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Steve Yzerman has been a near polar opposite of what Detroit fans were used to in terms of the rebuild. Ken Holland spend decades in “sculpting mode”. That’s not a knock, the reality was that from the early 90s to around 2010ish, the team was tweaking. Lose a player to free agency, bring someone else in. Someone retires, get a free agent. The salary cap changed the model drastically. Holland clamped down on draft picks and held on to players as long as possible to keep “the culture”.
Steve Yzerman’s tenure has mirrored the shift from Joe Louis Arena to Little Caesar’s Arena. He’s kept us focused on “the new” while there was a complete demolition that most of us were unaware of. Try to find “the Joe” now and it’s, well, gone. All the while Yzerman has been trading, developing and moving along. An entire team’s worth of players have been bought out, traded away, or gone un-renewed/re signed. The on ice product has been tough to watch, and the hockey world as a whole weren’t really interested in the current state of the team. Until, that it, Monday April 12th 2021 around 3 pm. Two days later, the buzz is still going. Yzerman traded one of the few names fans in the league were familiar with and got an impressive haul for it. Taylor Hall only got a 2nd round pick, but Mantha got a first, second and two players. The cash out was even slightly bigger than Columbus got for Savard, which was also impressive.
Most of you know I wasn’t thrilled with the deal. The heart sinking part, for me, is the wait. There’s been a LOT of waiting during the rebuild. Mantha seemed to be on the cusp a full 8 years after being drafted. Svechnikov, Rasmussen, Veleno are all still on that “wait and see list” as well. Rasmussen has definitely started to show improvement, but again we’re in the 3 to 5 year development window. Zadina has been a pleasant surprise in being able to stick with the league, but he’s still growing into expectations. Hronek and Bertuzzi have also been exciting (though Bertuzzi lost most of this season). Larkin still stands out as the draft to NHL standout.
We won’t know what the drafting component will mean as far as on ice impact for 3 to 5 years. It’s just reality with a late round draft. Vrana is a player that has speed and a scoring touch, but he’s not the same player as Mantha. In Detroit’s system, he’s likely going to be doing 200ft puck retrieval’s and working with Rasmussen as a net front. It’s a tough system to score in for now. Watching Mantha’s first game as a cap was, obviously, a bit bitter sweet. 1 goal, 1 assist, 6 shots (1 giveaway and 1 takeaway). One of the things you notice is that Washington has 3 or 4 different types of breakout plays. Some start at their own net, a 200 ft full 5 man breakout. There are different plays for both sides of the neutral zone, as well as short Ozone breakouts. It’s a 200ft game of offense and defense with high level players helping to facilitate it. Detroit is 200ft of defense with “if you get a chance, go ahead and shoot it”. That may seem like an exaggeration, but watching the o zone entries for long enough and they almost seem like an after thought. It’s painfully tough to get the cycle going still.
Mantha’s goal last night was what you want to see. Shot fake, hold, drag, snipe. He had support from Backstrom and Oshie. They were looking for him all night. That’s not the setup right now. Detroit’s biggest improvement this year has been 200ft defense. It comes at the sacrifice of offensive breakouts for now. Mantha has opportunities now that he just wouldn’t have had in Detroit. Vrana has speed and skill that can help a lot, but I do think the offense is going to be tougher to come by.
Full disclosure, I’m not going to use last night’s game to pitch a fit. Mantha was loaded on adrenaline and had one of the best setup men in the league looking out for him. Even if the rest of this season is a ppg, it won’t be the stamp on this deal. Again, Vrana is a piece brought in temporarily to try and get a future core player out of the draft picks. He’s an RFA with arbitration rights. Hopefully they can get it ironed out quickly. Dick Panik, I’ve said before I’m not a fan. There aren’t too many Griffins from that championship team on the roster that would even remember a few dirty hits, so I expect it to move along just fine. The second Panik and Vrana throw on the jersey, they’re part of the team. I want the best for this team, and for now that includes the projection for those players as well.
Mantha’s opportunity harkens back to a time when players would come to Detroit and just stare at high level and future hall of fame players. He’s going to play meaningful post season games years before he would in Detroit. Yzerman knows that he’ll be near 30 when the team is really trending toward perennial post season contention. The big guy will be missed, I hope he does very well. Looking ahead, it’s a tough stretch to end the season. The series against Carolina aside, we’re still down to a fractured top 6 with Bertuzzi and Fabbri still on the shelf and Ryan done for the season. Vrana could very well have a fantastic first game and see the team come together quickly. The last dozen games are much more important for our opponents than for the team. The pressure is off, no more trades for now. We’ll see what happens.
More than anything, a lot of the hockey world is talking about Detroit. The team that was an asterisk for most HNIC or NHL Tonight discussions is now the eye opening, aggressive rebuild that has some fans relenting of their own GMs decision making. The last huge bump I saw in traffic was when the team drafted Zadina. People got really excited, and training camp tickets sold out again in a hurry. Seider didn’t have the same effect, but as people have seen his game fans are gearing up for next year. Lucas Raymond, as well, just didn’t move the needle like Zadina did. However, for the foreseeable future, this deal is Yzerman’s stamp. Talk will last through the draft and into next season. It is a huge boost for Wing fans (and bloggers) to see people care about what is happening in Detroit again. If Monday were an IPO, the stock would be soaring. Very well orchestrated and very much needed, “the Captain” has breathed new life into the Winged Wheel again.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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