Yzerman aims to get 'more from our players' after Red Wings coaching change

DETROIT -- Steve Yzerman summed up the state of the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, one day after the Red Wings replaced Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan as coach.

“I’m going to do everything I can to build a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup,” the general manager said. “I feel today we’re a long way from that.

“Part of that is being a competitive team that can compete for a playoff spot, and we’re going to continue trying to build. We have an ownership group that is 100 percent dedicated and giving us all the support that we need to whatever we have to do to get there, and it’s a difficult process.”

Yzerman inherited a declining team when he took over as GM on April 19, 2019. After bottoming out with a .275 points percentage in his first season, the Red Wings improved each of the next four seasons -- .429 in 2020-21, .451 in 2021-22, .488 in 2022-23 and .555 last season.

They just missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs a season ago, losing the tiebreaker to the Washington Capitals, who earned the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with the same number of points but more regulation wins (32-27). Detroit’s postseason drought stretched to eight seasons, the longest in the team’s 98-year history.

That set the bar for Yzerman’s sixth season.

“My expectation at the start of the year, if everything went well here with our team, everyone stayed healthy, everybody performed up to expectations, I think with this group we could compete for a wild card spot, and we’re not there,” Yzerman said.

The Red Wings were 15th in the East entering the holiday break Tuesday through Thursday, eight points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card in the conference.

They were 28th in the NHL in points percentage (.441). They were 25th in goals against per game (3.26) and 29th in goals per game (2.56). They were tied for 10th on the power play (22.5 percent) with the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, but were 31st on the penalty kill (68.8 percent).

Sometimes, they looked lifeless.

“The spirit was zapped out,” Yzerman said. “You start to sense the frustration, the will being zapped from everyone.”

Yzerman made it clear he felt the roster was good enough to compete for a wild card. He said the reason the team wasn’t performing up to his expectations was that the players weren’t performing up to his expectations of them individually.

And so, he turned to McLellan, a veteran NHL coach who was an assistant in Detroit from 2005-06, Yzerman’s final season as a player, through 2007-08, when Yzerman was early in his career as an executive and the Red Wings last won the Cup. Trent Yawney also replaced Bob Boughner as an assistant.

“I think there’s more from our players here,” Yzerman said. “I think each and every one of these players can play better, and I guess ultimately I make the coaching change with the expectation and the hope that Todd, Trent and a different staff will get these guys back to playing at the level that we expect them to and beyond, and time will tell if that happens.”

In the short term, there should be a bump.

The players literally noticed the new voice at the morning skate Friday before their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Little Caesars Arena.

“I think you can definitely feel his presence,” forward Patrick Kane said. “Like, he has a presence when he’s in the room, the way he speaks, just his voice, his voice on the ice. It seems like he’s going to be a coach that’s demanding, and I think that’s a good thing for a group.”

McLellan didn’t have time to change tactics right away. He said he asked the players simply to play harder, faster and smarter.

“The spirit of the team has to improve,” he said. “When something like this happens, obviously the spirit of the team is at a low, and we’re going to work hard to build that back up.”

In the long term, there is still a lot of work to do. The Red Wings haven’t had a top-three pick in the NHL Draft since 1990, when they selected forward Keith Primeau No. 3. A big question is whether they have enough difference-makers in their organization to become a Cup contender someday.

But Yzerman refused to use their lack of top-three picks as an excuse and said it was too early to call this season a setback. He pointed to Detroit's youth and said he hired McLellan not just for this season but for beyond. He remains committed to the process, as difficult as it might be.

“I’m not happy, obviously, with where we’re at today,” he said. “But I look at the big picture with some of the young kids in the organization that are coming, that we’re going to continue to improve here.

“It’s not acceptable for our fan base, for all of you, and I respect everybody’s opinions on it. ‘Hey, this is taking too long. This is taking a long time.’ I understand, and we’re trying to do this as quickly as we possibly can.”