Grade The Offseason 2019: Yzerman's Opening Moves

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

Overall I give the offseason a C so far

I think it's important first to distinguish what our off-season goals were.
IMO that was sticking to the plan that Holland started:

1. Continue the rebuild/retool
2. Maintain depth and don't rush the kids
3. Begin putting Yzerman's stamp on the franchise

If the goal was to become competitive and accelerate the rebuild then I think this offseason is clearly an F. However, based on Yzerman's moves and comments, I think that was clearly not the goal.

FREE AGENTS: B -
In: Filppula, Nemeth, Pickard, Kaski,
Out: Vanek, Kronwall, Frk, Witkowski, Megan, Sulak, A. Holmstrom, J. Chelios, Sadowy, Sateri, Rybar,

Fippula should be a slight upgrade over Vanek. His position at 2C will also allow AA to return to the wing where he is better suited.

Nemeth is likely the replacement for Kronwall. He won't produce as many points as Kronwall, but he may very well be an upgrade defensively as Kronwall's old broken knees were slowing him way down.

Pickard will replace Sateri and Rybar, and should provide a veteran presence in GR for our possible future starter in Larsson.

Kaski is a wild card. He could simply be Sulak's replacement, or he could excel and make the team.

The departure and lack of replacement for Frk, Witkowski, Megan, Holmstrom, Chelios, and Sadowy, should give more kids the opportunity to assume bigger roles, whether that's as depth players in Detroit or core players in GR. I do think we low-key added by subtraction a little here.

With our goals in mind, these tweaks to the roster are not amazing, but got the job done. For that reason I give free agency a B -

STAFF: B -
In: Verbeek, C. Yzerman, Flemming
Out: Ferschweiler, Wright, Finley, Merkosky, Henderson, Dickson

Ferschweiler came to us as an assistant coach with Blashill. As a Blash-boy his departure might be a sign that Blash is going to be on the hot-seat for the next two years? Yzerman has not replaced Ferschweiler.

Chris Yzerman will likely be head of pro scouting under director Mark Howe. Replacing pro scouts Merkosky and Henderson (who IMO have done a terrible job the last few years)

As of now, it seems like Verbeek, Draper, and Stevie himself will take over Wright's duties as director of amateur scouting. So far I do not believe anyone has been named director of amateur scouting. Though I've seen it rumored that that position may be Draper's.

So far the only replacement for amateur scouts Finley and Dickson have been Brendan Flemming, who comes to us as a now former assistant coach at Harvard University.

I am very pleased that Yzerman has brought in and installed his two right hand men in Verbeek and his brother Chris. I'm also glad to see a few of our older scouts, who've been here a longggg time, move on. Our pro scouting has been terrible lately and even some drafts like the 2017 draft were suspiciously awful. I believe our now former amateur scout Jeff Finley is quoted as saying something like he first looks for "big" players, and then if they have some skills he's all in on them. Glad we are purging these kind of guys. I like what tweeks Yzerman has done with the staff, but he's hasn't made any real big splashes or shrewd moves, done much of anything with our coaching, and hasn't replaced a lot of scouts yet. For these reasons I give a B -

DRAFT: ?

With this it's too soon to tell. I'm a huge fan of Seider, but I don't think we can grade a draft till years after its passed.

PERSONAL EXPECTATIONS: D +

This will be the obviously most subjective part of my grade. This offseason has been BORING. I recognize that Yzerman stuck to the plan and asked the fans to be patient, but I'm still disappointed by the lack of moves and creativity so far. I would like to have seen some trades like casting off some bad contracts, or acquiring picks, or anything really. But a lot of this season feels like exactly like what Holland would have done. He's stood amazingly pat so far. I'm hoping when his front office is settled he'll begin to address other things more aggressively. But for right now I'm giving a D +

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by ChristopherReevesLegs

[F.Michael 4,590]

'A' cuz it's Stevie F-ing Yzerman.

[AtlantaHotWings 987]

14 minutes ago, F.Michael said:

'A' cuz it's Stevie F-ing Yzerman.

Sound of a mic dropping on stage...boom

[Jonas Mahonas 1,872]

Ilitch gets an A+ for the Holland firing.  Did it in a classy way.

 

Yzerman gets a C.  The UFA signings are worthless.  We need roster spots for our prospects.  Giving them to other teams' dead weight is stupid.  

 

[krsmith17 7,191]

I pretty much agree with everything you said CRL. One thing though, I'm pretty sure head coaches usually have a big say in who their assistants will be. For that reason, I think Ferschweiler was likely on his way out anyway, and I'm not so sure Blashill is necessarily on the hot seat.

I've been a little disappointed so far in the Yzerman era. I wasn't a fan of any of the free agent signings. Not that any of them are bad, I just don't think any of them were necessary, aside from the goaltender (Pickard) for Grand Rapids. I was a big Filppula fan, so for that reason, I'm happy he's back and has a chance to retire with the organization that drafted him. But outside of that, I don't think he was needed. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that Athanasiou or Helm could play center until Veleno is ready (and that could be sooner than a lot of people think). The Nemeth signing still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. We already have a log jam on defense. Unless one or two of the vets are known to be out long term, or a trade is coming, I don't like the signing. Again, neither signing hurts us long term, but neither really help us short term or long term either...

Aside from the Seider pick, I was pretty disappointed with much of the draft (the 2nd round in particular). I was hoping for a couple really savvy moves to gain assets, like trading for Marleau or Callahan. It's still really early, and hopefully Yzerman plans on stockpiling picks at the deadline. I agree though, C is around where I'm at as well right now.

[F.Michael 4,590]

5 minutes ago, Jonas Mahonas said:

Ilitch gets an A+ for the Holland firing.  Did it in a classy way.

 

Yzerman gets a C.  The UFA signings are worthless.  We need roster spots for our prospects.  Giving them to other teams' dead weight is stupid.  

 

I agree with giving our prospects every opportunity to play at the NHL level...However - what if a guy like Filppula is considerably better/more reliable than most of our prospects?

 

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

13 minutes ago, krsmith17 said:

I pretty much agree with everything you said CRL. One thing though, I'm pretty sure head coaches usually have a big say in who their assistants will be. For that reason, I think Ferschweiler was likely on his way out anyway, and I'm not so sure Blashill is necessarily on the hot seat.

I've been a little disappointed so far in the Yzerman era. I wasn't a fan of any of the free agent signings. Not that any of them are bad, I just don't think any of them were necessary, aside from the goaltender (Pickard) for Grand Rapids. I was a big Filppula fan, so for that reason, I'm happy he's back and has a chance to retire with the organization that drafted him. But outside of that, I don't think he was needed. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that Athanasiou or Helm could play center until Veleno is ready (and that could be sooner than a lot of people think). The Nemeth signing still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. We already have a log jam on defense. Unless one or two of the vets are known to be out long term, or a trade is coming, I don't like the signing. Again, neither signing hurts us long term, but neither really help us short term or long term either...

Aside from the Seider pick, I was pretty disappointed with much of the draft (the 2nd round in particular). I was hoping for a couple really savvy moves to gain assets, like trading for Marleau or Callahan. It's still really early, and hopefully Yzerman plans on stockpiling picks at the deadline. I agree though, C is around where I'm at as well right now.

I think it's telling that Filppula and Nemeth are both signed for two years. I think that's the exact amount of time Yzerman wants this rebuild to last until we start to accelerate.

At that time our core will look like:

Mantha, Athanasiou, and Bertuzzi: 26
Hirose: 25
Larkin and Svechnikov: 24
Hronek and Cholowski: 23
Rasmussen and Larsson: 22
Veleno, McIsaac, Berggren, and Zadina: 21
Seider: 20

That's 15 players who could be on the roster at that point at 26 or younger. More than a few still may be on ELC's too.

In the meantime Filppula can fill the hole that Nielsen was never able to. And in terms of Defense we could be without Ericsson, Daley, and Green next year. Nemeth I see as a decent flex option there.

 

[ely s 457]

My grade is A so far, just because he didn´t do anything stupid for the sake of doing something before he really knows what we have in our system or an opportunity arises (cap trouble somewhere). Most of the big UFA signings are overpaid (especially if we try with where our team is at the moment) and I think every year there were teams who regret their actions on July 1.

Fil, who we lost because Holland was to tightfisted to give him the few bucks extra and then doing his own July 1-regrettable in signing Weiss,  is an ok 2C and is just in as a placeholder for Veleno imo. Nemeth is a solid insurance signing, just in case our prospects aren´t ready come Oktober(would then love to see Seider and Cholo being the #1 pairing in GR) and Kronner not coming back. I have no idea what Steve has tried so far, so I can´t really judge it. Probably he tried to get a "better" free agent or was trying a trade and nothing panned out. Probably he is just patient because he is waiting for the cap crunch coming in on more teams and is waiting for a good opportunity. There might be a chance he is trying to get the rights of Gusev, who knows? 

In the draft he did something Ken should have done after Rafalski was gone the latest, overload on defense until we have a high end defense again. Trades for real good d-men are really expensive as are free agents. You have to find your good d-men in the draft.

Time will tell, I´ll know more when the season starts.

[krsmith17 7,191]

10 minutes ago, ely s said:

My grade is A so far, just because he didn´t do anything stupid for the sake of doing something before he really knows what we have in our system or an opportunity arises (cap trouble somewhere). Most of the big UFA signings are overpaid (especially if we try with where our team is at the moment) and I think every year there were teams who regret their actions on July 1.

Fil, who we lost because Holland was to tightfisted to give him the few bucks extra and then doing his own July 1-regrettable in signing Weiss,  is an ok 2C and is just in as a placeholder for Veleno imo. Nemeth is a solid insurance signing, just in case our prospects aren´t ready come Oktober(would then love to see Seider and Cholo being the #1 pairing in GR) and Kronner not coming back. I have no idea what Steve has tried so far, so I can´t really judge it. Probably he tried to get a "better" free agent or was trying a trade and nothing panned out. Probably he is just patient because he is waiting for the cap crunch coming in on more teams and is waiting for a good opportunity. There might be a chance he is trying to get the rights of Gusev, who knows? 

In the draft he did something Ken should have done after Rafalski was gone the latest, overload on defense until we have a high end defense again. Trades for real good d-men are really expensive as are free agents. You have to find your good d-men in the draft.

Time will tell, I´ll know more when the season starts.

We've drafted plenty defensemen over the past few drafts. 5 (out of 11) in 2019, 3 (out of 10) in 2018, 5 (out of 11) in 2017 and 4 (out of 7) in 2016. The one thing we haven't done up until this year, aside from Cholowski (20th overall in 2016), is take one with a high 1st round pick. I'll admit though, unless a defenseman truly is elite, I'd prefer to take forwards in the 1st round, and defensemen in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I just didn't really like some of the "reaches" in this year's draft. By most accounts, Seider was a reach at 6th overall. Although I really like that pick, one of the many forwards available, *might* prove to be the better players in a few years. The Tuomisto pick was a big "reach" as well, and there were several forwards available that I think will end up being much better players in a few years... Time will tell...

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

17 minutes ago, ely s said:

My grade is A so far, just because he didn´t do anything stupid for the sake of doing something before he really knows what we have in our system or an opportunity arises (cap trouble somewhere). Most of the big UFA signings are overpaid (especially if we try with where our team is at the moment) and I think every year there were teams who regret their actions on July 1.

Yeah Yzerman has shown (and I think said) that he doesn't really believe in building through FA. It's drafting and trades with him, unlike Holland.

18 minutes ago, ely s said:

Fil, who we lost because Holland was to tightfisted to give him the few bucks extra and then doing his own July 1-regrettable in signing Weiss,  is an ok 2C and is just in as a placeholder for Veleno imo. Nemeth is a solid insurance signing, just in case our prospects aren´t ready come Oktober(would then love to see Seider and Cholo being the #1 pairing in GR) and Kronner not coming back. I have no idea what Steve has tried so far, so I can´t really judge it. Probably he tried to get a "better" free agent or was trying a trade and nothing panned out. Probably he is just patient because he is waiting for the cap crunch coming in on more teams and is waiting for a good opportunity. There might be a chance he is trying to get the rights of Gusev, who knows?

Agree with you pretty much 100 here.

I think he might also be looking at the Seattle expansion on the horizon. That's a good reason to be patient. He had to lose Gusev the first time due to the Vegas expansion.

[Jonas Mahonas 1,872]

7 hours ago, F.Michael said:

I agree with giving our prospects every opportunity to play at the NHL level...However - what if a guy like Filppula is considerably better/more reliable than most of our prospects?

 

Hes just not, though.

 

20 year old Veleno > 35 year old Filppula

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

8 minutes ago, Jonas Mahonas said:

Hes just not, though.

 

20 year old Veleno > 35 year old Filppula

I wish you would just contribute honestly sometimes.

[Jonas Mahonas 1,872]

15 minutes ago, ChristopherReevesLegs said:

I wish you would just contribute honestly sometimes.

I seriously feel Veleno is better

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

10 minutes ago, Jonas Mahonas said:

I seriously feel Veleno is better

I know you do

[xault 272]

C+ is about how I feel.

Nothing special, Nothing damaging. Just average. Waiting patiently to be impress.

[Prolix 65]

17 hours ago, ChristopherReevesLegs said:

[...]

I think it's important first to distinguish what our off-season goals were.
IMO that was sticking to the plan that Holland started:

[...]

But a lot of this season feels like exactly like what Holland would have done.

 

Wait, what?

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

1 hour ago, Prolix said:

Wait, what?

By continuing Holland's general plan/vision, I didn't mean do exactly as Holland does. Signing Filppula and some no name Dman for $3 mil seems like Holland to a T.

[kipwinger 8,524]

4 hours ago, ChristopherReevesLegs said:

By continuing Holland's general plan/vision, I didn't mean do exactly as Holland does. Signing Filppula and some no name Dman for $3 mil seems like Holland to a T.

Agreed.  He's done basically everything Holland would do though.  Reached on two top draft picks with low offensive upside (rumor has it Holland even wanted Seider at 8th), signed a washed up 35 year old former Red Wing, signed a stay-at-home depth defenseman, and signed a minor leaguer.  And since Yzerman was supposed to be a better option than Holland, I'm not sure how someone could give him a passing grade here if they were anti-Holland.  

Edited July 26, 2019 by kipwinger

[gcom007 1,465]

I voted C. No slam dunks but what could we really expect? I probably would’ve been more inclined to give him a B given the context of our situation, but then he brought Flip back...

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

1 hour ago, kipwinger said:

Agreed.  He's done everything Holland would do.  Reached on two top draft picks with low offensive upside (rumor has it Holland even wanted Seider at 8th), signed a washed up 35 year old former Red Wing, signed a stay-at-home depth defenseman, and signed a minor leaguer.  And since Yzerman was supposed to be a better option than Holland, I'm not sure how someone could give him a passing grade here if they were anti-Holland.  

It's eerily similar to Holland.

I'm sure throughout the year Holland and Yzerman formed their vision and game plan for the immediate future together. This offseason is probably the last glimpse of Holland influence we will ever see.

That is until Yzerman signs Eaves in the 2020 offseason...

[F.Michael 4,590]

On 7/25/2019 at 11:09 PM, Jonas Mahonas said:

Hes just not, though.

 

20 year old Veleno > 35 year old Filppula

I beg to differ...Until Veleno, or Ras, or Svech, or Zads, or, etc, etc makes the roster, and plays on a regular basis (especially in the top 6)...Filppula is better than any of them.

[LeftWinger 4,961]

I'd like a little excitement, but looking at what he's done (not the draft, that's been covered)

UFA signing of Filppula:  Yzerman most definitely has history with Val, from his days in Detroit and to Tampa.  Yzerman "watched" this team from day one, plus I am sure he "watched" all of our current prospects.  Obviously Yzerman feels that Val is a better option than Nielsen for 2nd line C.  I know most of you guys here would like to see Nielsen gone, so this is actually an upgrade in Yzerman's opinion. I also think that Veleno isn't quite ready for the NHL and it will take a year in GR, then some split time in 20-21 and Flip is a perfect stop gap for that time frame.

UFA signing of Nemeth:  Two words, Ericsson and Daley.  Patrik Nemeth is better at this point in their career's than either of them.  Mike Green will probably not finish the season due to his nagging virus.  If he starts the season at all.  Realistically, the ONLY "kid" ready to make the jump up to Detroit is Hronek.  Cholowski is not ready and Yzerman said himself that Dennis has to go and work on his D-Zone.  So if you look at our D in Detroit, signing Nemeth is also an upgrade for our D. Along with Hronek here full-time. IMO, they should sign Kronwall (if he can play) and waive both Daley and Ericsson.  Kronwall at 38 is better than both of those guys as well.

UFA signing of Pickard:  Face it, our Goalies are horrible.  Sure Howard played well enough to earn him some looks around from other teams at the TDL and earned himself a year contract, but he's old and will not be around for much longer, let alone to see our rebuild to the end.  Bernier is just hot garbage and was the biggest waste of money.  I hope that Pickard plays well enough to get a job here and they waive Bernier to GR.

Like I said, I'd like to see a little more bold moves to peak my excitement, but there were reason's why Yzerman signed the above guys, not just for depth, not just for loyalty, not because they called us.  He signed them because, even though they were not high end players, they are all better than some of our current NHL roster right now.

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

Updates on the Wings staff changes (via the official website):

• LJ Scarpace has been added as the new video coach. Don't know much about him other than he's a Michigan native and was video coach for the Canes for the last two seasons, but I assume this means Adam Nightingale has been promoted from video coach to a full assistant coach.
• Kris Draper has indeed been promoted to director of amateur scouting
• Ryan Rexmierski has been poached from Nashville. Will serve as chief amateur scout under Draper.
• Former Wing Jesse Wallin has been poached from STL, and will be our 2nd chief amateur scout under Draper.
• Some other names I don't recognize on the scouting staff (not sure if new or I just don't remember them): Kyle Mackinnon (pro scout), Rob Rassey (amateur scout), Bryce Thoma (amateur scout), Kevin Gibson (amateur scout), Phil Osaer (goalie scout), Thomas Carlsson (Euro scout)

[ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022]

Just looking at the organization under Yzerman now...

We have 3 scouting directors

Pro: Mark Howe
Amateur: Kris Draper
Euro: Hakan Andersson

Andersson is a legendary euro scout and will hopefully be with the team for many more years, though I would like to see one of his draft picks turn into a new Zberg or Datsyuk soon.

Draper is the new guy replacing Tyler Wright, who I think did an okay/so-so job. Hopefully Draper is a small improvement.

Howe has been a pro scout with the team since like 96/97 and is going on 65 years of age now. The thing we've been bad at for the last 10 years is assessing not only our own pros, but other pros on the market. Could Howe be the problem child in this group? At 65 he's probably nearing retirement anyway... Underneath Howe is Chris Yzerman. I get the feeling that Chris is probably in line for Howe's job. The only other guy who I think could be Howe's replacement is Maltby, similar to Draper in a way.

[nyqvististhefuture 1,002]

I love Stevie and he’s my fav player all time but gave him a C , now part of me thinks he’s purposefully trying to keep us bad to land a top 3 pick so I’m kind of ok with it but there’s stuff I wish he’d have done differently .... Patrick marleau , look I’m sorry but how does a well known cash strapped Carolina owner end up getting the first from the leafs ? Like wtf we had all this cap space and didn’t end up getting any extra assets ? Carolina gave up a 6th to land the first round pick , so offer a 4th instead ? Just get that first rounder in a crazy deep draft , that seriously pissed me off

 

the 2019 draft , I was pissed on draft weekend ... not as much now but still bothered by it but I think he did what ken Holland ignored for years and tried to desperalty fix our d problem in one single draft . It’s been years we been lacking dmen and yes I’ll say it again imo I think we should of landed brannstrom over Rasmussen, I think if we had him maybe we’d have still have seider at 6 but I think we’d have gambled to land tuomisto in the 50s , point is not having any real top end dmen  in our pipeline for years forced Stevie 

everyone knows how much of a fan of podkolzin I was and still am and wished we took him but was also pushing hard to make s deal to land seider, really wanted fagemo and bothered we passed on puistola and a few other guys , when I’m looking at the draft I’m always looking to go for a homerun pick and go for guys with high end upside . I mean maybe Albert johansen makes it And is a solid what #5 dman who doesn’t put up much points? But I’d have gambled it and taken someone else .

Was pissed with grewe cause I saw puistola available still but I think he’ll be a player and a pest along bertuzzi so I’m ok with him. Anyways I’m satisfied enough with our prospect pool and I have no doubt after the 2019 draft we won’t be bulls***ting the fans in 2020 when we say we truly took the best player available in the draft 

anyways yzermans been there a short term so can’t complain too much yet , like the kaski signing and again I think he’s purposefully trying to tank but I wish he’d be able to land us marleau and add some guys on July 1 with the sole intention of trying to land back top picks for next draft and sadly right now mike green and Howard our only options which is beyond dissapointing