Paul Kukla Kukla's Korner
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No Timeline On The Rebuild
from Emily Kaplan of ESPN,
This summer included a glimmer of hope. The Red Wings welcomed Steve Yzerman as general manager. Not only is Yzerman a Hall of Fame player for the Wings, but he comes off an eight-year stint with the Lightning in which -- through bold moves, shrewd drafting and strong development -- he built Tampa Bay into a powerhouse.
"He's a legend here, an icon," said Kronwall, who retired in the offseason, then joined the front office staff. "Then, he comes back. His track record speaks for itself, of what he did down in Tampa. So just getting him back into the organization is great. Let alone being the general manager and guiding this franchise back to where it's supposed to be, and where it should be."
... Yzerman's arrival also brought cautious optimism that the rebuild will now accelerate.
Yzerman has promised to restore a winning culture but has been overly cautious in assigning a timeline. "I don't know if it will take one, two or five years," Yzerman said. In fact, he evades sharing as many details as possible.
He won't give any clues on what he'd like his team's identity to be -- "To answer your question, yeah, I do know what I'm looking for. Do I want to elaborate on it? Not particularly. Can I? Not particularly," he said -- nor any particulars on how he would categorize the 2019-20 season as a success, besides "everyone in the organization, at all levels, getting better."