How would you grade your teams roster construction? A? B? F??

Ken Holland absolutely destroyed the Wings depth chart in order to chase that pointless "consecutive seasons of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs". Steve had been in complete rebuilding mode because of it by not just stocking the proverbial cabinet with picks but totally rebuilding the house!

From someone from Tampa Bay, let the man cook.

Yzerman inherited bad contracts and bad prospect pool, plus the lotto was against the team every year except for one year where they didn’t went down, but didn’t went up either. So the Yzerman haters need to shut up

Thank you very, very much for this analysis - I'm so sick of the "Fire Yzerman" brigade on social media. The Yzerplan will work, they're just still digging out from the compost heap that Ken Holland left behind.

The idea of a wings team fully drafted by Yzerman absolutely terrifies me as a leafs fan.

Probably the most egregious thing Ken Holland ever did was pick Zadina instead of Quinn Hughes.

Yes! I have not heard anybody in real life, as a Wings fan who lives in Detroit, say Yzerman has done a bad job. Nobody who watches and understands Hockey thinks he is failing. If at the beginning of the season now me goes back in time and tells then me A: The wings are fighting for a playoff spot B: Patrick Kane is a Red Wing and C: You will watch Raymond approach the precipice of NHL superstardom ... I would shit my pants. This season has been another improvement in a series of improvements.

Ken Holland was a goalie, he played 4 NHL games. He won 0 games. Steve Yzerman was a Center, he played 1514 NHL games. He scored 692 goals, had 1063 assists for 1755 points. There you have it.

I never questioned Yzerman once. He led Detroit to a lot of metal. So chill. Only in a game is where a team can rebuild and remain good. For Detroit being doing as good as they have been is still quite good.

I had my torch and pitchfork ready for the first half of this video, but dammit if you didn't hit the nail on the head in the 2nd half. The amount of people calling Yzerman a failure is one of the most aggravating things about being a Red Wings fan. So many people have so little patience nor understanding of how hockey works as a whole. This summarized my thoughts in such a great way. Thank you Rob

Thank you so much for making this video. As a life long Wing Nut, I'm getting really sick of the online chatter about the "failing" Yzerplan. I completely understand the frustration, but we seem to have a real short memory and lack perspective. Yzerman may have had the GM position for 5 years, but it took him 3 years just to get the books right and stock up picks. The rebuild imo is only 2 years old.

Don’t forget Ken Holland traded a first round pick to Steve Yzerman and TBL for Kyle Quincey The pick? Vasilevsky PS Ken Holland was VERY against drafting Datsyuk. Håkan Andersson is the one who scouted and convinced holland to draft him so they picked him in the 7th round.

Ken Holland had 2 major faults: #1. Every year he traded away our #1 draft pick for an aging veteran. #2. He put too much faith in Tyler Wright and held that faith for far too long. Tyler Wright is the root cause reason that Detroit's farm system was so depleted. Holland takes 2nd responsibility for that because he blindly let Wright keep picking and picking year after year. Good riddance to both. It's a shame that it will end up taking 6-10 years to fix the mess that Holland left behind. Ultimately a large amount of responsibility goes to Christopher Ilitch for not recognizing that his father's prize possession was being run into the ground sooner and not being a proactive owner. He didn't necessarily have to wait for Yzerman. Holland needed to be replaced 5 or more years before it eventually did happen. But I guess when you're making profits one can turn a blind eye to win/loss records and believe what you're being told.

I think yzerman is looking for more then just 1 stanley cup and then done. He is trying to build a generational dynasty that will be competitive for a long time. Which is what the red wing franchise deserves. The red wings are still the gold standard even though they have not been very comepetive for 8 years or so. But u wait.....there's a a small ember burning and smoke is starting to build and it is getting quite hot and soon will burst into a huge flame. Then we are cooking filet gentlemen.

Jeff Skinner playing 1,000 games with ZERO in the playoffs is an embarrassing NHL record 😬

I'm a lifelong Vancouver and Montreal fan, yet, Yzerman is my favourite pro athlete and hockey executive. To this day, I fondly remember watching him, Rusty Courtnal and Dave Andrewchuk playing for Team Canada on Boxing Day, 1982, the first time the World Juniors were televised. One of my favourite Canadian traditions. That centre-ice goal after stripping Gretzky of the puck to begin double overtime in game seven of the Western Conference semi-final, is my favourite goal of all time. Go 'Nucks' Habs and not-so-Dead-Wings!

6:58 - All I can say is that the sucsess with Drafting Pavel Datsyk and Henrik Zetterberg is NOT on Ken Holland's credit. He just picked them because they where avaible at a stage when teams interest dwindle and had not been that interested in what the scouts had reported about them. Sure that can be said of all other GM's as well who ignored them but the point is the Red Wings scouts was the ones who had studied them and saw potentials others did not see or believed in. They hammered on Holland to pick these tallents.

7:25 "has drafted star after star after star." Nowhere near as many stars as Dallas has drafted. Just making a dumb joke, don't mind me.

I get the frustration of my fellow Wings fans, in fact, I share it. But one of the reasons we're so frustrated is we are SO CLOSE to that inflection point from bubble team to legitimate deep run playoff team it's difficult to keep the long view, ESPECIALLY right now with the utterly bonkers way the Eastern Conference is finishing out. I said on another hockey channel, the fact we're even contemplating a possible path to a playoff berth in April, much less heading into our last regular season game is so much better that we've been. As frustrating as this season has been, I see nothing but good things for the Wings and their fans for the rest of the decade.

As a MI native and Red Wings fan, Stevie holds a special place in our hearts. Great player, great person.

Imagine how good Dallas would be if they werent being weighed down by like $25million dollars a year in Benn, Seguin and Suter.

Yzerman is our captain. He basically can do whatever he wants for as long as he wants in my eyes.

I will ride with the yzerplan the same way I run with Dan Campbell

That Goldeneye pause music 🔥

Three moves Ken Holland made that left Steve Yzerman in deep mess. He traded a first round pick to obtain Kyle Quincy. He traded a first round pick for cap relief. He picked Filip Zadina. The alternative: keep the Quincy pick, draft Vasilevskiy. Keep the cap relief pick, draft Chychrun. Instead of drafting Zadina, draft Quinn Hughes. That out of the way, Lucas Raymond is a 30 goal scorer now, so W for Yzerman.

As a wings fan .. idk I guess I'm still in the mind set of I have seen so much winning in my life time with this team so I'm not so anxious for them to complete the rebuild. He came to about the worst situation a GM could have taken over and hasn't had any luck in the lotto . This was never gonna be a quick process without getting Pittsburgh or Edmonton special lottery gifts .

Great video. Wish my fellow Winged Wheel fans could see it. 25 years of success blinded everyone to how bad Holland left us

I clicked on this video wanting to throw hands. After watching, I still do, but your voice calmed me down a lil bit

8:00 No love for Pavelski in that image. I know he doesn't quite match up in points per game but he's close (0.802) and he's had sufficient longevity that he has the most points from one of the greatest drafts of all time (2003) despite going 205th overall.

Holland wasn't responsible for Datsyuk and Zetterberg, that's all Håkan Andersson, who is a scouting genius. I can imagine a lot of the draft success the Wings have had as of late is down to Yzerman letting Andersson do his job, whereas Holland probably overruled him a lot

Ken Holland F'd the Wings HARD. Yzerman is STILL cleaning up Holland's garbage.

Love the use of the 007 pause menu music 👌👌

I just got a papercut on the webbing of my fingers (yes , seriously)... and I forgot ALL the pain just to watch this video 😜 F paper

Wings currently have the best prospect pool in the NHL. This team is gonna get better and better for years. Ken holland sent this team backwards a few years or so and Yzerman has come in and so far cleaned the mess. Not done yet but he’s working and things are coming along. If the wings simply don’t go on a 7 game losing streak in march they make the playoffs. Stuff was so frustrating

Haven’t watched the entire video. I love your videos Rob, with from the title and the game the Wings played last night, the timing is just so funny 😅

When I read the title, I thought "wtf, you better not go there! Don't touch my all-time hero!". Thank you for the in-depth analysis and keep it up, your videos/analysis are top-notch.

The secret to Tampa's success in the draft wasn't Yzerman, it was our scout Al Murray.

Totally agree. Yzerman is building such a stable team from the ground up. In every metric the team has been better year over year for the past 5 seasons. The prospect pool is developing nicely, a lot of middle 6 and top 6 guys in there. Three top 4 defenders from Seider, Edvinsson, to ASP. Maybe also two of the four best goalie prospects. Once Abdelkader's money is off the books is when Id be expecting DET to be getting into the playoffs and at the very least into the second round. Teams like DET, NJ, ANA, BUF, and MTL look terrifying 1-5 years from now. Maybe OTT too.

What a fucking breakdown holy shit also side note wings could still make playoffs if Washington loses one game and they beat mtl in a back to back

Easy path: Sell draft picks and prospects for old guys. Immediate gratification, but in 2 or 3 years, we are back to post Holland days. Hard path: Draft players like Seider and Raymond, clear out bad contracts. Have one of the best prospect pools in the league and build a dyansty team. Instant gratification is possible but it just leads to more work and more pain in a few years.

This was perhaps the single best team breakdown analysis I've ever heard. Nothing but facts and clear thinking commentary. Pure gold. New subber here.

This is making me feel better as I'm biting my nails watching the wings down a goal against Montreal in a MUST WIN game to make the playoffs

The biggest problem with Detroit is something that's out of their control: The Atlantic Division, especially this season, has been an absolute bloodbath. Unless they were to luck into a wild card spot (which can still happen since they're tied with Washington), the only way they'd make the playoffs is if Tampa slows down or if either Toronto, Florida or especially Boston fell off a cliff. Sure it sucks that the Wings haven't reached the playoffs yet, but let the man cook. Once some prospects start budding from Grand Rapids, Detroit will be a force to fear in the next few years.

Lots of great work done on this video analysis. Good stuff!

As wings fan, looking back at the obvious could have had Quinn Hughes over Zadina, it’s painful, but I do understand why someone would take Zadina when he was thought to go top 3 and had 40+ goal scorer potential. I get it. Still sucks. What’s actually worse to me though is the multiple other 1st rd flop picks Holland made other than that. Cholowski, Svechnikov, and to some degree Rasmussen. 4 years of basically not having a 1st rd pick because of bad scouting and choices. Don’t even get me started at who else we could have taken with those picks. Pain.

u should have named this video "Ken Holland is a GIGANTIC FRAUD"

Great vid brother! Keep it up. You earned my sub

How is Stevie doing it-makes ya Wonder 😏 Another great vid Rob. Thanks for your insights.

I wish more of these "Fire Yzerman" idiots understood this. They don't see what's coming with Mazur, Kasper, Danielson, ASP, Cossa, Augustine, Wallinder, etc. What you see on the ice today is a place holder of mid level players with good talent that utilizes cap space. It helps players like Raymond, Seider, Veleno, and Edvinsson, who will be our core in the next 10 years....

Detroit is just one solid top15 goalie away from the playoffs. They don't need an all-star goalie, just an above average. Alex Lyon might be the man for the job, and that makes them dangerous next season.

People have already forgotten that the Wings weren't even supposed to make the playoffs yet this season. Before the season it was widely accepted that they MIGHT make the playoffs this season, but most likely 24-25 OR EVEN 25-26.

Thank you so much for making this video

What’s the name of the song that started off the video

Excellent point on team culture - the ‘heart’ of the team was on full display in Game 81 & 82

I'll admit you got me with clickbait title. Nice in-depth look at the organization. I think casual fans fail to realize just how bad Holland left the organization. The Wings might be in Year 5, but the first 2 were spent shedding bloated contracts. Nice work Rob!

Is that Johhny Depp playing as Steve Yzerman?

Yzerman absolutely does not just listen to his scouts... look at his prototypes... Size with strong 2 way upside on D (hedman, sergechev, cernak, foote) high motor undersized centers (his focus on former U of M centers who are hard work, high motor guys wh ok are motivated by working in the Michigan market... trying to find a top line winger who scores off chances that most wingers would pass on with youth and/or a deal that make sense... (debrincat/kane) the difference is that the draft lottery has been unkind and that there hasn't been a high upside (future hall of famer) goalie lingering in the draft and that high upside players in the hardest to scout areas (Russia) aren't as apt to move over to play in east Michigan as they were in south Florida (duh)

One thing you didn’t mention is that when Yserman left for Tampa. He took some of Detroits scouting staff with him

The wings are finally back. They may not slip in the final playoff spot tonight but they will be in it next year. People don’t understand Yzerman had to wait out several bad contracts and stock up on draft picks the first 4 years. They’re finally competitive again.

Awesome video. Ya got me on the "gigantic fraud" though, as I thought Yzerman has been a solid player & Brass in his career! Glad I wasn't wrong!

😂 he was great in tampa

Sprong C 71 Fischer C 70 Larkin C- 74 Fabbri B 74 Raymond B- 76 Debrincat B- 76 Velano C 74 Flopp C- 72 Compher D+ 70 Perron C+ 74 Rasmussen C+ 75 Kane B- 76

I appreciate the break down and makes sense for sure, I understand the phrasing to pull views, but the title of this video is egregious.

Most of the drafting success is due to the amateur scouting staff, not the GM. GMs get way too much credit for the yearly work of draft scouts

Red Wings fans today: Why the hell won't they fire Yzerman??? Red Wings fans post-Yzerman: Who the hell fired Yzerman???

To think the Sharks today are like the Wings from 20/21, and realizing it’s going to be a while until we’re back in the playoffs sucks. At least Mike Grier seems to be the right guy for it. And now with Celebrini, Smith and Eklund, the games will be fun to watch.

The Ken Holland "Rebuild" left the cupboard virtually non-existent. I remember when he said "Rebuilds are ugly, they take around 10 years". We are on the right track as painful as it seems. SY has been solid, he doesn't wallow in mistakes, just moves on, each year is better and better, just hang in there...

Just wait next season wings will be out for blood, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re one of the top teams. Stevey doesn’t need to make that many moves this offseason to get to that level. I’m excited to see what the next season holds for them!

great video, not sure why people doubt the Yzerplan. Rebuilds don't happen over the course of one season. It takes time to become a 5-10 year playoff regular

Lol "Rob shouldn't talk hockey" Also, your voice bro...😂

Thank you for reiterating what I have been feeling! There have been some haters out there and I'm trying not to get dragged down with them. I believe what Stevie is doing is building a dynasty not a one and done type of team! You know what I mean, the type of team he was on!!!!!!!

This might be one of the best explanations of what I've been saying all season

No cup for toronto this year. Will it be first or second round exit?

The Red Wings can still make the playoffs. And this last game was off the wall crazy!

Detroit has only been getting closer and closer to playoff contention every year. A 5 year turn around to being a competitive team again after a complete rebuild is pretty good

Been a Red Wing fan since Stevie Y was in youth hockey. We need to let him do his thing. He's not looking to win one fluke title...he's looking to build a consistent contender like he did in Tampa and you don't do that quickly by trading away picks for one veteran player that might allow us to make the playoffs or even win a round. Ken Holland was a great GM pre-salary cap. He didn't have the ability to build once he couldn't just use blank checks from Mr. Ilitch, however. Yzerman can get us there and keep us there. Being impatient and trying to go too fast just makes you the Bluejackets.

Great take on the red wings. I think they have made many changes and improvements.thanks

As a Bolt Yzerman is nothing short of a magician. Give him time, Detroit had a lot of issues with contracts and everything. We also had Jeff Vinik, Stamkos and The Crunch farming us, it was a perfect storm. They will get there

Talking about hitting being up this season and mentioning the single-game record but not Lauzon breaking the single-season record (which is way more impressive) is a wild oversight to me.

Yzerman's draft record in TB was heavily bolstered by amazing scouting. Specifically outside the top 20. Scouts have nearly the biggest say in who gets drafted in most organizations. He was just smart enough to listen when they were emphatic.

Yzerman always has the yzerplan

Bro as a Red Wings fan we are fine. Still young with lots of promise I’ll give it another year before I start acc losing faith.

After looking at the thumbnail I actually thought this video was going to be how Austin Matthews is scoring impossible amounts of goals and making it look easy.

If that fraud wished to come to NY and GM the Rangers, I would welcome him and drive Drury to the airport --- and I don't dislike Drury. Yzerman is laying a VERY solid foundation for the Wings to be true contenders for a decade to come.

Great video! Glad you defended the slander on Yzerman as he had to clean Hollands horrible mess

“In this graphic…” 💪

Re: Every GM has their specialty... When my Ducks got Brian Burke as GM, I knew that we were in for a few lopsided deals. The man is excellent at fleecing teams in trades. But oh my god, he could NOT draft. Besides the Sedins (which were acquired using draft picks that he - wait for it - got via trade by fleecing other teams), he couldn't really do much in the first round. Names like Patrick White and Mark Mitera were examples of his first-round selections. But then he'd pull off a Pronger trade, or get quality assets in return for Bure that set up the core for much of the 2000s. And then the Ducks had Bob Murray for a while, whose specialty was salary cap management, as well as reloading without rebuilding. This worked for a long time too. And now we're waiting to see if Pat Verbeek (an Yzerman protege) can repeat in Anaheim what they did in Tampa Bay. It's a very interesting time to be a fan indeed.

Considering only three of Yzerman’s first rounders are on the team, I think he doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed just yet. Each year the team has gotten better. Stevie has just signed and dealt players which won’t win you a cup. It takes time and he’s done a pretty good job with that time.

“The Wayne Gretzky of not making the playoffs” 💀

Yzerman is just getting started. We are on our way to another dynasty team!

Detroit had more wins than Washington, yet the Caps get the final wild card spot. So stupid.

Jim Nill was the scout behind zetters and the magic man. Holland had at one point McCellan Babcock and Nill.

fun fact i saw an infographic earlier in the year and the Pittsburgh Penguins are not just the oldest team in the NHL but the oldest team accross all major league NA sports (mlb, nfl, mls and nhl though the top ranking teams were nearly all from mlb and nhl) at the time they had an average age of 30.8 y/o the runners up were the Dodgers at 30.2 y/o. After the trade deadline the numbers probably a bit different but still funny none the less.

One of the best hockey videos ive ever watched

Great video, clearly you understand hockey. Those chirpin Yzerman, have no vision, no understanding of the long game.

Chariot C- 73 Gostisbehere C- 73 Maata C+ 73 Seider B 82 Edvinsson 74 Walman B- 75 Holl C 71 Petry D 71

For sure you wanna sign free agents who can set the tone and culture of the locker-room for the young guys, but then there's signing Justin Holl for 10 mill, Andrew Copp for $5.6 mil till 26-27, and Ben Chiarot for $4.75 mil till 25-26. This also reflects on his picks for goalie free agents, Nedeljkovic, Husso, Reimer, and Lyon. I imagine he's doing this risking short terms deals to find a breakout goalie, maybe just to give more time to his goalie prospects to develop but maaaaaaan I still question his ability to draft a goalie. Yeah he drafted Vas... with his *2ND* first round pick. He drafted Slater Koekkoek with his first pick. If Vas was gonna be his guy, why did he risk 8 other teams drafting Vassy? It's not like he was an unknown goalie prospect that was on no one's draft radars. I'd imagine Boston would've picked him if they were earlier in the draft (They took Subban instead). Ingram is definitely a good pick... right now. Ingram was drafted in 2016, and bounced between the AHL and ECHL for the longest time (He was dealing with a lot of issues which he has thankfully overcome) but he was traded from Tampa to Nashville in 2019 for a *7TH* rounder pick. You could argue that Nashville was who helped revamped Ingram's career or along with the Yotes. Out of 6 goalies he's drafted, 2 have made it to the NHL and are regulars. Sure, but I would counter by saying that's not entirely impressive if you take out the obvious pick of Vassy. Don Sweeney for example in his near decade long tenure with the Bruins has drafted only 4 goalies, one in 2015, one in 2017, one in 2021, and one in 2022. Not including the last two as they were very recent draft picks, EVERY SINGLE PICK Sweeney has made for goalies has made the NHL because the 2015 pick was Daniel Vladar and the 2017 pick was JERMY SWAYMAN. Both were far out of the first round (3rd round and 4th). Let's look ad Stevie's picks so far, again most of these are very recent and have time to develop so we don't know entirely how they'll pan out: Carter Gylander (2019) - Just signed his entry level contract, his ECAC career honestly isn't anything to really be blown away by but we'll see how he is at the pro level likely in the ECHL Jan Bednar (2020) - The current ECHL goalie has been... disappointing to say the least. He only has a .901 SV% but his GAA is pretty decent at 2.66. However considering Gylander's signing? I'm curious what'll be in store for Bednar. Sebastian Cossa (2021) - This guy was the #1 Red Wings goalie prospect since he was drafted and he's has a spotty development since. He had his first solid year in the AHL which is great! However we'll see the length of his leash going forward since the next guy is a solid prospect. Trey Augustine (2023) - Team USA's world juniors goalie, guy has some pretty nice stock and will give Cossa some nice competition once he goes pro if Cossa hasn't made it to the NHL yet. Ideally I'd love Cossa to break out, give Canadian goalies someone to look up to, but it's been definitely a lengthier process for goalie development in Stevie's time in Detroit.

Ken Holland was both good and very bad. He brought cups to the wings and he, as you said, traded a lot of picks and prospects and signed some very bad contacts. He signed Justin Abdelkader to a 4.25 x 7 contract, I mean no offense to Abdelkader but that was a stinker of a contact. So I'm happy with the overall approach of Yzerman, the only thing I want is to have Edvinsson and Berggren up all of next season.

Excellent video on Yzerman. Tired of hearing the negative stuff about him