The first round of the 2020 NHL Draft is Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS). Rounds 2-7 are Wednesday (11:30 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN). The Red Wings have 10 selections, including the No. 4 pick in the first round.
The draft will be held virtually. It had been scheduled for June 26-27 at Bell Centre in Montreal but was postponed March 25 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
"I can't tell you how much action there'll be, but I do know we're in constant [communication]," Yzerman said. "You're on your phone basically all day each day leading up to the draft. Some teams have different goals they're trying to accomplish right now.
"There's just a lot of uncertainty, I think, around the League. Nobody really knows what's going to happen on Oct. 9 with free agency, what's going to happen in the market. Is it going to be business as usual? Are teams going to be more conservative? I really don't know.
"You talk to some of the clubs that … from our position, teams that need to make some moves based on the salary cap and see if there's a fit to do any of those things. So how much actually gets accomplished, I don't know. But I know we'll all be kind of working the phone."
Howard has spent his entire 14-season NHL career with the Red Wings, who selected him in the second round (No. 64) of the 2003 NHL Draft.
In 2009-10, he was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. Among goalies in Detroit history, he ranks third in games (543) and wins (246), and fourth in shutouts (24).
But the 36-year-old went 2-23-2 with a 4.20 goals-against average and .882 save percentage in 27 games (27 starts) this season, playing on a one-year contract he signed with Detroit on March 20, 2019.
Jonathan Bernier went 15-22-3 with a 2.95 GAA, a .907 save percentage and one shutout in 46 games (41 starts). The 32-year-old has one season left on the three-year contract he signed with Detroit on July 1, 2018.
Yzerman said the Red Wings have had ongoing discussions with pending restricted free agents Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha and is confident they can get the forwards under contract.
Their other pending restricted free agents are defenseman Madison Bowey and forwards Christoffer Ehn, Adam Erne, Brendan Perlini and Dmytro Timashov.
"We've got decisions to make on some of our [pending restricted free agents], if in fact we're going to qualify them, or not qualify them and offer them contracts, or not qualify them and let them go," Yzerman said. "We've got some time to make that decision, and truthfully we're just kind of weighing what, if any, options there are before we make those final decisions."