ESPN has great news for Detroit Red Wings fans

There's been pain, but it looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel for the Detroit Red Wings. 

Under the tutelage of 3rd year general manager Steve Yzerman, the rebuilding process has shown signs of paying off with the emergence of young talents like Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, both of whom are leading the National Hockey League in points among rookies so far this young season. 

And according to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, things are headed in the right direction. Take a look below at what he had to say about the ongoing rebuild. 

"When is the rebuild going to be over for the Detroit Red Wings? 

""Is the rebuild ever over?" Shawn Horcoff, the Red Wings' director of player development since the 2016-17 season, said. "The rebuild's only ever really over when you win the Stanley Cup. That's my view of it. Either you're rebuilding and trying to get better, or you've won the Stanley Cup."

(So, apparently the Toronto Maple Leafs are in a 54-year rebuild ...)

"The Yzerplan" is not like building a dresser from IKEA, even if many of the parts are made in Sweden. General manager Steve Yzerman said "this is going to take time" when he returned as a franchise savior in 2019, and over two years later, there is no lie detected. He inherited a rebuild and opted not to accelerate it, despite the frequent desires of his beleaguered coach to pick up the tempo in Motown.

"Obviously, these can be difficult things for a coach going through it. You see someone that can help you, and you want them here as soon as possible," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, in his seventh season in Detroit, told me this week. "It's not always easy. I don't always agree. But that's why I'm a coach and Steve's the manager."

Such is the "Yzerplan": Slow and steady will, in theory, eventually win the race.

Painfully slow.

Impatiently slow for some, according to George Malik of The Malik Report, a Red Wings blog that might actually predate the internet.

"Not everybody believes in 'The Yzerplan,'" he told me. "People still grumble about players being assigned to the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins instead of Detroit -- see Joe Veleno, for example -- and every loss yields at least three or four fans going, 'Oh, Good Gordie Howe in Hockey Heaven, here we go again.'"

Fans like Malik are recovering from the whiplash that saw the Red Wings go from perennial Stanley Cup contenders to an annual conference basement dweller.

But this season feels different for fans like him. Defenseman Moritz Seider, 20, finally made his NHL debut after being drafted sixth overall in 2019. The team's meticulous development path couldn't keep 19-year-old Lucas Raymond from off-roading it to the NHL this season, practically forcing the Red Wings to put him on the roster after outstanding performances at the rookie showcase and in the preseason."

You can read the rest of the article here.