I wouldnt knock his drafting. Seider looks like he might be a norris contender in the next couple years. Raymond is looking like he is continuing to progress, likely will hit 30 goal this year. Cossa is like 10-0-5 in the last 15 games with grand rapids, i wouldnt be surprised if he gets some nhl time if the wings fall out of the playoff race in the next couple weeks. Sandin-Pelikka lit the shl up as an 18 year old. I think kaspar has stalled a bit, and i think its too early to tell with danielson (i also wanted him to take benson, but ill give it time before i consider danielson a mistake) And dont forget Trey Augustine who just backstopped USA to a wjc gold and michigan state to a Big10 championship.

Holland sucked. His best years were pre-salary cap. Yeah he kept the ship afloat and the streak intact but he was constantly trading 1st round picks and prospects for rentals only to get booty blasted in the 1st/2nd round. We traded away the pick that would become vasy for kyle quincey after cutting him the year before, and the pick that would become roope hintz for like 10 games of Erik Cole before he broke his neck or whatever and never played in the nhl again.

the real mvp was lidstrom

also i meant yzerman hasn't hit anyone relevant like his 1st round picks/high picks with his later picks like he did with tampa

Voted Sakic. I just really don't like Copp, Compher, Chiarot, Holl contacts for Yzerman

Recent bias but sakic for me. A few years ago i would have said yzerman but so far the red wings still look pretty meh in my eyes while sakic trades at this deadline have been incredible and his roster really improved at a reasonable price and i still got in mind the newhook and lehkonen trade with my habs which he clearly won in lekhonen case

I feel like Yzerman started off strong in Detroit but lately he has not been too impressive.

Previous success of the Red Wings was all of the late steals they got in the draft.

A lot of their picks have not worked out yet, or have failed completely.

Besides their first round pick in 2019 no other draft pick has played meaningful hockey 5 seasons later during that draft. That is unheard of for Detroit.

Yzerman drafted better when he was with Tampa Bay, at least up until this point.

He has still made good trades and loaded up on picks/prospects. But a lot of that has not paid off. While some players are looking great, I think there should have been more hits, so to speak, considering how many chances Yzerman and the draft team has had a kick at the can.


Sakic turned a dismal team around faster, so he is the better manager no doubt, years later.


Just my opinion. By no means is Yzerman a bad GM I just feel Sakic is next level.


My comments on the old thread aged well haha.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Apr 1 2024 05:14pm

Yzerman essentially put the Tampa team that won back to back cups together, including three conference finals and one cup final back in 2015. Drafted guys like Point, Vasilevsky and Kucherov, fleeced Montreal for Sergachev, drafted multiple Red Wings prospects and seems poised to make Detroit a contender in 3-5 years.

Sakic rebuilt the Avs from the ground up. He's been very fortunate that his reclamation projects have paid off (nobody ever thought Nichushkin would live up to any hype) in dividends and drafted players like Rantanen, Makar, Mackinnon and multiple pedigree players. He's helped his team in more than one way and deserves to be mentioned on the upper echelon of general managers.

If Steve Yzerman is able to take two teams (again I get that he wasn't the GM of Tampa in their back to back titles, but he was instrumental in putting that team together) and Detroit to cup success, then I'd give a slight edge to Yzerman. It's not often a general manager wins with two different teams but I'm excited to see the future and as of now, they're both fantastic general managers where one, in their current situation, has an embarrassment of riches, while the other is trying to create a rags to riches story while continuing the process of a rebuild.

Good poll. I really like what both have done for their clubs.

both fuckin legends