32 Teams In 32 Days: Detroit Red Wings

The Yzer-plan is coming together.

• In Today’s 32 Team look we examine the Detroit Red Wings and how it is time for them to start competing again. Did they do enough this offseason?

• Be sure to check out yesterday’s look at the Boston Bruins and how they always seem to get their player for their price.

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Steve Yzerman already helped turn the Detroit Red Wings organization around once as a player. He was the centerpiece of their revival in the early 1990s and captained the team to three Stanley Cups, starting with the 1996-97 season to end what had been a 42-year championship drought.

When he was brought back to the organization in 2019 he was given a new — but similar — task: Help turn them around as general manager and clean up the rubble that was left over from the tail-end of the Ken Holland era. A barren cupboard of prospects, bad contracts, and a team that had fallen from the top of the NHL’s mountain into a pit of mediocrity and losing. It was not a small job and it was not going to be easy. That has proven to be true.

Given the job Yzerman did in Tampa Bay in helping to build the Lightning into a runaway freight train that is arguably the most successful team of the salary cap era, expectations have been high that he will ultimately be able to do the same in Detroit. While success has not been immediate, you can see the pieces starting to come together, especially after a busy offseason that saw the Red Wings add several pieces to its roster.

Did they add enough pieces to end their current six-year playoff drought?