because the project at hand was huge. Yzerman had to move out one core while trying to assemble the next one.
The Red Wings signed Anthony Mantha to a four-year contract on Tuesday. It marks the first time in Yzerman's tenure that he's handed out a contract more than two years in length. Mantha joins Dylan Larkin as Detroit's only two players who are signed for at least three more years. That list would have been three, but Yzerman took Justin Abdelkader out of the picture this offseason.
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It's not about avoiding long-term deals altogether. It's about handing them out to the right players at the right times. This was the right time for Mantha, a building block for Detroit who turned 26 last month.
"With all of our younger players, and I consider Anthony one of our younger players, we’re trying to build around this group," Yzerman said Wednesday. "Each contract that we do, we try to make it work within what we’re trying to do. We have a salary cap that we have to deal with. Not that it’s an issue for us today, but it potentially could be in the future. You just don’t know.
"So we’re careful in what we do, but our intention is to keep these young players around."
That group includes Tyler Bertuzzi. Yzerman said he wanted to sign the 25-year-old to 'a longer-term deal' this offseason, but they couldn't reach an agreement and Bertuzzi filed for arbitration. The two sides will revisit talks next summer. By then, the Wings stand to have just nine contracts on the books, only three of which will be for players above the age of 30: Frans Nielsen, Thomas Greiss and Danny DeKeyser.
Yzerman has done more than usher out veterans on bad contracts. He's also resisted the urge, if he even feels one at all, to splurge on free agents in an attempt to accelerate the rebuild. Holland deserves credit for leaving behind the likes of Larkin, Mantha and Bertuzzi. But each summer toward the end of his tenure it felt like he was trying to buy the Wings a modular home. Yzerman is building from the ground up.
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Right now, the biggest contract on Detroit's roster belongs to ... Marc Staal. The Rangers gave the veteran defenseman a six-year, $34.2 million extension in 2015, a deal that became so cumbersome they had to send the Wings a second-round pick to take it off their hands. Yzerman was happy to oblige. He'll be rid of the contract next summer, and he'll have a valuable asset for his troubles.
If the Red Wings were at a similar place in the competitive cycle right now as the Rangers, Yzerman might be trying to do the same thing with Nielsen. It's another reminder of the danger of hitching yourself to the wrong players. While Yzerman handed out a pair of eight-year deals during his tenure with the Lightning -- in the same offseason, no less -- the two recipients were coming off their age-25 seasons: Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.
You might remember Holland and the Wings had their eye on Stamkos that summer. When he eschewed free agency to stay in Tampa, they signed Nielsen as a consolation prize. Nielsen was a fine player for the Islanders, and he's a good person all around. But he was not worth the six-year, $31.5 million deal the Wings gave him at the age of 32.
Mantha shouldn't have much problem fulfilling the four-year, $22.8 million he signed on Tuesday. And the Wings won't have any problem operating around it.
"Things can change from year to year with the salary cap, your own team, the structure that you want or what you’re trying to accomplish," Yzerman said. "Again, we’re just trying to negotiate fair deals that work for the player and work for the organization.
"But right now, you see around the league, a lot of the long-term contracts can not work out. There’s just so much uncertainty. You (have to be) careful in the length of the contract you do."
Careful. It was the second time Yzerman used that word. With due respect to Holland, the architect of four Cup-winning teams and a historic playoff streak, careful wasn't really part of his vocab in Detroit, at least not until it was too late. He kept his foot on the gas through all those green lights, then ran a few reds on his way out of town.
Yzerman just seems steadier behind the wheel. He'll cut you have off if he has to, sort of like the way he took advantage of the Rangers. But he knows where he's going and he knows how to get there, and he's not wasting time searching for shortcuts. He keeps one eye on the road, and the other several miles ahead.
"We’re going to try and get better from year to year," Yzerman said. "The reality is, you’re limited to what you can do, or you’re restricted, by the time it takes each prospect to develop. It’s just not as simple as going out and making a bunch of trades and getting really good players and signing a bunch of free agents."
Yzerman declined again to put a timeline on the rebuild. He'd only have to answer for it later. He said the Wings will just "continue to do what we're doing," which is already much more -- and much less -- than what they were doing before.