EDMONTON — Steve Yzerman is busy these days, "managing expectations."
It’s an all-encompassing job, including both his new team the Tampa Bay Lightning, which is getting some love in the preseason polls, and himself. Because a guy who spent his entire adulthood with the Detroit Red Wings must have sponged up everything there is to know about running a successful National Hockey League organization, right?
"We’ll see if he knows how to run a team. It’s pretty early yet," Yzerman joked, not the only bit of self-deprecating humour he lays down, during a lengthy chat with media outside the visitor’s locker room at Rexall Place Thursday morning.
He’s a quiet spoken, understated man, Yzerman. Always has been.
He is even quieter now in his post-hockey management career, where he’s swimming with a brand new breed of shark.
Take his first trade call with Central Registry, for instance, when he dealt defenceman Andrej Meszaros to Philly for a second round draft pick. Until you’ve actually been on one of those calls, you wouldn’t know the procedure, and that had Yzerman thinking what we would all be thinking.
"I’m not quite sure what I’m doing here," he recalled with a chuckle. "But with each call, with each contract negotiation, with each discussion, I’ve learned a lot. I’m feeling more comfortable."
Yzerman is comfortable enough in his own skin to place the odd call back home, where Red Wings GM Ken Holland is still willing to point him in the right direction now and again.
"I call him a lot. To get his guidance on a lot of things, ask his opinions on situations," said Yzerman, 45. "Not only Kenny, but several of the general managers have been very, very helpful. It’s a bit of a fraternity, though obviously you’re competing with them."
There is no better management training ground in the game than Detroit. No better GM in the NHL than Holland; no better right-hand man to a GM than Jim Nill; no better European scout than Hakan Andersson; no more stable, genuinely caring owners than Mike and Marian Ilitch.
You can write a paragraph like that in under 20 seconds. If you want that paragraph to apply to your organization however, it could take years.
Stevie Y is ready for, and respectful of that process in Tampa.
"It starts with ownership," Yzerman began. "They’ve had multiple owners since the (Lightning) came into the league. Jeff Vinik purchases the team and he provides stability. He has the financial means to do what’s necessary to get this team on the right track."
Of all the Boots Del Biaggio-type tales told about the NHL’s version of due diligence, this Tampa franchise has been the spawning pool of the shallow-pocketed, fast-talking, all-hat-no-cattle hockey owner who have made it through Gary Bettman’s meticulously thorough vetting process.
It began with the Esposito brothers, Phil and Tony, and their secretive Japanese backers, Kosukai Green. They were former commissioner Gil Stein’s brainchild.
As the story goes, it turned out that Kokusai Green's owner, Takashi Okubo, had never met with Esposito or with NHL officials in person, prior to being awarded the Lightning. He never watched his team play — or even visited Tampa — during seven years of ownership.
Then came Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson, a motivational speaker named Art Williams, Saw producer Oren Koules, former player Len Barrie, who hired Barry Melrose as a coach, for about five ridiculous minutes.
The Lightning plummeted from winning a Cup in ’04 to 30th place in ’08.
"At first it was humbling to be so far from a Cup winning team," Martin St. Louis said. "But after a year or so it got to be a little embarrassing. All the negative articles. Getting asked the same questions over and over. There was a dark cloud over us, but with a new regime in place it’s brought some nice, new weather. We’re going to work hard on the ice to keep the weather the way it is now."
That’s where Yzerman becomes so important.
The sunshine and the sea make Tampa a place any free agent would consider. But what of the player who wants to win a Cup?
Yzerman — and his Detroit pedigree — can change all of that in Tampa.
"If we do a good job, treat people properly, we’ll be able to attract good players when we show we’re a good organization. Just because it’s me (in the GM chair)? No," he said.
Nobody goes to Detroit, because Holland is the GM. Or Pittsburgh for Ray Shero.
They go there because those men have built organizations that can be trusted. Trusted to compete, honour their word, and treat people right.
It will take a while, but assuming Vinik is who Yzerman believes him to be, they’ll be saying those same things about the Tampa Bay Lightning one day.
Likely sooner than you think.
