Detroit analyst blames Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman for current state of team, but cuts him some slack owing to free agency "vacuum"

Steve Yzerman's tenure as general manager of the Detroit Red Wings has been different from his stint with the Tampa Bay Lightning. While he tried to implement similar long-term planning to rebuild the Red Wings, his calculated risks haven't paid off.

Detroit has not made the playoffs in the last nine seasons, including all of the years Yzerman has been the GM since 2019.

After a few quiet offseasons, the team bolstered its top six scoring. It signed James van Riemsdyk and acquired Mason Appleton and Jacob Bernard-Docker. The Red Wings also added veteran starting goaltender John Gibson.

While they'll help Detroit's cause, they are not major signings. According to Locked on Red Wings analyst Brian Fisher, the team's push has to be calculated. He cited that other teams aren't facing the pressure to be in budget with free agents.

"This is the downside of the rising cap: teams aren't in cap trouble, they're not forced to shed players," Fisher said on Monday (09:00), via "Locked on NHL with Gill Martin."

"So, to get a player from a team, you're going to have to massively overpay, and Yzerman, with where this prospect pool is at, he's not going to do that, and I wouldn't want him to do that because there's a difference between being aggressive and being stupid."

However, Fisher blamed Yzerman for how the team has turned out since he was named GM in 2019.

"I'm not trying to make excuses for Steve Yzerman because this is the team of his own making at this point," Fisher said. "It's been since we just talked about it before we hit record, since 2019. This is his roster. He has blame on his shoulders for where this roster is at.

"But in the vacuum of this offseason, I understand how hard it is to make this team better. There's 30 teams in the NHL on July 1st that were asking, 'How did we make our team better through free agency?' and there's maybe two teams that can say, 'Yes, we did.' Not an easy thing as we enter year seven of the plan."

Detroit finished five points outside the playoffs after being in the Atlantic Division's wild-card spots for majority of last season. It came in the middle of a coaching change that saw Todd McLellan take over Derek Lalonde.

Is Steve Yzerman's Red Wings plan finally taking shape?

The major difference between Steve Yzerman's tenure in Tampa Bay and Detroit is only having Dylan Larkin as a centerpiece to rebuild around. After replacing Ken Holland as general manager, the "Yzerplan" saw Anthony Mantha, Filip Hronek and Tyler Bertuzzi get traded.

In return, some of the draft picks from 2019 to 2022 have gone on to be successful. Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper are either part of the team's core or expected to make it big. Meanwhile, his veteran signings, Alex DeBrincat, Jake Walman, Robby Fabbri and Andrew Copp, have produced mixed results.

Unfortunately for Yzerman, similar moves at Tampa Bay turned out to be successful, which led the team to Stanley Cup contention. It took him five years to achieve that when the Lightning reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. It has been six seasons since he became the Red Wings' GM.