Steve Yzerman has never been one to step down from a challenge. As a player, he stuck with the Detroit Red Wings through some tough times, to lead them to three Stanley Cups, in 1997, 1998, and 2002. Yzerman then worked his way up the managment ladder until the Tampa Bay Lightning hired him in 2010.

In 2019, Yzerman took on his toughest project yet, agreeing to return to Detroit to be the Red Wings’ general manager, and lead their rebuild. That same rebuild is likely over following the acquistion of Alex DeBrincat from the Ottawa Senators.

Last season, the Red Wings finished 12 points out of the postseason. One of their biggest issues was scoring. They finished 24th in scoring, and had the fifth-fewest 5v5 goals. DeBrincat is coming off an off-year, but still posted 0.63 goals per hour at 5v5. That would have been fourth on the Red Wings among forwards, with at least 900 minutes played.

In addition there’s hope DeBrincat can bounce back. Before last season, DeBrincat posted 1.0 5v5 goals per hour in his previous two seasons, with the Chicago Blackhawks, ranking 31st among 129 forwards with at least 1,600 minutes played. That translated to 73 goals in 135 games.

One simple reason to explain why DeBrincat went from scoring 32 goals and 41 goals in consecutive seasons, to scoring just 27 goals, is his shooting percentage.

In five years with the Blackhawks, DeBrincat proved to be a very effective shooter, scoring on 15.5% of his shots. His shooting percentage exceeded 15%, in all but one of those seasons. Last season, DeBrincat’s shooting percentage fell to 10.3%. It’s not unreasonable to expect his shooting percentage to improve.

The Red Wings came into this offseason needing to add talent on both sides of the puck. DeBrincat, gives the Red Wings a very special talent. Most NHLers would consider a 27 goal season to be a pretty good year. For DeBrincat, it was a bad year. He has proven he can be a very reliable and effective goal scorer.

This acquisition doesn’t come without risk. The Red Wings are acquiring DeBrincat after a down year. While it seems likely he’ll improve, it’s also quite possible DeBrincat never returns to his days of being a 40 goal scorer. However, the Red Wings are at the point where they need to start adding players like him if they want to be serious contenders.

Also, this is the kind of risk teams need to take to win championships. Fortune tends to favor the bold in sports. The 2023 Vegas Golden Knights are a great example of this.

Since entering the league in 2018, they’ve made bold, and at times ruthless, decisions. Not of all of those decisions have worked out. But, they made calculated risks and enough of them paid off.

It’s hard to imagine Steve Yzerman would acquire DeBrincat and sign him to a four-year deal worth over $30 million total and nearly $8 million per season, if he didn’t believe his team was ready for the next step.

For the first time since at least 2015, the Red Wings will enter this season with expectations of making of the playoffs, or at least coming very close to making them.

-Flava Dave

*Photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports*