Pierre Dorion lost his position as Senators general manager in recent months. His performance in Ottawa was far from glorious and the club will have a few more years to recover from the mistakes made during his tenure.
What hasn’t helped Dorion is his poor management of fan expectations. Two years ago, he declared the rebuild was over, which in retrospect clearly wasn’t the case.
Then, a year ago, he said that if he had acquired Jakob Chychrun earlier, the club could have made the playoffs in 2023.
But still, in 2024, there it was… and the club wasn’t exactly close to being a playoff contender, let’s face it.
In both cases, Dorion placed too high expectations on his club, which was not yet in its rebuilding process.
The most important thing is that in both cases it raised the expectations of the fans, who began to think that returning to the playoffs was increasingly possible and that the club was going to be good.
What I’ve noticed is that Steve Yzerman refuses to do what Dorion did: weigh expectations.
The Red Wings’ five-year general manager is refusing to promise his team will make the playoffs this year. He knows the battles are tough in the East, and even if his club is close to qualifying in 2024, he’s not making any promises.
He also knows the soup is hot, as the Wings haven’t made the playoffs in eight years.
Yzerman has made mistakes (locking his youngsters in with veterans, for example) during his run as Red Wings GM, but he’s at least trying to get a handle on how fans perceive the club.
That said, if things continue to go south, fans won’t need Stevie Y to tell them what to think to get angry and impatient.
In overtime
– Wave of signings in Calgary.
– In the field of development:
– Chicago or NCAA? It remains to be seen.
