- Red Wings missed the playoffs for a 10th straight year after holding a 12-point conference lead in January
- Yzerman vowed to “see this through” as Todd McLellan and his full staff return for 2026-27
- Read below for video of the full presser and Yzerman’s plan to make Detroit harder to play against
Steve Yzerman wore the look of a general manager running out of answers.
Detroit’s GM met the media on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena for the Red Wings’ season-ending press conference, and the message was blunt. Ten straight years without a playoff appearance. Another late-season slide. And a roster Yzerman openly admits isn’t ready.
“I intend to see this through,” Yzerman said, per the Detroit News. “We need to have blunt conversations, to do more and be better. Am I totally shocked where we are today? No. We had concerns during the season. We’re just not good enough yet.”
The Wings held a 12-point lead in the Eastern Conference standings on Jan. 24 before the wheels came off. They are now just the second team in NHL history to hit 69 points through their first 53 games and miss the postseason. The other was the 1969-70 Montreal Canadiens.
Yzerman spoke with owner Chris Ilitch a few days before the presser and said the Ilitch family is “very disappointed with the way the season played out” but continues to back the rebuild.
On the roster side, Yzerman didn’t sugarcoat it.
“The reality is we need to score more five-on-five,” he said. “So that requires talent and scoring ability, and we need to be a harder team to play against. We hear our players talk about that and my message to them would be guys, we need our team to be harder to play against. Either that, or I got to bring in other guys.”
Head coach Todd McLellan and his full staff will return for 2026-27. No major firings. No panic moves.
Detroit’s core still runs through captain Dylan Larkin and Marco Kasper, and Patrick Kane remains open to returning for a 20th NHL season. Yzerman flagged center depth and bottom-six scoring as clear weak points heading into the summer.
You can watch the full press conference video right here:
This is year seven of the rebuild. The math is starting to catch up with the promises.
