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Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:10 am Yserman done as GM, so much for the Yzerplan.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/st ... sory-role/

Pettersson to Detroit for their 1st!

dangler wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:08 am At this point in Wrights and Lekkerimakis career a straight up swap is reasonable.
2nd rd picks are a bit of a long shot, but you never know when your going to get that Laine Hutson, Matthew Poitrias, Ryan Greene, Fraser Mintin type player in the 2nd rd.
Alot of these proposals stink of Bearcheese and Benning type strategy.

Agreed. This does smack of one of Benning's 'reclamation project' bets - and where did those end up? If Seattle is willing to take Vancouver's stalled 1st-round pick in exchange for theirs, it's a wash.

A 2nd-round pick is just a higher-risk lottery ticket. Just more chances to hit on a prospect.

Lancer wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 8:42 am

dangler wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:08 am At this point in Wrights and Lekkerimakis career a straight up swap is reasonable.
2nd rd picks are a bit of a long shot, but you never know when your going to get that Laine Hutson, Matthew Poitrias, Ryan Greene, Fraser Mintin type player in the 2nd rd.
Alot of these proposals stink of Bearcheese and Benning type strategy.

Agreed. This does smack of one of Benning's 'reclamation project' bets - and where did those end up? If Seattle is willing to take Vancouver's stalled 1st-round pick in exchange for theirs, it's a wash.

A 2nd-round pick is just a higher-risk lottery ticket. Just more chances to hit on a prospect.

Van needs all the darts they can get ahold of. Distressed asset exchanges are the only fair path forward if youre a canuck

Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:10 am Yserman done as GM, so much for the Yzerplan.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/st ... sory-role/

One less Jim Benning to take advantage of.

I would have to go into the wayback machine to figure out how the Tampa Bay Lightning were built, and what role Yzerman played. Clearly, the Bolts were extremely fortunate to get Kucherov, Point, and Gourde outside the first round. That's just terrific -- good scouting is probably necessary for later round finds, but its not sufficient. Luck plays a big role, too, as does how a team plays. I have no doubt, for example, that Rick Tocchet -- who is a good coach but not for all things -- would be far less likely to have given Kucherov and Point the opportunity and space they needed to play the game their way.

Digression aside, Stevie Y.'s tenure in Detroit has been a massive failure. He started his tenure with some very good picks (Seider, Raymond, Edvinsson) but never had a significant hit outside the first round and there are plenty of question marks surrounding the first rounders from more recent drafts. Still, its not a early bad draft record of guys to make up the current core -- the problem seems to have been that on more than one occasion the Red Wings put more chips into the middle before they had the hand to do it. The team made numerous curious free agent decisions, adding immobile but large or tough defensemen that didn't move the puck -- or the team in the standings. They also put in throw away money bets on tweeners -- not AHL/NHL tweeners -- but the more bottom 6 middle six players they expected top part of middle 6 performance -- Copp, Compher. And then didn't get it shockingly because these players had a long track record of being who they were with little sparkles that make the naive believe "in a different situation...."

Can management be blamed for year after year of late season collapse? I don't know, but ultimately it certainly felt like a losing culture.

Stepping down was correct.

It's wild that their first round pick that year ahead of Kuch was Namestnikov. He wasn't a bust but was at best a 3rd liner

Indeed, some warning signs from Yzerman's tenure look painfully familiar here. Perhaps he or ownership started feeling pressure to get back to the playoffs after such a long streak that was still in folks' memories? Pressure makes people do strange things that tend to blow up in managers' faces.

At least we can thank him for giving up on Hronek.

I thought that was a head scratcher at the time, and today see it as a massive blunder.

Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:10 am Yserman done as GM, so much for the Yzerplan.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/st ... sory-role/

Well damn. It's richly deserved.

BoS wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 2:38 pm At least we can thank him for giving up on Hronek.

I thought that was a head scratcher at the time, and today see it as a massive blunder.

And for not drafting Hughes

Hockey Widow wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 4:02 pm

BoS wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 2:38 pm At least we can thank him for giving up on Hronek.

I thought that was a head scratcher at the time, and today see it as a massive blunder.

And for not drafting Hughes

Pretty sure Yzerman came on board after that draft.

Mantha to New Jersey, 2 years AAV 4.75M. Really thought that he was picking a spot and finding a longer deal. But this is a “missed the window” contract.

UWSaint wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 5:16 pm

Hockey Widow wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 4:02 pm

BoS wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 2:38 pm At least we can thank him for giving up on Hronek.

I thought that was a head scratcher at the time, and today see it as a massive blunder.

And for not drafting Hughes

Pretty sure Yzerman came on board after that draft.

Holland was running a sinking ship well before Yzerman took over. They’re both to blame for the past decade.

UWSaint wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 5:18 pm Mantha to New Jersey, 2 years AAV 4.75M. Really thought that he was picking a spot and finding a longer deal. But this is a “missed the window” contract.

I have a feeling he and his agent were hearing the last couple of bars of music and were looking at what chairs were left. At the end of the day, it’s a multi-million salary in the show.

Lancer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2026 5:22 am

UWSaint wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2026 5:18 pm Mantha to New Jersey, 2 years AAV 4.75M. Really thought that he was picking a spot and finding a longer deal. But this is a “missed the window” contract.

I have a feeling he and his agent were hearing the last couple of bars of music and were looking at what chairs were left. At the end of the day, it’s a multi-million salary in the show.

Yeah, that's probably what happened -- when a player misses that initial window, usually the market turns from a seller's to a buyer's market. But there are also exceptions for players who are among the better in a free agency class with multiple suitors who have the market interest to take the time to be diligent without losing the market (this was Ehlers last year). While Mantha is not Ehlers, he demonstrated true top 6 ability last year, the free agent class was so thin, and there are teams out there who want to compete (or not move backwards) that need a scoring winger, have the cap space, have shown the willingness to wish to spend more, and are in a position to (or of a disposition to) "figure it out as we go" if its a multiyear deal. But they decided Mantha wasn't the player for them, and they might not be wrong about that. There's a long track record of *meh* about a player.
But having then lost out on the longer term (4-6 years) option and starting to look at sub $5M salaries, you'd think the player and his agent might pivot to better teams than the Devils -- or just stay in Pittsburgh (if that was an option).

After signing a couple of "prove it" deals, Mantha finally proved it and didn't get the big contract. (And I was never thinking the contract would be huge, but this is a $9M guaranteed when I think he must have thought heading into the process he was looking at $20-35 M over 4-6 years).

UWSaint wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2026 8:56 am After signing a couple of "prove it" deals, Mantha finally proved it and didn't get the big contract. (And I was never thinking the contract would be huge, but this is a $9M guaranteed when I think he must have thought heading into the process he was looking at $20-35 M over 4-6 years).

The funny thing is, if he proves it wasn’t a one off, he will probably make more than that ($20M) over the combination of this and the next contract thanks to cap and salary increases.

He’s 31, outside of some insane bidding war, no team was going to commit more than 4 years to a big-man, power forward, who will likely see his game drop off at 35. However, if he follows up last season with two more in the same range of production, at 33 he could be able to negotiate a 3 or 4 year deal that pays him upwards of $7M.

Of course, there’s no guarantees, and that’s what players, who aren't top-3 locks, over 30 are looking for.