This is a bad take. You're not able to see the forest through the trees.
Poorly managed? What makes this team poorly managed? Yzerman has cleared out the bad contracts, signed vets to team friendly deals to help out the kids, drafted incredibly well over the last 4 seasons, and hired a coach that brought in an actual defensive structure.
Poorly structured? The framework for this team has been being built the last 2 seasons after being torn down the 2 seasons prior to that. Next season when we insert Kasper we're not giving him Brendan Perlini and Anthony Mantha as his wingers as a result of the improved structure. Edvinsson isn't being thrown in as the #1 defender as a result of the structure.
No clear direction for improvement? The team goes into the offseason with a boatload of cap space (28.8 mil), 5 draft picks in the first 42, and the glaring holes are a top 6 winger (free agents/trades available) a bottom 6 winger (free agents/trades available), backup goalie (free agents/trades available/maybe Mazur surprises) and a 2nd and 3rd pair RD (free agents/trades available). None of these are insurmountable. I think it is entirely possible to effectively fill these roster gaps and be a better team than the Senators, Sabres, Islanders, Panthers, and Penguins next season.
Under Yzerman the wings have gone from last place to 6th worst, to 8th worst, and are going to finish somewhere between 9th and 12th worst. It's not as big an improvement as I had hoped for but like I said in my last post here, injuries/unavailability due to PAP to 3 top 9 scorers and 2 backup goalies giving away points played a major part in that. Unless Yzerman sits on his hands next season or there is a catastrophic injury to either Larkin or Seider this team will be better next season.