Detroit Red Wings executive vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman’s expectations for the Grand Rapids Griffins are clear.

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Yzerman, who helped to build the Tampa Bay Lightning’s developmental system before coming back to Detroit in 2019, sees a winning environment as more than a nice-to-have for his prospects with Grand Rapids. Instead it is a prerequisite. 

After going to Tampa Bay in 2010, Yzerman helped to oversee affiliations with the Norfolk Admirals and then the Syracuse Crunch that featured a 2012 Calder Cup championship, including an AHL-record 28-game winning streak, in Norfolk. 

A year later, the Crunch reached the Calder Cup Finals. They went back to the Finals four years later. In the process, Norfolk and Syracuse sent the likes of Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, Radko Gudas, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Carter Verhaeghe among others on to NHL work with the Lightning and elsewhere.

So when the Griffins missed the Calder Cup Playoffs in back-to-back seasons, Yzerman made his displeasure public. Yzerman vowed that there would be change. And there was. 

To start, Dan Watson took over as head coach in Grand Rapids, earning a promotion from the Toledo Walleye following more than a decade of coaching success with the organization’s ECHL affiliate. They overhauled the veteran group in Grand Rapids as well. Top goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa got a mentor in Michael Hutchinson. All of those decisions paid off as the Griffins reached the division finals last May.

Detroit’s ongoing rebuilding plan depends on the Griffins continuing to hone young talent, to turn it into productive NHL players.

So far the Griffins have moved the likes of first-round picks Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider on to Detroit. Albert Johansson is with the Detroit defense corps following two seasons in Grand Rapids. The Red Wings need more, though, if this rebuilding plan is to find long-term success and return the organization to the NHL’s upper echelon once again. Detroit built its dynasty that reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs 25 consecutive times and won four Stanley Cup championships largely through strong work at the draft table. The Red Wings have also long used a productive AHL system to prepare prospects.

So they need Griffins rookie forward Nate Danielson to hit. Marco Kasper, too. Cossa needs to become the long-term number-one solution in net for Detroit. Another defenseman like William Wallinder, who is coming off a solid first season with the Griffins, eventually sticking in Detroit would be a boost. Fellow second-round picks in Shai Buium and Antti Tuomisto someday making that move to Detroit with Wallinder would be even better for Yzerman’s blueline blueprint. Defenseman Eemil Viro is only 22.

But where a development plan can really take hold is when a third- or fourth-round pick makes it, something that the Lightning did repeatedly as they built what eventually became an NHL roster that won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles. 

Maybe forward Amadeus Lombardi can be one of those players in Detroit. The 2022 fourth-rounder already has four goals in seven games for the Griffins after managing just five in his rookie season. Forward Carter Mazur, a third-round selection from Detroit’s 2021 class, put together a 17-goal season with Grand Rapids last season. Also up front is Cross Hanas, taken by Detroit in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft. After a 2022-23 rookie season disrupted by injury, Hanas since returned to a regular role in Grand Rapids. He's only 22.

Detroit has made sure to provide those young players with veterans to provide all of that youth with something of a buffer. This summer the Red Wings went out and picked up forward Joe Snively fresh off consecutive Calder Cup championships with Hershey. Reliable center Sheldon Dries signed with the organization. Tory Dello joined a group of veteran defensemen that had already included Josiah Didier and Brogan Rafferty.

Yzerman and the Detroit front office want those players to again play high-pressure games deep into May and June. Last spring’s run provided one such test. The Griffins are laying that groundwork early. They swept a three-in-three weekend, including grabbing a pair of wins in a 20-hour span at Lehigh Valley. That has them off to a 6-1-0-0 record, the best start in team history.

Cossa, who had a strong second pro season in 2023-24, appears to have taken another significant step. The 21-year-old who went 15th overall to the Red Wings in 2021 started his weekend with a 21-save shutout before taking care of the Phantoms last Saturday night with 31 stops in a 5-2 win. In all, he is off to a 4-1-0 start along with a 1.54 goals-against average and .954 save percentage. 

Together with Ville Husso and Carter Gylander, Cossa and the Griffins are holding opponents to a league-best 1.57 goals per game. Lombardi picked up a career-high 2-1-3 in that same win at PPL Center and has is in a tie for the team scoring lead at 4-2-6.

Piling up points now also means that the Griffins could put themselves in a position where they don’t have to fight to save their season before it even reaches its midpoint. Last season it took midseason winning streaks of five, seven, and six games to undo the damage that an 8-12-2-1 start had caused. 

Next up is a trip into Hartford on Wednesday night to bring an end to this four-game East Coast tour. Then comes a quick stopover back home against Rockford on Friday night before the Griffins go back on the road to face Cleveland for the first time this season.

The better this season goes for Grand Rapids, the better it is in the long term for Detroit.

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