The Case Against Steve Yzerman

[JamieG]

Let's consider the possibly that the recent slide continues and the Lightning either get embarrassed in the playoffs again this year or miss it completely.

Given the bi-polar relationship Tampa fans have towards Yzerman (I know nobody admits it now since "Yzelam and Yzerology" is popular) but the fact was there were a majority of people calling for Yzerman to be fired early in 2013 to Sept 2013.

So if things continue to go south, it's not hard to envision the band wagon will be to fire Yzerman.

Would you be on board?

This is the case for firing Yzerman.

1. If this year doesn't turn around, he is 0-2 with picking coaches. Both Boucher and Cooper got a lot of praise early, but they appear to be questionable choices by Yzerman.

2. His inability to solve the goaltending issue. First there was the SmEllis debacle, which was temporarily solved by Roloson, than the failure of extending Roloson a year too long, then the Lindback debacle as the "next one", it was solved by the Bishop trade who could have been had off waivers earlier.

Yzerman appears to potentially further screw up the goalie situation by signing Nabakov who lets be honest, has flat out stunk while we have 2 goalies in the AHL who give the team a better chance to win. But thanks to Yzerman's horrible signing, when Bishop comes back from injury, Vasi is going back down. Will those 2 have their development ruined by not being given a chance at the right time?

Also, it is quite easy to envision that the Bishop contract will be hanging over this team's head soon. If Nabby were to disappear and Bishop's injury woes were to continue (Bishop has not been as good this year as he was last year) and Vasi continued his strong play, then what? Vasi is relegated to the bench because of Yzerman's contract and commitment to Bishop?

3. Yzerman's failure in the first round of the draft. I know some will disagree, but there comes a time people where you have to call a goat a goat. I swear that Brett Connoly will be a 34 year old still doing nothing and some of you will be yelling "You can't call him a bust, he's only 34! Wait until next year!

Seriously, it's a fact that most of Yzerman's first round selections are not as good as players who were drafted in a similar spot or behind them.

Connolly is a hindrance. We see how this team is being hurt by the organization's desperation for him to prove he's not a bust.

Slater Koekkoek still not on the horizon for cracking the NHL line up despite his peers emerging as stars.

And then there's Jonathan Drouin. One year gone already. This year being used as a bit part. Sure you can blame Cooper for not giving him a shot, but who put Cooper in charge? Yzerman.

4. There's the albatross that is Matt Carle's contract.

5. Yzerman's ego. Whether you blame the other party or not, Yzerman alienated MSL and the Lightnings all time greats bolted solely because of Yzerman. It also has obviously damaged Stamkos, as both his play and his attitude of "I miss Marty so much". If the Stamkos contract negotiations turn ugly, will you be willing to throw Yzerman overboard for Stamkos?

6. Yzerman's penchant for hiring his buddies for roles in the Lightning organization. Steve Thomas? Pat Verbeek? The most qualified guys for the job or simply buddies with Stevie?

Sure there's been some good later round picks but every team gets lucky with a few.

So what do you say? Six months from now will Yzerman get the axe?

Click to read more...

 

[dbieon12]

Failure to resign Stamkos or make of like a bandit in a trade wild lead to resentment and eventually his termination.

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

do a poll cause just since are two people in delusionville doesnt mean the rest of us are on the bandwagon lmfao

 

[Vasilevskiy]

The case against banning JamieG from the board.
1. This thread




just joking friend, but this is insanity

 

[The Macho King]

There was never a point where the majority of fans called for Yzerman to be fired. The whole premise your argument is based on is flawed.

 

[xteesy]

There was never a point where the majority of fans called for Yzerman to be fired. The whole premise your argument is based on is flawed.

I was trying to think of how to write this as accurate, yet "calm headed" as you did.

Seriously, this entire post is off home base.... More like hitting deep in right field right now.

 

[MattM92]

Oh dear lord...we go through a slump and now Yzerman should be fired?

 

[JFleegs]

Is this even a thread? Wow Yzerman is soooo far from being thrown under the bus, that you might as well close this thread now.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

 

[BoltSTH]

I can only imagine the OP is a secret Red Wings fan and wants SFY to replace Holland. That or the OP is on something a lot stronger than I have access to.

In less than 5 years he has taken a shambles of a team with no prospects or scouting ,and only 2 pieces to build on (Hedman, Stammer), to one completing for the best in the East, prospects most teams would die for, and has not be on the losing end of any trade (Traitor to NYR was a master stroke, Bishop from Sens was a steal, most were good hockey trades), turned the franchise into a preferred destination for UFA, and managed the cap.

My hope he is our GM longer than he was captain of the Red Wings.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

I can only imagine the OP is a secret Red Wings fan and wants SFY to replace Holland. That or the OP is on something a lot stronger than I have access to.

In less than 5 years he has taken a shambles of a team with no prospects or scouting ,and only 2 pieces to build on (Hedman, Stammer), to one completing for the best in the East, prospects most teams would die for, and has not be on the losing end of any trade (Traitor to NYR was a master stroke, Bishop from Sens was a steal, most were good hockey trades), turned the franchise into a preferred destination for UFA, and managed the cap.

My hope he is our GM longer than he was captain of the Red Wings.

Don't forget how awful his drafts have been outside the 1st round and acquisition of undrafted players and free agents

 

[HoseEmDown]

Post of the year, you nailed all of it my friend. Don't let these haters tell you otherwise, speak the truth. I'm tired of Connolly getting a free pass around here.

 

[Stammer Time*]

This makes insomniac's wanting Yzerman gone because of uniforms look sane.

1. Oh you mean the Jack Adams finalist?

2. Oh you mean trading a player who was on waivers 6 months later for a Vezina finalist? Bishop was never on waivers, BTW.

3. Connolly wasn't Yzerman's pick, he went with his then scouting director because he was hired so late. Koekkoek is playing fine as a defenseman in his first year as a pro, nothing bad about that. Drouin is producing as a 19 year old on a good offensive team. This point of your argument is insane.

4. If a GM was fired for "overpaying" on July 1st there would be no GMs left.

5. I truly think you are insane.

6. Make an argument that Verbeek and Thomas aren't qualified for their positions before you use this as an argument in "the case against Steve Yzerman."

 

[Sky04]

Can we fire you?

 

[IdealisticSniper]

I really don't know why I'm about to put so much effort into a response in this absolutely ludicrous thread. But why not.

First off, nowhere on the planet has there been a "majority" of TB fans wanting Yzerman fired. Never. At no point. No idea where you got that notion from but it's completely wrong. Just because the crazy guy on the corner of Dale Mabry is asking for him to be fired while holding up a sign asking for food, doesn't mean TB fans want him fired. He also just got an extension because of the amazing job he is doing. Which leads me to your list. Let's begin shall we.

1) "If this year doesn't turn around"... What in the ****? We are 21-11-4. Tied for 5th in the league. If by turn around you mean we go on a massive losing streak and end up with a top 5 pick, sure that's a problem but what in the **** kind of turn around do you want? Not to mention you are inferring Cooper would be fired after two seasons of playoffs. Yeah not gonna happen. So Yzerman isn't 0-2. Nexxxxxxt...

2) Goaltending. You say he has failed to fix the issue. Which is weird. First off, he has stated from the beginning he had a 4-5 year plan. Guess what year we are in? The only whiff he had was with Lindback but we had ample picks, thanks to his trading, and he took a shot. Sometimes things don't work out. But sometimes they do and you dupe a GM into giving you a Vezina candidate for a guy who has been waived twice and been on two different teams and is now in the minors probably going to Europe. Oh and he also turned a 2nd/3rd line tweener that took bad penalties into a crappy dman and that dman into a first round pick and that pick into the best goalie prospect in the world. Also you don't play Vasy or Guddy in the NHL because they need to develop. They do that as playing in the AHL not by being a back up in the NHL. So in 4 years Yzerman has turned the black hole of goaltending in TB to having a great starter now and a great starter for the next 15+ years. I'd consider that taking care of the situation. Nexxxxxxt....

3) I am easily the biggest detractor for Connolly on these boards. But let's get one thing clear. Yzerman has nothing to do with that pick. He even said it himself he has just gotten here so he let the scouting crew do what they got paid to do. So that's not on him. Connolly himself s very talented, who knows if he will put it together and I'd love to trade him but that pick isn't on Yzerman.

I'm glad to know you have written off a kid because he hasn't stepped into the NHL yet. Mainly because he destroyed both shoulders and lost development time. Why don't you wait until he at least play a game for TB before calling him a bust. When he gets here he will become a good top 4dman that can make an impact. Probably more so than most of the guys you are upset about having already been playing in the NHL.

And you are seriously going to sit there with a straight face and complain about Drouin.

I'm not even gonna get into Drouin. You want to see top prospects play immediately and thrown to the wolves and not reach their potential because of terrible development, go be a fan of the Oilers.

Vasilevskiy, Namestnikov, Drouin, Koekkoek are all gonna be impact players in the NHL. Hell maybe even Connolly. I'd say that's pretty good first round drafting.

Nexxxxxxt....

Matt Carles contract is fine. It was market value when signed, and it's less than he would get as a UFA now. It's also over right when we will need/want it to be. Carle has his moments but he is still a useful player and isn't a burden. Nexxxxxt....

Yzerman's ego? Yzerman's ****ing ego? Are you serious... It was 100% Marty's ****ing ego. Marty bolted solely because he was a baby and couldn't differentiate between his job and a fantasy tournament. Yzerman was professional and did his job both with TB and with Canada exactly how he should have. Marty got butt hurt about it and made up excuses and demanded out. Yzerman did literally NOTHING wrong. You want to blame someone about that? Blame Marty. And yes it's damaged Stamkos so much that he is over a point per game. I would bet dollars to donuts he has a little resentment towards Marty over the entire thing. Even if they do remain friends.

And no. Yzerman is more important to this franchise than Stamkos. Period. If Stamkos doesn't want to sign Yzerman will trade him and move on. Nexxxxxt...

So you're going to complain about a guy who is our head of player personnel, you know the guy who helped bring in most of the players we have drafted and signed that make this team up, and a guy who is an assistant coach on a team 10 games over .500. Ever think that maybe these were the right guys for the jobs and just happened to be Yzerman's friends and the only reason they didn't go somewhere else is because of that relationship with Yzerman? Chew on that for a second.

In closing, please find the closest mirror, look in said mirror, and give your head a long shake my friend. You are completely and inexplicably wrong in just about everything you said.

 

[JS91]

Guys, we just went 1-3-1 over 5 games so it's quite obvious that we're tanking again. Then just add the facts that Drouin is a bust, Vasilevskiy is overrated (and Russian) and TJ is too small.
I think this is pretty hard to argue against. We should fire Yzerman asap before he continues ruining this franchise even more with players like I mentioned above.

 

[Coopers Gum]

I can never tell if OP's posts are trolling or not. He gets on these boards every now and then and says the most delusional things I've ever read. No one can be that delusional.

 

[JamieG]

There was never a point where the majority of fans called for Yzerman to be fired. The whole premise your argument is based on is flawed.

False. Denying it is very selective memory. The popular sentiment was that Yzerman should have been fired.

Then things changed, to a drastic extreme and now everyone wants to pretend like they never jumped shipped.

 

[IdealisticSniper]

False. Denying it is very selective memory. The popular sentiment was that Yzerman should have been fired.

Then things changed, to a drastic extreme and now everyone wants to pretend like they never jumped shipped.

Please provide quotes from this board, a newspaper, anywhere to prove your statement.

 

[The Macho King]

False. Denying it is very selective memory. The popular sentiment was that Yzerman should have been fired.

Then things changed, to a drastic extreme and now everyone wants to pretend like they never jumped shipped.

(Citation needed)

 

[DFC]

Let's consider the possibly that the recent slide continues and the Lightning either get embarrassed in the playoffs again this year or miss it completely.

Given the bi-polar relationship Tampa fans have towards Yzerman (I know nobody admits it now since "Yzelam and Yzerology" is popular) but the fact was there were a majority of people calling for Yzerman to be fired early in 2013 to Sept 2013.

So if things continue to go south, it's not hard to envision the band wagon will be to fire Yzerman.

Would you be on board?

This is the case for firing Yzerman.

1. If this year doesn't turn around, he is 0-2 with picking coaches. Both Boucher and Cooper got a lot of praise early, but they appear to be questionable choices by Yzerman.

2. His inability to solve the goaltending issue. First there was the SmEllis debacle, which was temporarily solved by Roloson, than the failure of extending Roloson a year too long, then the Lindback debacle as the "next one", it was solved by the Bishop trade who could have been had off waivers earlier.

Yzerman appears to potentially further screw up the goalie situation by signing Nabakov who lets be honest, has flat out stunk while we have 2 goalies in the AHL who give the team a better chance to win. But thanks to Yzerman's horrible signing, when Bishop comes back from injury, Vasi is going back down. Will those 2 have their development ruined by not being given a chance at the right time?

Also, it is quite easy to envision that the Bishop contract will be hanging over this team's head soon. If Nabby were to disappear and Bishop's injury woes were to continue (Bishop has not been as good this year as he was last year) and Vasi continued his strong play, then what? Vasi is relegated to the bench because of Yzerman's contract and commitment to Bishop?

3. Yzerman's failure in the first round of the draft. I know some will disagree, but there comes a time people where you have to call a goat a goat. I swear that Brett Connoly will be a 34 year old still doing nothing and some of you will be yelling "You can't call him a bust, he's only 34! Wait until next year!

Seriously, it's a fact that most of Yzerman's first round selections are not as good as players who were drafted in a similar spot or behind them.

Connolly is a hindrance. We see how this team is being hurt by the organization's desperation for him to prove he's not a bust.

Slater Koekkoek still not on the horizon for cracking the NHL line up despite his peers emerging as stars.

And then there's Jonathan Drouin. One year gone already. This year being used as a bit part. Sure you can blame Cooper for not giving him a shot, but who put Cooper in charge? Yzerman.

4. There's the albatross that is Matt Carle's contract.

5. Yzerman's ego. Whether you blame the other party or not, Yzerman alienated MSL and the Lightnings all time greats bolted solely because of Yzerman. It also has obviously damaged Stamkos, as both his play and his attitude of "I miss Marty so much". If the Stamkos contract negotiations turn ugly, will you be willing to throw Yzerman overboard for Stamkos?

6. Yzerman's penchant for hiring his buddies for roles in the Lightning organization. Steve Thomas? Pat Verbeek? The most qualified guys for the job or simply buddies with Stevie?

Sure there's been some good later round picks but every team gets lucky with a few.

So what do you say? Six months from now will Yzerman get the axe?

This is the single most ridiculous thing I've ever read on this site.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Every time I read the OP post it looks more ridicolous.
Just close this

 

[Stammer Time*]

False. Denying it is very selective memory. The popular sentiment was that Yzerman should have been fired.

Then things changed, to a drastic extreme and now everyone wants to pretend like they never jumped shipped.

Please provide quotes from this board, a newspaper, anywhere to prove your statement.

(Citation needed)

This isn't the first time JamieG has brought that up, been called out on it and disappeared. Don't hold your breath for proof.

 

[Look Up]

We should fire Cooper while we're at it.

This thread is delusional.

 

[ThunderAlleyNomad]

False. Denying it is very selective memory. The popular sentiment was that Yzerman should have been fired.

Then things changed, to a drastic extreme and now everyone wants to pretend like they never jumped shipped.

I can't believe I'm wasting my Christmas Eve responding to this. My grandson is eating an ornament and my wife is about to kill me, so I'll make this quick.

You have dropped this bs into threads here and there, off and on for at least two years now. You have been repeatedly asked to provide a link that proves that more than two Lightning fans have ever said they wanted Yzerman fired. *****ing about a trade or a signing don't count as asking for him to be fired. Need actual Lightning fans, on this board, in a thread, saying "I want Yzerman fired, he sucks". You can't do it, because it never happened. You my friend, are completely full of it.