Steve Yzerman 2024 NHL Draft Day 2 | June 29, 2024

Steve Yzerman 2024 NHL Draft Day 2 | June 29, 2024

uh not terribly obviously we were way talk last night and and drafting uh Michael as a forward but just like how our kind of our list and where how our list laid out and where we were picking in each round we had forwards you know a lot of those uh there was a lot of dmen at the top of the draft and so no it wasn’t necessarily by Design it’s just kind of the way our this shaped up just I know it’s hard to evaluate right when the draft start were you pleased with the pict you got yeah um you know very pleased in that there’s kind of kids that we that one that obviously that we like we kind of think they’re going to be in uh in range for our pick and with each pick we’re kind of holding our F keeping our fingers crossed thinking these are one of the guys we want in that spot and at each uh at each spot we we got a kid that we were very excited about that we kind of had projected in that range of the pick and so yeah it was uh again we feel good about it today and we’ll see down the road how it plays out with Max plant is it the playmaking ability that excites you there yeah H great tremendous hockey sense and his uh moves a pu really well a very like a um uh deceptive skater he moved well on the ice but yeah I really like his uh uh hockey sense and his kind of creativity is playmaking yeah yeah do you find you trust with sons of NHL players I mean we see that all the time in this sport but you look at that and say you know he grew up in a hockey house maybe has orang cuz he’s known as a high I yeah um honestly I don’t know what to make of hey a former player’s son or not cuz some of them make it some of them don’t so uh we pay more attention to like uh they come from a good family and so I think like any hockey fan or whatever whether they played or not some can be a good influence and some can be not so we don’t really put a lot of stock in the you know uh the former players was talking getting nervous about you guys wrapping a site today um you know we had a lot of as always we had a lot of sweds on our our list um you know like m is a um Norwegian but he’s in the Swedish league so he can chalk that one up so yeah no no we uh we I think a pretty diverse uh draft and that way we got a Canadian and managed to squeak squeeze a Canadian in there or sneak the Canadian in and check and uh pretty lot of develop yeah yeah yeah we liked a lot of those kids uh on the development scene um and what do we got to d three of them right in terms of how the draft played out with some of the moves and trades being made across the league it’s impossible to predict but how did you see it kind of play out just in total the draft playing out itself this well some of the I like I have no idea what other teams are doing um there some big trades uh I think this morning here which were eye opening um didn’t see that coming but um you know we really focus on what we’re trying to do and we’re you know we used all eight picks um and we’re pleased with all the kids that we got and we’ll see how it goes from here you like taking goalie in each dra like you like trying to add an a goalie Prospect in each draft just kind of with no not necessarily not not necessarily we don’t want to draft a goalie just to draft a goalie and our plan isn’t necessarily to take one every year um but we want to make you know we like this that we have a that it would be uh there have uh enough goalie prospects enough prospects at every position um with the golender thing it’s a little more complicated and that you want to make sure they have a a Runway so to speak to get the pro where where they’re going and and and opportunity when they do turn pro to have a spot to play you don’t want to have a log Jam of goalies CU you only have so many spots for them to play but um you know don’t necessarily draft by position but obviously you got to look at your prospect pool and and see the depth that you have and address each position uh not necessarily annually but regularly what did you Comm see with what you guys kind of see with his play in the Sue this year just to kind of make him um I saw the Sue twice I think he he he played one game he’s big big kid he was um you know that be like really a question I would defer to uh to to grapes really but I saw this two up in Flint one night and he played a pretty good game he’s a big boy and and he moved pretty well in the net do he move into free agency now like I mean I’m sure it’s tough cuz you don’t really have the negotiating window anymore but how do you feel about your chances of getting some of the guys you have Circle honestly I don’t at this point I have no idea you know like we’ll uh we’re continue to talk to our own guys here haven’t given up on that yet um and tomorrow afternoon we’ll talk and uh um kind of get organized again we’re we had had our Pro meetings already but tomorrow when we get home we’ll kind of regroup and uh be ready to go for Monday and you know what we’re we’re prepared uh you know if if we can get somebody at the the right number and um and or not we’ll wait we’re confident that we’ll we’ll fill our roster out one way or the other Ste you guys like uh Patrick and Shane and David Brun all were such big game performers for you does that put more urgency on like we just talked yesterday about you know there’s going to be more expectation on this this team just to have guys like that in the lineup I mean not everybody can be a Difference Maker when it matters um we would love to bring everybody back that’s going to be really difficult to do um when we know our restricted free agents we know we’re just not going to have enough money to bring everybody back it’s just not the way it’s going to work and we’d love to bring everybody back but we’re not we’re you know we’re trying to do deals with all these guys that that allow us to to almost bring them all back but not sure we’ll be able to do that do you kind of have ear marked as some like as some set aside for cider and from Moritz and Lucas I mean that okay they’re going to take up this chunk whether or not you have them done yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly if you aren’t able to keep Kane how do you counterbalance knowing that they’d be spot in the top six you’d have to fill with obviously I know everything you do you want to make sure it’s it makes sense for you guys you know financially long term all that stuff not sure what your question is I I guess just kind of how big of a priority is it to fill that for next year or is it the situation where you could see not going for a big you know heavy hitter I guess so to speak in the top six well we we are you know we’d love to get Patrick Kane signed um that’s our first priority um I would say on Wingers I don’t anticipate us I mean you never really know but we’re you we got Alex the brink at what I consider a sizable commitment to Alex as far as salary we’re looking to you know we’re hoping to do something longterm with Lucas if we can’t we’ll do something shortterm with him but our first priority is longterm so we’re going to have a lot of money tied up and and two Wingers um um can we can we go longterm and a lot of money on on another Winger something to consider depends on who it is depend on you know a lot of things so every player has a i gu go by every player uh it’s not just do we like the player do we like him at the dollar amount and so whoever it is if we like him at X dollar and we can fit it in we’ll try to do that I know you talked about uh before the draft about how everything’s kind of crunch together how do you keep all those balls in the air when you got you drafting free agency potential TR that’s a lot on your play yeah there’s a you know we’ve had time you know for the draft um Chris and St like they been very well organized very well prepared so when we got here just kind of finalizing little so um kind of knew what we wanted to do with the draft when we come in here but it really is a you know a distraction when you have a lot of other things on your mind um but it’s we’re all kind of used to it now this is the way it’s been for the last few years and we just kind of roll with it try to be as organized as you can beforeand and be prepared and we get back uh we’ll get back and development Camp starts tomorrow and July 1 free agency starts so just kind of just plow through it than see you guys we’ll see you next week

Red Wings Executive Vice President & General Manager Steve Yzerman speaks with the media following the 2024 NHL Entry Draft at Sphere, Las Vegas.