Has Steve Yzerman done it again? Has he just swindled the NHL draft once more in his quest to rebuild his beloved Detroit Red Wings into perirenal champions? Judging by the last two drafts, yeah, probably.
For so long in the NHL, there has been a funny tradition of great players retiring, going into management/coaching, and just being absolutely awful at it. Does anyone remember how bad Wayne Gretzky’s time as the Coyotes’ head coach went? Or how about Edmonton Oilers great Glen Slather failure as the Rangers GM? What about Joe Nieuwendyk as the Dallas Stars GM?
And who can forget Mike Milbury as the Islanders GM? He’s probably the worst ever GM in North American professional sports history!
Thankfully, Steve Yzerman has broken the mold as the NHL legend has not only begun rebuilding the Detroit Red Wings, but he was also the one responsible for Tampa Bay’s success. And by drafting Marco Kasper at #8 overall, I think he has just added the final draft piece with the Red Wing’s rebuild.
Yzerman has been smart with his rebuild of the Detroit Red Wings as he has shied away from mega-free agent signings with Detroit’s wealth of cap space and choose to use solely use the draft to plug roster holes.
Ever since the days of Detroit’s glory, back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Red Wings have allowed their roster and core to slowly decay and wither, choosing to keep their aged, injury-prone veterans rather than drafting and acquiring new, younger talent.
Eventually, the years of decay piled up as the core just simply broke down. Every key position on the ice was left vacant by the retirements of Chris Osgood, Niklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Niklas Kronwall, all back-to-back with one another.
And, as I said, the old GM, Ken Holland, did nothing to replace them.
Fortunately, Yzerman has. In the past four drafts that Yzerman has overseen, the Red Wings have drafted (D) Mortiz Sneider, (RW) Lucas Raymond, (D) Willam Wallinder, (D) Simon Edvinsson, (G) Sebastian Cossa, and now (C) Marco Kasper. I’m sure you have picked up why I mentioned those Hall of Fame worthy Red Wings players now.
They have all been replaced by more than capable successors.
Now, that leads me to Marco Kasper. The newest successor to the Red Wings’ cup winning teams. His silky, stealthy, and creative style of play is the obvious replacement for the great Pavel Datsyuk. It is no easy task to replace the great Russian, but I believe Kasper has the qualities to do it.
He played against grown men in the Austrian highest division last season while only being 18 years old. Impressively, he put up 7-goals and 11pts in 46 games. Clearly, he needs a year or two to develop, but he should be the Red Wings 2nd-Line center come the 2023/24 or 2024/25 season.
And by that time, this Red Wings team will consist of Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Sneider, Simon Edvinsson, Willam Wallinder, and Sebastian Cossa all in the starting lineup with many years of NHL experience. This core will be even more lethal than the Lighting (2020-21), Penguins (2016-17) or the Blackhawks’ (2010, 2013, 2015) dynasties were.
And, for anyone who is nervous about the Kasper pick, I have just two words to say: don’t worry.
I promise you he’ll come good. Just like every other prospect I listed. That is the Stevie Y effect.
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