Steve Yzerman isn't a pretender: the Red Wings aren't contenders. And until that changes, they won't act like one. Their goal ahead of the trade deadline was to boost their roster for the playoff push, but not at the expense of the larger climb. In a seller's market where proven players cost premium assets, Yzerman found that almost impossible.
The Red Wings searched for help up front to replace center Andrew Copp. They were open to paying the price for a younger player who could slide into their core, but there weren't any fits, said Yzerman. The only deals "available" to the Red Wings, he said, involved pending free agents "that teams were selling off."
"And we didn’t even get into those discussions. We’re not a fit for them, we’re going to waste their time. To get into that rental thing, we’re giving up our first-round picks and whatever we consider our top prospects, and I think we would all agree, whether we like it or not, being in this situation, that’s not the thing to do right now," Yzerman said.
The Red Wings are one point out of a wild card spot with 20 games to go, as they try to snap a franchise-worst eight-year playoff drought. They're also sliding in March for the third year in a row. They aren't yet ready to make an earnest run at the Cup, and their three-time Cup-winning GM knows it.
So they added Petr Mrazek in hopes that he "can give us a boost in net," Yzerman said, and forward Craig Smith, who should add some punch and scoring ability to their bottom six. They subtracted Joe Veleno, who didn't have much of a future in Detroit. On Friday night they play the Capitals, who beat the Wings into the playoffs by a tiebreaker last season and now stand as the top team in the East.
Yzerman gets it, "the frustration or the impatience" of the fan base. He can appreciate that Detroit is "a hockey city," where "people know the game and want the team to do well." Yzerman wants the team to win big. He reiterated Friday that he isn't interested in merely getting into the playoffs, though that remains a goal this season. Asked directly if it would have been worth it this year to forfeit a first-round pick in the name of ending the drought, Yzerman answered directly: "No."
In this market, he said, a first-round pick alone wouldn't have been enough to acquire a player who's "going to make us better and bump somebody out of the lineup."
"We’re talking third- and fourth-line players where we’re gong to have to give up a first- or second-round pick. We got those guys," Yzerman said. "To get guys that are making a difference, it’s first-round pick, plus, plus. And right or wrong, I’m not doing that, because I don’t believe that that’s enough. It’s different if you told me, 'You’re going to the Cup.' But if you sit there at the draft and you’re still a team that's building, hoping to get into the playoffs, and you don’t have your first- or second-round picks, that’s not the way to do it. I’m sorry."
It can feel like it at times, but Yzerman isn't necessarily hoarding assets. He sent a first-round pick to Ottawa two years ago to acquire a core player in Alex DeBrincat, Detroit's leading goal-scorer this season. But the plan is painfully patient, and will succeed or fail on the backs of Yzerman's draft picks. You can believe in it based on players like Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson, with more talent trickling into Detroit. You can resist it for the same reason: it's a stream more than a wave. In six years, Yzerman has added four clear keepers to Detroit's roster via the draft, Marco Kasper included.
He has had his blunders, headlined by the Jake Walman fiasco last summer. Yzerman sacrificed a second-round pick to unload a top-four defenseman on a good contract, then watched him get traded for a first-round pick less than a year later. That's the sort of bad business that a talent-deficient team can't afford. And while Yzerman has raised the Wings' floor in free agency, he's done little to lift their ceiling. That has to change this summer -- Sam Bennett, anyone?
Yzerman acknowledged that Detroit's additions on Friday weren't "earth-shattering." But he wasn't willing to shake the ground beneath the rebuild "just to try and hope for us to get in. This isn’t the time for us to do that."
"We’re prepared to use our picks and prospects, but it’s gotta be for players that one, we really like and that we believe in, and then, who are going to be a part of this thing next year and for years beyond. Otherwise, this whole thing has been a waste, a waste of time, I think, and would just set us back and delay it even further," Yzerman said. "And nobody wants that."
When Yzerman looks around the Red Wings' division, he sees three teams that are "really going for it" based on the moves they made at the deadline: Florida, Toronto and Tampa. Not to mention several more contenders in the West. Star players, first-round picks and top prospects were flung around the NHL the last 48 hours like pucks thrown onto the ice for warmups. You "go all-in," said Yzerman, "when you believe you’re ready to win a Stanley Cup."
"And we’re not there today. If we’re there by good fortune next year, then that’s something we’d have to consider," he said.
Entering Friday, the Red Wings' odds of making the playoffs were under 20 percent. The wild card race is crowded, and their legs have looked tired. They carried a four-game skid into Washington, desperate for a win. The players and coaches -- and fans -- have their eyes on the playoffs, but Yzerman is looking further down the stream, where the current forms a river and flows toward the Cup every year.
"I want to make the playoffs and I want to win a Stanley Cup as much as you or anybody in this city," he said, "and I take full responsibility for where we’re at today."
Exhausting as it may be, Yzerman isn't going to rush tomorrow.