I find it funny that the people that are criticizing Yzerman for the perceived logjam that is keeping Edvinsson down would be the same people f*cking CRUCIFYING him for being unprepared had he not signed Maatta, Chiarot, Holl, Petry and Ghost, and if Edvinsson had shown up to camp clearly not ready for the NHL. Then they would b*tch even more when he either had to overpay to trade for NHL defensemen or roll with something like this
Walman - Seider
(alt universe not NHL ready) Edvinsson - Newpower
Johansson - Rafferty
McIsaac
Then they would b*tch even more about how Yzerman was ruining Edvinsson and Johansson's development by promoting them before they are ready.
It's almost like some people are just here to complain no matter what Yzerman does and should never be taken seriously in the first place.
Let's acknowledge that there is a contingent of Wings fans that won't be happy unless a move is so good that it will never leave the realm of fantasy.
After we acknowledge that fact, can we also acknowledge that sometimes it is reasonable to criticize this team and its direction. Furthermore, those criticisms are often well-founded. For example when Chiarot was signed, many of us said "that's terrible, hate the player, hate the contract," and were met with a chorus of "our defense is terrible, you'd be unhappy if we didn't improve it." And anyone reasonable could say "just because we wanted some improvement doesn't mean that we want to give a big deal to Ben Chiarot."
This year as we were signing all these D, my refrain was "I guess I'm fine with adding Holl, Ghost and resigning Maatta as long as that doesn't block Edvinsson assuming that he's ready." And then we added Petry and we said "Not sure why we needed him, but fine, as long as this doesn't block Ed." And he we are with Ed blocked.
Maybe it won't be for long, but that's not the point. The point is that we didn't need to sign all of these guys in the first place. We have five third pairing defenseman. Why do we need that many? We don't. It's a waste of money. But if Yzerman wants to waste Illitch money, I don't really care as long as it doesn't block better players from being on the roster. Now that it's doing exactly that I have to say: "I like the Petry trade, the Maatta signing and the Ghost signing on their own. I only kind of hate the Holl signing. I always hated Chiarot but I can live with him on his own. But taken together, I hate these moves."
So sure, it may seem like we're overreacting to Ed being off the roster for what might ultimately be a couple weeks. It's less that I'm upset about that as I am about a consistent overestimation of some of the league's least valuable defenseman.