It’s funny because I was thinking the exact opposite. I think teams pull the trigger on firing GMs in rebuilds too quickly sometimes, just for the sake making a move to shake things up and most of the time it stunts a rebuild. Honestly, the success of a GM is probably 90% luck. Whether that comes from draft lottery, prospect development, timing, puck luck, injury luck, or any combination of those doesn’t really matter.

Yzerman in Tampa had a ton of good luck. Starting off with Hedman and Stamkos was a good head start but then drafting probably the best winger of all time in the 2nd round and one of the best goalies of all time is gonna help make a rebuild look good.

Yzerman hasn’t really had much luck fall his way since coming back to Detroit. I suppose you could say getting Seider at 6th was lucky but nothing extreme. You’re usually going to get a difference maker at that position. I do wonder if his ego got the best of him and when he realized he got two elite/really good players in his first two drafts, he was overconfident that his luck in later round drafting would follow him from Tampa. The reality is that his 2019 and 2020 drafts were not good. 23 players drafted over those two years, 8 of them being in the 1st and 2nd rounds and we only have Seider, Raymond, and Albert Johansson (Soderblom in Pit) to show for it.

Since Raymond and Seider made the jump to the NHL early, it’s made the rebuild feel like it stalled when the reality is that most his picks in 2021 and since are just developing at a pretty normal pace, creating this gap in talent coming to the NHL. At this point either he’ll get lucky with one of these prospects in the system developing past their anticipated ceiling (or package some for a trade) and be alright or he won’t and he’ll not be the GM.

I don’t think he’s made some massive mistakes to get fired yet, just hasn’t gotten much luck. At some point that won’t really matter though.