Tampa Bay Lightning: Steve Yzerman resigns from GM position

After eight seasons as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Steve Yzerman has decided to step down to give the spotlight to Julien BriseBois.

Steve Yzerman is one of the most respected general managers in the NHL, for good reason. In less than eight years, he turned the Tampa Bay Lightning into one of the most dominant teams the salary cap era has ever seen.

When he took over Tampa Bay back in 2010, the team wasn’t doing so well. Their goalie tandem was Antero Niittymaki and Mike Smith, who had save percentages of .909 and .900 respectively.

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When Yzerman took over, he traded for goalie Dwayne Roloson who at that time, was already 41 years old. He ended up being really good for the Lightning, with a .912 save percentage and an 18-12-4 record. Him, along with Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos‘ insane offensive numbers propelled Tampa to their first playoff appearance in four years.

Ever since then, it’s been smooth sailing for the Lightning and their fans. Yzerman’s draft success rate is through the roof which has allowed him to build such a sustainable, affordable team. Jonathan Drouin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Nikita Kucherov are just some of the names that the Bolts have drafted during Yzerman’s tenure.

Trading was another one of Yzerman’s strong suits. Last year, he managed to trade Jonathan Drouin (winger) to the Montreal Canadiens for one of the most promising young defensemen in the league in Mikhail Sergachev. Drouin at the time was putting up really good numbers, but he did not have a good relationship with management. Yzerman managed to get a possible future Norris winner for a winger that they already wanted to move. (Marc Bergevin could have learned a lesson or two from this trade for how to deal with Max Pacioretty)

Yzerman was not only successful with drafting and trading, he was also really good at resigning players to team-friendly deals. Back in 2016, he managed to sign the most sought-after free agent, Steven Stamkos, to a seven-year deal worth $8.5 million. Before this season, Victor Hedman (the current reigning Norris champion) was on a five-year deal worth $4 million. When people refer to Steve Yzerman as the wizard of hockey, they’re not exaggerating.

In a salary cap era, it’s tough for teams to have multiple superstars on their teams but for Yzerman, it’s no big deal.

With Tampa Bay now constantly in the Stanley Cup conversation, why does Yzerman want to step down?

According to John Shannon from Sportsnet, the decision is purely personal. He wants to be with his family and have a less stressful job. Now, he’s not totally retired, he will take on an advisory role to the new general manager, Julien Brisebois.

For the past eight years, Brisebois was Yzerman’s assistant general manager and was always the top candidate to replace Steve. They’ve worked together for eight years so Brisebois is fully ready for the responsibility. Besides, with this roster, no tweaks are required for them to make another postseason run.