Steve Yzerman's job with the Red Wings appears safe, but for how long?

Detroit Red Wings GM and head coach Todd McLellan finally faced the media on Thursday to address the regular season that had passed. It ended on a severely sour note for Detroit, falling out of a playoff position in the final month or so of the campaign.

The Red Wings missed the post-season for the 10th straight year, which is now the longest active playoff drought. Because of that, it only makes sense that Yzerman’s job security is questioned, especially since he’s been at the wheel for seven of those seasons.

Typically, when a team’s season is over, the players, coach, GM, and head of hockey operations face the media within a couple of days to discuss the past campaign.

For Detroit, the players spoke to the media in their end-of-season availability on April 17, one day after the NHL’s regular season concluded. However, unlike most teams around the league, Yzerman, and McLellan, for that matter, didn’t speak until almost a week later.

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It leaves one to wonder whether the Red Wings’ ownership was considering this to be the end of the road for the GM. But based on his appearance at the podium on Thursday, the organization must have handed him another vote of confidence.

Despite possibly having another chance to get into the playoffs next season with the Red Wings, Yzerman’s track record and results suggest his tenure can’t last much longer. 

Yzerman took partial blame for the campaign and admits he needs to do more in order to improve his team. 

“Obviously, on my end of things, we’ve got to try and improve the team and address the areas that need to be improved,” Yzerman told reporters.

In addition to never seeing the post-season with Detroit, some of his recent moves ultimately backfired.

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One recent move was the acquisition of defenseman Justin Faulk from the St. Louis Blues at the trade deadline. Yzerman dealt a 2026 first-round draft pick for the then-33-year-old, among other assets that were included by both teams in the deal.

At the time of the trade, the Red Wings were third in the Atlantic Division but eventually finished sixth, missing the post-season. With that, the draft pick they sent to the Blues is now a lottery pick, and the Red Wings don’t have a pick in the opening round.

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As well as that singular move that didn’t age well, Yzerman has generally been hesitant to move on from prospects to boost his current roster. And it’s not like Detroit is running low on high-end youngsters, with Nate Danielson, Max Plante, Trey Augustine, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard just to name a few.

The assets and players are there for Yzerman to run his team successfully, but the positive results have evaded him for quite some time now - leading to the thought of how much time he actually has in the GM chair.

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