Will Steve Yzerman Ever Work for the Red Wings Again?

Steve Yzerman is finally coming abode. No wonder Detroit Ruddy Wings fans were crying when news broke Fri morning.

No wonder they were auspicious. And celebrating. And texting and calling each other to revel.

"Did you hear?"

"Can yous believe it?"

The Hall of Fame center and longtime Wings captain is taking the helm of the franchise he helped plow into Hockeytown, replacing electric current general manager Ken Holland.

Finally.

Information technology'south not but the possibility of winning that put a charge through Hockeytown on Friday morning, or the chance to win more Stanley Cups and hold more victory parades downwards Woodward Avenue.

And it's not just that Yzerman is back in the identify that made him, and that he helped make. "I want to live in Detroit," he said Fri afternoon during his introductory news conference. "I'one thousand excited to exist hither."

[ Steve Yzerman'southward Red Wings highlights still leave chills ]

No, the euphoric reaction in our region is for a reason more fundamental:

Yzerman's return connects Wings fans to their youth, to their days as young adults, when the world was still out in front, when Yzerman, now 53, was immature, too.

He wasn't just a face of the franchise. He represented the fruit — and labor — of a 42-year slog. He may non have been Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, but he was a star, back when hockey had stars. And he was ours.

That he was a bit of a mystery made it easier for u.s.a. to project our own vantage point onto his ascension in the game. As he rose, we did.

In that way, Yzerman acted equally a kind of repository, capable of reflecting blueish-collar grit or polished, upper-class aspiration.

Jacques Demers, who coached Yzerman early on in his career in Detroit, once said, "I don't recollect anyone will ever know who he really is."

Yzerman's likeness one time adorned the side of the Cadillac Tower Building in downtown Detroit, a 14-story mural of Captain Cool.

When it commencement went up, fans flocked to information technology, simply left unsatisfied. His face had been wiped of its scars, of all those hits and tumbles to the ice. It wasn't Detroit.

The artist who'd painted it returned to the city, hauled himself dorsum into the air, and roughed him upwards. Jason Coatney, then based in Portland, Oregon, had worked on more 100 murals around the country.

"I've never seen a town get so basics over a painting," he once said, afterward he'd flown back into boondocks to tweak the mural.

Yzerman, ever quick to deflect from his idol status, had suggested the painting include his teammates. And while he somewhen copped to enjoying his likeness stretched across a downtown landmark, he said "it's not like I park my car in front of information technology."

He enjoyed the perks of his stardom but never the stardom. Not really. He preferred expressing himself on the ice, in the locker room, and so retreating. He figured his iconic place in the region had as much to practice with longevity as with anything else.

"I've been around forever," he in one case said. "People are used to my presence. I'thousand not a novelty."

His mural was eventually taken down, and Yzerman eventually retired from playing, in 2006, and the human being who'd centered the franchise'due south renaissance somewhen took a spot in the Wings' front office.

[ How Steve Yzerman can continue Red Wings' rebuild: A to-do list ]

Only every bit he'd shown early in his career, he had so much more than to give, and to larn. And while working under Holland helped set his feet in the business of team-building, he knew he needed to walk. He did. All the fashion to Tampa.

There, in the nascent hockey culture of Florida, Yzerman revealed a deft bear on past assembling a championship-contending squad. This intensified the nostalgia, fueling the fan base's dream of a render.

For a while, it looked like Yzerman might non ever come up back. At least in any formal capacity. Which made his success in Tampa — two briefing finals appearances, a Stanley Cup concluding — bloodshot for the fans back hither who thought of him equally their own.

Plenty of dwelling-grown stars retire and accept a stab at running a team. Just few stand for a region the style Yzerman did.

And when that region identifies itself through sports similar few others? Especially when that region has an inferiority complex?

A groundswell begins. A movement, if you lot volition. A call for the son to return and have over the family business. That the business had been struggling in his absence reinforced the plea.

The human Yzerman will be replacing had a hand in four Stanley Cup-champion teams. Notwithstanding contention feels similar a lifetime ago.

In the time the franchise began to wobble, the rules of team-edifice — the introduction of a bacon cap, in particular — changed. No longer did the Wings take the advantage of money. Or of a cut-edge scouting department that could unearth playmakers around the earth.

Everyone has access to players now. Everyone has the same corporeality of coin to spend.

On a level playing field, Holland lost his edge. And while the team'southward ownership — and the 25-season playoff streak — may accept handcuffed a total-on rebuild, no 1 forced Holland to sign, say, Stephen Weiss for five years and $24.5 1000000.

Or Mikael Samuelsson. Or Jordin Tootoo. Or any number of other players that Holland brought in who flamed out.

Holland, obviously, made plenty of smart signings and trades over the years. He congenital title teams.

Still, he understands why Yzerman needed to slide into the general manager'south seat. Maybe that's why Holland was so gracious Friday as he sat next to Yzerman during the news briefing.

And why he said he felt good that Yzerman was "dorsum where he belongs."

Every bit smooth as the transition is likely to be, and every bit promising as the Wings' core is, Yzerman isn't here to build a contender in a single season.

"This takes time," he said. "Much like (it did) in the early on role of my (playing) career."

Non every move Yzerman makes will work out. Just as everything didn't e'er work out in Tampa, where he missed the playoffs in two of his first three seasons, and couldn't quite win the Cup he craves.

But he arrives with the kind of goodwill even a championship-building general director tin't friction match.

He also arrives as the most popular player in the franchise'southward modern history. With a resume that shows he's ready to do what he did all those years ago when he got to this city as a teenager.

Yzerman didn't just win because he saw angles on the ice others couldn't. He didn't just win because he combined grace and grime in a way few Wings e'er have.

He won because he adapted, considering he evolved, considering he led, because he retreated to the space that he keeps for himself and figured out what a city needed.

Well, he's back to do it again. He'due south asking for patience and understanding. Merely he welcomes the expectation. That is partly why he is here. Why he called it an "awesome opportunity."

Because it is. For him, yes. And for us.

Some 36 years subsequently he starting time arrived, Captain Cool arrives again, to steady the iconic winged wheel, to requite u.s. a different view of the mural that one time stretched across 14 stories.

On Friday afternoon, our dearest hockey franchise made information technology official by reaching dorsum to leap forward. Sometimes, it'southward piece of cake to gloss over the past when the past returns to town.

Not with this guy. He earned his scars. They were ours. We ever wanted to run into them. And however exercise.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.

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Source: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2019/04/19/steve-yzerman-detroit-red-wings-general-manager/3521207002/

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