Yzerman Presser
The most loved Detroit athlete comes home : )
The best Detroit pro sports news since ...?
‘08 Cup?
’12 Cabrera Triple Crown?
Wings winning the Stanley Cup in 08
Brad Ausmus was fired... I know, the bar is low
Since the Wings drafted Dylan Larkin?
Since the summer of 2001 and I would pick up a newspaper each day to see we signed Hasek, Hull, Robitaille...
Will only be superceded when stafford comes back after retirement to join the lie-downs' coaching staff. Parades, man, huge fucking parades!!!
Welcome home Stevie!
Wow... I almost didn't recognize him with those black frame glasses.
He probably wouldn't recognize you either, Don, with all the skin missing from your skull now! You really ought to ease off on that straight edge razor whence shaving.
Keeping Blashill.
For now. But he won't hesitate to make a change down the road if he sees an available upgrade. He went from Boucher to Cooper without thinking twice.
Part of me hopes he can grab Gallant at some point.
My biggest gripe with Holland was all the bad long, long contracts he gave out for decent but not great players: Ericksson, Helm, Abdelcador, Howard. Kind of handcuffed them. I don't fault him for Franzen. Guy was a playoff beast but just fell off after the big contract and then of course the concussion stuff.
Streaming live for those of us not in metro Detroit:
Great moment for this franchise.
Anybody who could feel "indifferent" to Yzerman's career should be run over by a Zamboni.
Great move by a great franchise. The best franchise in Detroit in my lifetime.
I'm more excited about this than I should be.
Best comment - don’t look for me to make a splash in free agency. Exactly right - build through the draft!
It’s simultaneously correct, opposite of Holland’s natural inclination, and something fans will howl about when free agency actually hits.
Interesting: when asked why he stepped down as GM of Tampa, he said that the travel (8? yrs) was getting to him, and he didn't feel he was doing the best job he could, so he didn't want to sign a new contract. The Yzermans kept the familiy in Michigan, he was working in Tampa, and their minor league team is in Syracuse, plus all the other travel a GM does.
I will always believe that this was always the plan. He orchestrated the exit from Tampa Bay perfectly.
Not that it wasn't also his idea, but thanks Mrs. Y!
and Columbus beating TB in a sweep made the timing that much more perfect giving him more time to prep for the draft.
Happy to not just have The Captain back, but for HOLLAND TO NOT BE OUR GM ANYMORE!!!
I wonder how long the fans give him before they turn on him ....
They won't. Ever.
For two reasons. Yzerman is in that special pantheon of revered local sports heroes, like Howe, Kaline, Barry, and Isaiah. He literally can do no wrong.
He has the necessary experience and drive, but more importantly, he knows how to leverage the organization's intangibles. There is incomparable prestige in being an Original Six franchise, and there is real respect within the league for the ownership stability the Ilitches bring to the table.
Joe Dumars probably thought the same thing.
Although he didnt have experience going forward he was pretty well liked by Detroiters
After things went south people certainly wanted Dumars fired (of course, we've done no better since), but he isn't reviled, is he? I think most fans still have exceptionally warm feelings for him, both as a player and for his first act as a GM, building a champion. Wouldn't he be given a standing O today?
The contrast with someone like Matt Millen is significant, IMO.
Yzerman is, in my generation of Michigan sports fans, as loved as any player in any sport. I could see a day where people demand that he get fired, should things go poorly. But he will never not be loved.
I have great memories of Dumars and loved him as a player, but he's never been at the same level as The Captain.
I really don't fault Dumars too much for the collapse of the Pistons because the NBA is much more of a players' league..He had to overpay for Gordon and Villanueva because no one else would come. The Iverson trade was dumb, but the writing was on the wall by that point. You can't blame him for Darko because the entire league was convinced he was the second best prospect in Lebron's class, and Flip was a good coach but stuck with a rapidly aging core. And once Bill Davidson died, Joe's hands were tied.
April 19th, 2019 at 10:24 PM ^
vlady, on a totally different tangent, who are you shaking hands with in your avatar now, and what happened to you riding the bear?
Tough to put Sanders in that group. The way he left was the way a whiny ass quitter leaves. Aside from that detail, yeah, he belongs...
He didn't demand a trade, he didn't grandstand, he didn't mouth off to the press. The only real problem with his departure was the timing. His reasoning was, sadly, sound (discouragement at losing, though Tom Kowalkowski suspected that his health was degrading as well).
People were mad mostly for selfish reasons, because they wanted him to break the record. I understand the disappointment, but the anger was absurd.
True, he didn't do any of that. But he also didn't return any phone calls, didn't accept any in home visits (despite Bobby Ross flying out), didn't say anything to his teammates, and just plain didn't show up at training camp without any warning that he wasn't going to show up.
Yeah, not showing up was fairly expected because of the complete lack of contact. But he was also well known to not partake in anything off-season, and was freely allowed to be that way (even when the rest of the team was expected to show up for off-season stuff).
I have no problem with him retiring, especially for the reasons we all suspect - even though he's never commented on any of it. But he never said anything to anyone, he just plain didn't show up, and thus left his teammates and organization hanging with no backup plan. Feel free to excuse that kind of behavior, but I will not. One simple phone call is all it would've taken, but he didn't have enough class to make one phone call (or even to just answer a call).
For me, with the players who've come through Detroit in my lifetime, Sanders and Stevie Y are my all time favorite Detroit athletes. Zeke and Alan Trammell just a hair below.
John Lynch's account confirmed.
This is a 5-10 year project. Hope everyone knows that..
Holland didn’t make the job any easier by delaying the rebuild another 5 years after it became obvious the window had closed.
Well, since it took him 14 years to win as a player, I think 7 as a GM is fair.
...and this, my fellow Wings fans (I realize many of you are not, and that's fine, I suppose), is how you turn a Good Friday into a Better Friday.
Only athlete with a 100% approval rating in Detroit? In the state?
And always seemed like a legitimately good human being.
So good to see 19 back in Detroit! Yzerman has proven he can be a GM in the salary cap era, where as, Kenny could not.
Yzerman and Illitch, same red tie, Holland? Not so much.
This is almost on the same level as Harbaugh coming home to Michigan. What a great day!
April 21st, 2019 at 12:39 PM ^