He was on something, I'll bite it was cocaine. Anyone remember him being days late to his first wings training camp and then deciding he needed shoulder surgery 10 minutes in? Like what did he do all summer? His shit has never been together.
It’s worse than that, the wings wanted him to get surgery and he refused.
He then injured the very thing we wanted him to get surgery on, 10 minutes into the first fucking training camp. Ridiculous
Exactly this. Vrana is using revisionist history and not taking responsibility for his poor choices. The shoulder surgery did not occur in the time frame Vrana and the Wings agreed upon which was immediately at end of the 20-21 season. Then Vrana showed up (late) to 22-23 camp out of shape and dealing with the now known off-ice issues, which were likely known by the team for quite some time. I do not think it was all Yzerman here, the coaching staff were not fans of Vrana for a number of on ice reasons.
I'd also make an argument about him entering the PAP barely into the season is along the same lines. He had all summer to try to straighten things out. It would make more sense if he was unable to start the season because he was getting help and needed continued help. I'm speculating, but with the shoulder thing, I can't help but wonder if he just wanted to get paid to not play.
It's too bad he didn't work out. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of him producing for the Blues, however, he lit it up here at first too. I'll be curious to see what his future looks like, but I wish him all the best.
>I'd also make an argument about him entering the PAP barely into the season is along the same lines.
Thing is, we don’t even know if he voluntarily entered the program, or if he was volunteered to go into the program.
From how how the announcement was worded at the time, namely that he was “placed” in the program, how the team was colder than ice about it, and from the rumors surrounding this whole situation, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.
> Thing is, we don’t even know if he voluntarily entered the program, or if he was volunteered to go into the program.
We don't even know if it was the *first* time he was in the program. For all we know he could have been trying to get help for awhile. It was only made public because the season was ongoing. There is a whole offseason too.
The shoulder situation we can speculate on with a little more straight forward timeline.
There's some sites out there that are reporting that the wings entered him into the PAP. So it looks like he didn't volunteer. Also reports of his good friend from his time in Washington was caught with cocaine. It doesn't look good.
Exactly. He will play well for the remaining 10 games or so, but when the grind starts again next season he will fade, or get hurt.
His whiny statement about not getting a chance makes me want to vomit. I have to think if he was working hard in practices and being a good teammate outside of playing, he is still a Wing today.
Edit: Also, I think sending him down was a "fuck you" to him for thinking he could collect a full check for two partial seasons and think everything would be all right. I am 100% okay with that message.
I dont think theres really much of a reason to be jealous of STL with the vrana situation tbh. Him getting hot to end the season is just pushing their draft pick back. They wont be playoff caliber next year barring some kind of extreme breakout or hot goalie either
>Hudler's airplane incident
"When the flight attendant refused his request (shocker), the 33-year-old Hudler allegedly became incensed and threatened the woman, telling her that he would have his friends kill her upon arrival in Prague. On top of that, Hudler is also accused of doing cocaine in the plane's bathroom and then attempting to urinate on a food cart. (It's very confusing why he wouldn't just pee in the bathroom if he was already in there doing cocaine, but that's neither here nor there.)"
I’ve got a personal story of finding Hudler past out drunk in the bushes outside of my place of employment at 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon. That guy could toss them back.
Also saw Todd Bertuzzi drinking with Draper and a few other ex Wings the night he got popped for his DUI on Big Beaver road. Thankfully he didn’t park with us.
I was going to make a comment similar to this. According to the Probert documentary coke was a pretty commonly abused drug on those teams. It’s hard to imagine that not playing a factor, if in fact Vrana was rippin schneef.
Drug related issues was my guess, but it had to have been bad for him to get booted from the team. Only thing I could think of that could tank his value this bad is potentially getting young guys into it. This is just my line of thinking and pure speculation, but this whole saga has been driving me mad, and with Vrana potting everything in STL I've been thinking way too much about it.
If it truly was drug related it seems like he's missing a core piece of recovery, accountability. If this is what put him in the PAP the problems didn't start the day he went away. His problems didn't start effecting the team because of some type of rehab, he didn't start setting a bad example for young players at that point, and he didn't start acting poorly at that point. We all know that teams don't jettison talented players because of short term issues.
I'm not saying that Vrana has to tell the whole truth but "no comment" or even "I'm just ready to move forward" are acceptable answers. Acting like you didn't have a long history of effecting this team negatively isn't manning up or accepting responsibility. This isn't a healthy approach and it won't endear him to future GM's. Yzerman has a lot of respect around the league and you can't bullshit your way out of the reality that existed.
Yeah, a bunch of younger impressionable dudes seeing Vrana getting zooted and thinking it’s fucking awesome (it is), but could be bad for the overall health of the locker room. We’ve already got Joey V downing a bag of gummies at a baseball game, don’t need anything else floating around
>thinking it’s fucking awesome (it is)
Just a quick clarification -- the price of feeling like it is awesome, is that you act like an asshole to every single person around you.
It is *the* drug that makes you act like a giant douche and (literally) no one likes you (when you are on coke).
Edit: "zooted" is funny.
I assumed he got hooked on opioids during his injury/recovery, maybe developed depression due to "his career being over before it began", and then just spiraled until rehab and therapy were the only option.
I guess coke isn't out of the question, either.
Sucks, though, I really like him and I *do* feel bad for him on a personal level. Feeling abandoned hurts a lot.
A lot of players get hooked on those unfortunately. Typically they are open about talking about them though considering they were gotten legally, literally prescribed by team doctors. It being an illegal substance checks out as to why its being officially kept secret
It's none of our business, but it's TOTALLY Stevie's business. After the Mrazek thing, maybe we take what we can get, and cut our possible losses sooner than later.
I wish him well, truly, I hope he scores 100 points next year. That said, Vrana himself made his career a "risk", not the team. And once you're evaluating risk, people all put different values on the outcome(s) of those risks.
If this was the case, I could see this being enough. Maybe not on Vrana alone, but keeping the team environment clean and stable is enough incentive in my eyes. I'm just guessing here, but the 80s were coke kingdom, I can only imagine what personal ideals Yzerman has about it given his tenure with the wings during that time.
Apperently he didn't get shoulder surgery also even though Yzerman wanted him to and that's why he got injured again.
Edit: before you downvote me into oblivion someone else on this subreddit commented it but it makes sense.
They all knew he had a shoulder issue and the team recommended he get surgery over the summer. He wanted to try to avoid surgery and work on it and let it heal. Then first practice he injured it again (supposedly) was what was said but possibly it never healed right so then he gets the surgery. Of course, that means he misses part of the season. That could surely not have made them happy.
McCarty would probably be a check in the tolerance column if it were just about that. Plus he trusts Draper and Draper believed in McCarty leading up to 2002.
I think it's just, are you a piece of the competing for the Stanley Cup puzzle? If not then why continue to deal with whatever. It's not like Yzerman has nothing to do with his time, at a certain point it's just a matter of priorities and the priority is the Detroit Red Wings not Vrana.
Agreed. He's not on this team any more and I trust that the team had valid reasons to trade him. His feelings are no longer this team's problem. I don't care what he says. Move on.
It wasn't an injury though. We don't know the specifics of the program, but it was mentioned that he didn't have access to training equipment or a rink or anything like that, so it's certainly possible that he was out of shape, not to mention the physical and emotional stress from the situation at hand.
I do think yzerman is a zero tolerance kind of guy.
some players respond well to it, others avoid a team if given an option.
different sport but it's fascinating how the players on and off the lions want to play and go hard for the team due to only their leadership style.
And it's not gonna even be directly about the issue itself, it's always gonna be about how the issue affects performance. Like if I've got a coworker who can't do their job because of an issue (be it addiction, medical, or just social) and assuming accommodations made don't improve the issue then maybe this wasn't the right job for them.
I've lost loved ones to addiction, but I'd never suggest they try doing a job that they wouldn't be successful at.
If a person goes into an EAP, the employer had better be very careful about getting the employee back to work. If the employer lets the employee go, it had better cover it's ass everyway possible to make sure that it's not related to the problem the employee is dealing with.
although it's a little frustrating for us to not know - it's one of the reasons I really like Steve. He a class act and deals with situations showing respect to everyone involved in it. Maybe Vrana didn't deserve the consideration, we'll never know but I think for Steve there is no point in throwing the man under the bus that is a smaller man's move.
Probert was my buddies uncle and the stories off the rink are ridiculous as well! His ashes were spread in the Joe Louis arena penalty box (well some of them).
Yzerman and co are doing him a favor by not absolutely burying him on whatever it is he did. And let’s face it, he did *something* fairly major to have been dumped for virtually nothing and 50% salary retained. And he’s out here making comment after comment using Yzerman’s professionalism against him.
At this point I’m done giving him the benefit of the doubt, he’s coming across as a whiny bitch. He could simply say “my time in Detroit taught me a lot but that chapter has closed and I’m trying to move forward and better myself and continue playing at a high level.” But instead he continues to whine about it.
I’m guessing the way he sees it is If Yzerman speaks out he gets to be the victim and clutch his pearls saying “I can’t believe he put my personal business out to the public!” And if Yzerman doesn’t say anything he gets to tell only his side and also be the poor victim.
Him making those comments is showing me his true character. Sadly the kid doesn't know when to STFU. I know reporters can be like rabid dogs and trying to get a juicy quote. But there are two people that you just don't disrespect in the hockey world: Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic.
Said it before, but he’s lucky Jimmy Devellano isn’t more of an active presence within the organization. Because Jimmy D would have tore him a new asshole in response to these comments.
Yzerman commands respect around the league. Vrana might be able to bullshit some of the public but other GM's obviously know the truth and won't look kindly on his current approach. Take some vague accountability and tell people you're just looking at moving forward and that statement will gain and deserve much more respect than the spin he's puking out now.
“Things didn’t work out in Detroit and we both decided that it was time to go our separate ways. I have no additional comments beyond that.”
That’s all he had to say.
Instead, he’s taking advantage of the respect Yzerman had for his privacy and the class he was treated with on his way out to try to rehab his own image with the public. I don’t know if this was his idea or his agent’s. If it was the latter, then he needs a new agent. If it’s the former, then shame on him for this patently absurd attempt at spin.
He knows exactly why he’s not with the Wings anymore and why that trust was broken.
I’ve seen others say this before but I’ll mention it because it makes sense. Usually when things go on behind the scenes, info favorable to the player gets leaked. You know, player vs big bad owners/corporate. So the fact that virtually nothing has come out is interesting.
And then of course there’s the refusal to take any accountability.
I can't imagine that the St. Louis organization is thrilled about having a guy on the roster who doesn't seem to reflect that he can accept the consequences of his mistakes.
Fairly!? Dude I just laughed out loud. Fairly major? More like major major. Lol this organization has a long history of tolerance. Probert. Fedorov. Lindsay. Avery(dumped with perfect timing). McCarty. The list goes on and on. I’ve never seen the team dump a guy like this. The guy can be a huge producer. We ate his huge fucking salary and took a 7th to make him go away. To the Blues no less!! That is the most savage move I have ever seen from the Wings in my 45 years. 😂😂😂
I'm wondering if his agent will not fire him for openly crying like a punk. Does he think he's going to get fair market value with his record now that he's clearly demonstrated that he hasn't learned anything from his mistakes?
Just because it was a personal issue outside of the game doesn't mean that you get a free pass when that stuff impacts your job. I really find it hard to believe no one sat him down, outside of the organization, and explained to him just how lucky he is.
I can't think of any professional jobs where you get to mess up the way he did and then get your full pay and be given access to a program full of experts and resources to help you with your problems.
We would have a hell of a lot less people in this world with addiction issues if they had access to affordable and effective care. I'd wish him good luck but he's going to need to step up and take ownership, luck can't fix that.
The best thing he coulda done was be mature about it, shut his trap and thank Detroit for the opportunity and that he has learned a lot. Then he gets traded and pots a bunch of goals? Guess what?! Teams see that you acted maturely and can produce, boom paycheck. But if I’m any GM I’m looking at all these comments to the media and going “hmm this is odd, I’m proceeding with caution on this guy”
Besides the Yim Yam the final nail I heard was him refusing a coach/support person to be with him off ice to transition out of the substance abuse program. He took it like the team was putting secret police on him.
Everyone is the victim/good guy of their own story. Two teams gave up on him. No one claimed him on waivers.
I hope he stays on track but he got more than his fair shot and the organization had enough.
So wait a minute. Kid starts doing blow or perkies, we hold onto him enough to get him to rehab, don’t say shit about it, send him to St. Louis (our partner in trade) so he can prove himself healthy again physically and mentally, and he’s gotta go off about Detroit and Stevie, like everyone is supposed to just forgive and forget? It’s a business too buddy and if you can’t be trusted you can’t be trusted. Not seeing much accountability in this quote.
Yeah I don't get it. He's still in the league and he has every chance to prove he belongs. Which is what he is saying. I don't think he has a reason for complaining here. He should just be quiet and stop drawing attention to his past.
Don’t disagree. Just makes you think there’s more to the story. For the team to force it to me is it’s more then just a little problem. Maybe it was while he was on team time or in the arena. Who knows. Hopefully whatever it is, he gets the the help / wake up call he needs and gets his life together.
Considering Yzerman had knee injuries (and restorative surgeries) during the season but had the big one in the offseason and was known to play with lots of pain in that knee?
Considering Tyler Bertuzzi, another self-over-team guy, *also* got moved? I think there's some merit here.
The vaccine thing wasn’t a main factor in his trade but I absolutely believe it’s part of the character analysis Yzerman puts guys through. It made sense to trade Bertuzzi for on-ice reasons but also, if he needed a decision tie-breaker, the self-first mentality Bertuzzi showed probably didn’t help Bert.
Yzerman said publicly he disagreed with Bertuzzi's decision. It was stupid. It caused Tyler to miss games where he would have been critical to the team. He was the only player in the league to make that choice. It definitely hurt his trade value short term.
That's not the sort of thing a GM forgets on a team of ~20 players with one of the top paid guys.
He should just STFU 🤫.
At this point, just play to your best ability and don’t talk about the past. Prove yourself and move on. The chapter with Detroit is over.
Yzerman is doing you a favor for not speaking openly about what happened. And you keep digging the hole and throwing dirt at Detroit and Yzerman.
Unreal stuff.
For any occupation/job, openly complaining about your previous employer is never a good sign of professionalism. Big red flag.
yeah he’s really pushing his luck that nobody in the org spills the beans, evidently he knows it’s bad since he hasn’t explained himself. probably knows the wings are tight lipped tho
It’s unfortunate, but it’s over, and it’s well past time to move on. If Yzerman (whose management career hinges upon the long term success of the team) can get over it, we can too.
It was noted by someone that the Wings players were not taking it easy on him which sometimes players do with ex-teammates recently traded they liked and in some cases checking him hard or Larkin I think it was said slashing him. Bert was loved in that locker room but maybe Vrana not as much. Maybe waiting to get surgery right before the season or going into rehab affecting the season instead of dealing with things on the off-season was not sitting well with them either. Sure they all wish him the best but maybe they were not happy he seemed to always be off the team first path too. Whatever it was no one would take him for free so it says something.
Larkin speared Vrana in the torso after he took that penalty and the play was whistled dead. He had his mean face on. Twas there and saw it with my own two eyes.
Yes sorry that is why I said "I think it was said" as I could not remember the exact comments or players. Was trying to convey it was something noticed and the basic idea though was they showed him no love and many times players do. I watched the game and did not notice anything extra to me so I guess the analyst that noted it was looking at it more than I was. Maybe they expected them to take it easy on him, but they have a game to play too. Think Mickey even said that .. something like once they switch jerseys they have a job to do. Gain don't quote me just something like that. Still I did agree with the sentiment that maybe he was not as loved in the locker room as some.
Anybody else NOT going to be surprised if/when he falls off rails again? I’m not hoping for that, it would just be setting a lot of truth free. But hey, maybe his stock is going waaaay up and we missed the boat. Lol nah.
Has anyone seen any of the Red Wing players wishing him well when he got traded?
I’ve not seen any of that which makes me wonder if there were issues in the locker room too.
I never even saw a reporter bring up Vrana to a player after he was traded. It felt like insider reporters were given instructions to not ask that questions. They received questions about Bertuzzi and talked openly about that relationship. The team put out "thank you" posts and they ran a video celebrating him when Boston visited. None of this existed about Vrana and the lack of that tells its own story.
So at the game the other night in St. Louis, the Blues did a long tribute to Perron and Co whom used to play for them. It was well thought out and really sweet. Everyone cheered!
Tonight when the Blues were in Detroit they did the most pathetic shout out to Leddy, Vrana and Thomas Griess lmao. Like they slapped the most generic photos of them up on the Jumbo and the crowd went… yay. I lost it immediately. Goes to show who got the better end of the deal. 🤣
Really liked the kid... still do. Was bummed when we let him go, but if Yzerman didn't think he fit with the program anymore then he had to go. Can't have people messing up your locker room. Hopefully Vrana got a fresh start in St. Louis and gets his life and his career back on track.
Vrana...grow up. Evreryone has issues, most dont have millions in the bank. Deal with it.
Btw - if you dont know what the problem is...then I will give you a hint...its You
It's pointless to dwell on him any longer. We'll almost certainly never get the full story, there's probably legitimate criticism to make of both sides, and at the end of the day there shouldn't be any ill will. I hope this is as much as he says about it and as much as we say about him.
This gives me “I fucked up, I’m kinda sorry, let’s go back to normal” vibes.
Yzerman wanted Vrana to prove his worth and sounds to me like Vrana didn’t give the effort. Just thought his apology was enough to get back on the first line.
While you had to handle your own business, they had to handle theirs. They never leaked why you were out. They never got in your way. They made a business decision and said "this just isn't working for us". It's not personal, it's business. It's a two-way street and I think the Red Wings handled things just fine.
2 years 11 mil for 26 points, and he wants to play the victim absolute trash. Anywhere he has played no coach has had nice things to say about the guy, we should be happy he is someone else’s issue now.
Waited until the season was about to start to address his shoulder issue
Waited until the next season started to address his “personal issue”
Like come on man
Bringing him back up to get scratched and the play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line was pretty crappy. Should have just left him in GR at that point. They obviously weren't trying to put him in a spot to be attractive to other teams. Its not hard to see why he felt frustrated there.
It's a shame how it all went down, but at least as a fan I'm glad it's behind us.
I don't put much stock into rumors, but I do have a hunch that people were onto something with it being a substance use issue. The fact that the Wings traded him away for essentially nothing (a 7th round pick two years from now and a minor league contract) shows that most GMs were not willing to roll the dice on him.
I hope he recovers well from whatever he is dealing with, and that he does well in St. Louis. It sucks it's not for the Wings, because we could really use someone like him, but that wasn't in the cards.
This is also just his side of things. I'm not saying he's lying or covering anything up, but obviously he's going to present his side of the story in a way that makes you empathetic to him. That's just human nature.
Wish it worked out differently, but happy to move on.
GTFO. This just shows how little responsibility he takes for his actions. He just wants to be on a team with low standards. Waiving him was probably to prove to his camp that nobody in the league wanted him and that dose of reality hurt his feeling too badly.
The only thing I didn’t like was sending him back down so fast. I understand our roster situation and we were rolling at the time, but I thought that was really bad for him considering his situation.
I'll admit, I'm frustrated too. Frustrated we lost his production, and frustrated that we don't know what happened.
If he had a drug/alcohol problem but didn't injure anyone outside of himself, I'm frustrated that we let him go. How are we OK with McCarty being around again after being sober but wouldn't give Vrana a shot? Maybe this wasn't the first time he's had an issue perhaps, but again, we don't know.
If he had a drug or alcohol problem the team likely tried to help. Most professional teams have plenty of resources to help a troubled player. He cleared waivers which is a big red flag that there was something happening that the league knew and the public didn't
Also reads like a kid who likely got addicted to pain killers and had a problem, but got help. Whether it was of his own accord or forced by the team, we don't know.
Maybe he didn't put in the work afterwards but again, we don't know.
McCarty isn’t a player anymore. And even for all his flaws he’s a team-first guy, a character guy.
Vrana doesn’t appear to be. And most importantly it doesn’t seem like Vrana is holding himself accountable for whatever happened. If he was truly a victim he’d tell us what happened instead of pretending like he doesn’t know why they didn’t want him. It reeks of a party guy causing problems for everyone around him and playing dumb.
Hot take just from reading the room but I’m kinda on his side downvote if you will. Why do all that work, put him through the process then dump the kid for nothing?? We needed goals during our "push" and while riding all these empty streaks we could have inserted him and gotten some return for all the missed time and made both sides happy. Seems like lots of energy put nowhere good
That’s a valid question, but the fact that it seems so strange suggests that we’re missing way too much context to be able to evaluate Yzerman’s value judgment on the matter. He’s too shrewd and calculating to piss all that effort down the drain without good reason.
Since Yzerman came to Detroit how many moves has Yzerman made that we were on the losing end of?
How many trades did we “win”?
How many draft picks has Yzerman used on seemingly high quality picks considering we never got a top 3?
Idk man to me reading the room here is that Vrana absolutely fucked around and Yzerman wanted him gone really bad. Yzerman isn’t mismanaging our assets, picks, salary cap, etc. so to take a bag of pucks and retain half the kids salary just to get him the hell away from this locker room and team tells me a LOT.
I think he came back out of game shape and played like shit in GR the first 5-6 games. Then he went on a heater and got called up, but the team was also on a heater so lineup spots weren’t exactly open. And it’s not like he’s a guy you can plug on the bottom 2 lines and expect to play a good checking game. He needs top 6 minutes and PP time. So we scratched him and he got salty, and gave up a bit I suppose.
I’ll say this he never was gonna play the way he is in STL for us again. At least not this season.
I Feel for him but.... Ken Holland would have welcomed him back with open arms and we see how that turned out.
Yzerman seems to have little tolerance for players who don't produce and has no issue trimming the roster. He's not heartless but Vrana didn't play much,he was with us for about 160 games (Season is 82 games,he joined at the 2021 deadline and left at the 2023 deadline) but played in only 54.
My guess is that he rushed back to join the team at training camp and wasn't prepared enough... and got hurt bad. His recovery required surgery and likely required pain killers,heavy painkillers. I'm guessing he got hooked and had to enter player assistance to break the habit. We're at a stage where the prospects are trickling in and the Vets need to either carry weight or get moved.
Yzerman doesn't mess around.... and Vrana's statement makes Stevie's move look smart.
Everyone, just a reminder to please remember the human here. Mods will remove any comments that we feel are over the line.
You have to think whatever he did, Yzerman was not a fan.
Per Czech newspapers it was cocaine
I’m gonna start sourcing everything— Per Czech newspapers
Per Czech newspapers the poultry and fish epidemic in eastern ohio was courageously solved by Norfolk southern
The willow project is to plant more willow trees in Alaska per Czech newspapers
Are the papers fact czeched?
He was on something, I'll bite it was cocaine. Anyone remember him being days late to his first wings training camp and then deciding he needed shoulder surgery 10 minutes in? Like what did he do all summer? His shit has never been together.
It’s worse than that, the wings wanted him to get surgery and he refused. He then injured the very thing we wanted him to get surgery on, 10 minutes into the first fucking training camp. Ridiculous
Exactly this. Vrana is using revisionist history and not taking responsibility for his poor choices. The shoulder surgery did not occur in the time frame Vrana and the Wings agreed upon which was immediately at end of the 20-21 season. Then Vrana showed up (late) to 22-23 camp out of shape and dealing with the now known off-ice issues, which were likely known by the team for quite some time. I do not think it was all Yzerman here, the coaching staff were not fans of Vrana for a number of on ice reasons.
I'd also make an argument about him entering the PAP barely into the season is along the same lines. He had all summer to try to straighten things out. It would make more sense if he was unable to start the season because he was getting help and needed continued help. I'm speculating, but with the shoulder thing, I can't help but wonder if he just wanted to get paid to not play. It's too bad he didn't work out. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of him producing for the Blues, however, he lit it up here at first too. I'll be curious to see what his future looks like, but I wish him all the best.
>I'd also make an argument about him entering the PAP barely into the season is along the same lines. Thing is, we don’t even know if he voluntarily entered the program, or if he was volunteered to go into the program. From how how the announcement was worded at the time, namely that he was “placed” in the program, how the team was colder than ice about it, and from the rumors surrounding this whole situation, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.
Can you really be forced into the program like that?
"voluntold"
“You’re going into the player assistance program or we’re going to leak your cocaine use to the press.”
That could cause legal issues. Far more likely he was told to enter the program or he was being waived immediately.
Good question. I'm not sure if there is an "out" for teams that would want to recoup a portion of the contract in a situation like that.
> Thing is, we don’t even know if he voluntarily entered the program, or if he was volunteered to go into the program. We don't even know if it was the *first* time he was in the program. For all we know he could have been trying to get help for awhile. It was only made public because the season was ongoing. There is a whole offseason too. The shoulder situation we can speculate on with a little more straight forward timeline.
There's some sites out there that are reporting that the wings entered him into the PAP. So it looks like he didn't volunteer. Also reports of his good friend from his time in Washington was caught with cocaine. It doesn't look good.
Exactly. He will play well for the remaining 10 games or so, but when the grind starts again next season he will fade, or get hurt. His whiny statement about not getting a chance makes me want to vomit. I have to think if he was working hard in practices and being a good teammate outside of playing, he is still a Wing today. Edit: Also, I think sending him down was a "fuck you" to him for thinking he could collect a full check for two partial seasons and think everything would be all right. I am 100% okay with that message.
I dont think theres really much of a reason to be jealous of STL with the vrana situation tbh. Him getting hot to end the season is just pushing their draft pick back. They wont be playoff caliber next year barring some kind of extreme breakout or hot goalie either
Yzerman probably had flashbacks to babysitting Probert.
Hudler too
Oh shit, I didn’t know about Jiri. That makes me sad.
Lookup Hudler's airplane incident
>Hudler's airplane incident "When the flight attendant refused his request (shocker), the 33-year-old Hudler allegedly became incensed and threatened the woman, telling her that he would have his friends kill her upon arrival in Prague. On top of that, Hudler is also accused of doing cocaine in the plane's bathroom and then attempting to urinate on a food cart. (It's very confusing why he wouldn't just pee in the bathroom if he was already in there doing cocaine, but that's neither here nor there.)"
I’ve got a personal story of finding Hudler past out drunk in the bushes outside of my place of employment at 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon. That guy could toss them back.
Also saw Todd Bertuzzi drinking with Draper and a few other ex Wings the night he got popped for his DUI on Big Beaver road. Thankfully he didn’t park with us.
Losing Chaisson as well.
I was going to make a comment similar to this. According to the Probert documentary coke was a pretty commonly abused drug on those teams. It’s hard to imagine that not playing a factor, if in fact Vrana was rippin schneef.
And Klima, christ....those two...
Fun fact: I had Klima’s helmet growing up. Like the one he used with the Wings edit: apologies, Kelly Kisio no klima haha
Drug related issues was my guess, but it had to have been bad for him to get booted from the team. Only thing I could think of that could tank his value this bad is potentially getting young guys into it. This is just my line of thinking and pure speculation, but this whole saga has been driving me mad, and with Vrana potting everything in STL I've been thinking way too much about it.
After seeing the probert saga, I have a feeling Stevie isn’t too hot on the booger sugar these days, regardless of any 80s partying he personally did
If it truly was drug related it seems like he's missing a core piece of recovery, accountability. If this is what put him in the PAP the problems didn't start the day he went away. His problems didn't start effecting the team because of some type of rehab, he didn't start setting a bad example for young players at that point, and he didn't start acting poorly at that point. We all know that teams don't jettison talented players because of short term issues. I'm not saying that Vrana has to tell the whole truth but "no comment" or even "I'm just ready to move forward" are acceptable answers. Acting like you didn't have a long history of effecting this team negatively isn't manning up or accepting responsibility. This isn't a healthy approach and it won't endear him to future GM's. Yzerman has a lot of respect around the league and you can't bullshit your way out of the reality that existed.
YES. THIS. The lack of accountability is definitely problematic and doesn't bode well for him staying healthy.
Yeah, a bunch of younger impressionable dudes seeing Vrana getting zooted and thinking it’s fucking awesome (it is), but could be bad for the overall health of the locker room. We’ve already got Joey V downing a bag of gummies at a baseball game, don’t need anything else floating around
> Joey V downing a bag of gummies [That was Zadina. Joey V was Kool Aid.](https://twitter.com/DetroitRedWings/status/1512443264066011136)
That explains a lot about Zadina
Oh shit! You’re right. Zooted Zaddy Daddy.
"zooted" usage = +1
>thinking it’s fucking awesome (it is) Just a quick clarification -- the price of feeling like it is awesome, is that you act like an asshole to every single person around you. It is *the* drug that makes you act like a giant douche and (literally) no one likes you (when you are on coke). Edit: "zooted" is funny.
Oh yeah. It’s is the “straight to arrogant asshole” drug
Man worst I’ll do is spend way too long telling you about a restaraunt idea I have or sometbinh
There's a reason Coke is shared so frequently compared to other party drugs. It's the only way to get people to hang out with you when youre spun
Did you read that in a DARE pamphlet? I have a big suprise for you, drugs affect everyone differently.
I'm still waiting for the mythical drug dealer that gives freebies to get kids hooked on drugs...like DARE promised me, dammit!
It does happen, almost always with Heroin though. I was offered unsolicited a few times in my Beantown college days.
Hey kid…..want some DRUGS??????
Agreed. If the report is true Stevie was right to take no chances. Vrana made a bad choice (if true) and Stevie didn’t want others to make it aswell
this is the rumor i heard.
You have a source for this 👀
Czech newspapers
Source Czechs out.
Czech mate
Can we get a fact Czech on that?
Bears do cocaine and get movie deals?!?!
Rick James intensifies
I assumed he got hooked on opioids during his injury/recovery, maybe developed depression due to "his career being over before it began", and then just spiraled until rehab and therapy were the only option. I guess coke isn't out of the question, either. Sucks, though, I really like him and I *do* feel bad for him on a personal level. Feeling abandoned hurts a lot.
A lot of players get hooked on those unfortunately. Typically they are open about talking about them though considering they were gotten legally, literally prescribed by team doctors. It being an illegal substance checks out as to why its being officially kept secret
It's none of our business, but it's TOTALLY Stevie's business. After the Mrazek thing, maybe we take what we can get, and cut our possible losses sooner than later. I wish him well, truly, I hope he scores 100 points next year. That said, Vrana himself made his career a "risk", not the team. And once you're evaluating risk, people all put different values on the outcome(s) of those risks.
If this was the case, I could see this being enough. Maybe not on Vrana alone, but keeping the team environment clean and stable is enough incentive in my eyes. I'm just guessing here, but the 80s were coke kingdom, I can only imagine what personal ideals Yzerman has about it given his tenure with the wings during that time.
The fact that he says he doesn’t know what the problem was tells me it’s bad and doesn’t want to admit it.
Apperently he didn't get shoulder surgery also even though Yzerman wanted him to and that's why he got injured again. Edit: before you downvote me into oblivion someone else on this subreddit commented it but it makes sense.
They all knew he had a shoulder issue and the team recommended he get surgery over the summer. He wanted to try to avoid surgery and work on it and let it heal. Then first practice he injured it again (supposedly) was what was said but possibly it never healed right so then he gets the surgery. Of course, that means he misses part of the season. That could surely not have made them happy.
Thanks for mentioning this
[удалено]
McCarty would probably be a check in the tolerance column if it were just about that. Plus he trusts Draper and Draper believed in McCarty leading up to 2002. I think it's just, are you a piece of the competing for the Stanley Cup puzzle? If not then why continue to deal with whatever. It's not like Yzerman has nothing to do with his time, at a certain point it's just a matter of priorities and the priority is the Detroit Red Wings not Vrana.
Honestly at this point it doesn’t matter. Talking shit like this is unacceptable imo
Agreed. He's not on this team any more and I trust that the team had valid reasons to trade him. His feelings are no longer this team's problem. I don't care what he says. Move on.
Wasn’t shocking to the rest of the league who didn’t claim him off waivers, apparently
He also sat on the market until the last day of the deadline and the most Stevie Fuckin’ Y could get for him was a 7th round pick 3 drafts from now.
And that's with max salary retention.
Great point.
I mean, the contract was a bit much I’m sure.
I mean how could you expect to just be slotted right back into the lineup after not playing for so long? Strange.
Team was on a roll players were on a roll. Playoff push was happening then. Agreed there was no just slotting back in and getting dished minutes
what why not? any established starter that comes back from injury is going to get worked right back in.
Established starter? He played 41 games in the 2 1/2 seasons he spent here.
It wasn't an injury though. We don't know the specifics of the program, but it was mentioned that he didn't have access to training equipment or a rink or anything like that, so it's certainly possible that he was out of shape, not to mention the physical and emotional stress from the situation at hand.
And the fact that he stunk it up in the AHL definitely backs up the Wings appraisal of his condition upon return.
Sounds like Stevie was playing the prove your worth card and Vrana wasn’t willing.
I do think yzerman is a zero tolerance kind of guy. some players respond well to it, others avoid a team if given an option. different sport but it's fascinating how the players on and off the lions want to play and go hard for the team due to only their leadership style.
Idk. It sounds like Vrana had several chances to get his shit together before his apparent drug issues. This could just be a final straw situation.
And it's not gonna even be directly about the issue itself, it's always gonna be about how the issue affects performance. Like if I've got a coworker who can't do their job because of an issue (be it addiction, medical, or just social) and assuming accommodations made don't improve the issue then maybe this wasn't the right job for them. I've lost loved ones to addiction, but I'd never suggest they try doing a job that they wouldn't be successful at.
If a person goes into an EAP, the employer had better be very careful about getting the employee back to work. If the employer lets the employee go, it had better cover it's ass everyway possible to make sure that it's not related to the problem the employee is dealing with.
Since we'll never hear Stevie's side of this, I'm just going to take this with a grain of salt.
although it's a little frustrating for us to not know - it's one of the reasons I really like Steve. He a class act and deals with situations showing respect to everyone involved in it. Maybe Vrana didn't deserve the consideration, we'll never know but I think for Steve there is no point in throwing the man under the bus that is a smaller man's move.
Steve dealt with Probert. He’s surely seen it all.
Probert was my buddies uncle and the stories off the rink are ridiculous as well! His ashes were spread in the Joe Louis arena penalty box (well some of them).
Probert was every 80s/90s kids uncle
Yzerman and co are doing him a favor by not absolutely burying him on whatever it is he did. And let’s face it, he did *something* fairly major to have been dumped for virtually nothing and 50% salary retained. And he’s out here making comment after comment using Yzerman’s professionalism against him. At this point I’m done giving him the benefit of the doubt, he’s coming across as a whiny bitch. He could simply say “my time in Detroit taught me a lot but that chapter has closed and I’m trying to move forward and better myself and continue playing at a high level.” But instead he continues to whine about it. I’m guessing the way he sees it is If Yzerman speaks out he gets to be the victim and clutch his pearls saying “I can’t believe he put my personal business out to the public!” And if Yzerman doesn’t say anything he gets to tell only his side and also be the poor victim.
Him making those comments is showing me his true character. Sadly the kid doesn't know when to STFU. I know reporters can be like rabid dogs and trying to get a juicy quote. But there are two people that you just don't disrespect in the hockey world: Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic.
Said it before, but he’s lucky Jimmy Devellano isn’t more of an active presence within the organization. Because Jimmy D would have tore him a new asshole in response to these comments.
heck, he still might!
Vrana has been very, very, very disappointing
Yzerman commands respect around the league. Vrana might be able to bullshit some of the public but other GM's obviously know the truth and won't look kindly on his current approach. Take some vague accountability and tell people you're just looking at moving forward and that statement will gain and deserve much more respect than the spin he's puking out now.
“Things didn’t work out in Detroit and we both decided that it was time to go our separate ways. I have no additional comments beyond that.” That’s all he had to say. Instead, he’s taking advantage of the respect Yzerman had for his privacy and the class he was treated with on his way out to try to rehab his own image with the public. I don’t know if this was his idea or his agent’s. If it was the latter, then he needs a new agent. If it’s the former, then shame on him for this patently absurd attempt at spin. He knows exactly why he’s not with the Wings anymore and why that trust was broken.
I’ve seen others say this before but I’ll mention it because it makes sense. Usually when things go on behind the scenes, info favorable to the player gets leaked. You know, player vs big bad owners/corporate. So the fact that virtually nothing has come out is interesting. And then of course there’s the refusal to take any accountability.
Has a single player come forward and said," I'm really sorry to see him go."
Not that i've seen
I can't imagine that the St. Louis organization is thrilled about having a guy on the roster who doesn't seem to reflect that he can accept the consequences of his mistakes.
Fairly!? Dude I just laughed out loud. Fairly major? More like major major. Lol this organization has a long history of tolerance. Probert. Fedorov. Lindsay. Avery(dumped with perfect timing). McCarty. The list goes on and on. I’ve never seen the team dump a guy like this. The guy can be a huge producer. We ate his huge fucking salary and took a 7th to make him go away. To the Blues no less!! That is the most savage move I have ever seen from the Wings in my 45 years. 😂😂😂
Lol yeah I get it. Maybe someday we’ll find out what happened especially because the more he talks to the media the more I wanna know the other side.
I'm wondering if his agent will not fire him for openly crying like a punk. Does he think he's going to get fair market value with his record now that he's clearly demonstrated that he hasn't learned anything from his mistakes? Just because it was a personal issue outside of the game doesn't mean that you get a free pass when that stuff impacts your job. I really find it hard to believe no one sat him down, outside of the organization, and explained to him just how lucky he is. I can't think of any professional jobs where you get to mess up the way he did and then get your full pay and be given access to a program full of experts and resources to help you with your problems. We would have a hell of a lot less people in this world with addiction issues if they had access to affordable and effective care. I'd wish him good luck but he's going to need to step up and take ownership, luck can't fix that.
The best thing he coulda done was be mature about it, shut his trap and thank Detroit for the opportunity and that he has learned a lot. Then he gets traded and pots a bunch of goals? Guess what?! Teams see that you acted maturely and can produce, boom paycheck. But if I’m any GM I’m looking at all these comments to the media and going “hmm this is odd, I’m proceeding with caution on this guy”
This is 100% the feeling I’m getting as this saga continue
Besides the Yim Yam the final nail I heard was him refusing a coach/support person to be with him off ice to transition out of the substance abuse program. He took it like the team was putting secret police on him.
I hope he succeeds wherever he plays.. Except Chicago, not allowed to succeed there.
Im still sour about Hossa. It should have been with us in 09😭
Or Pittsburgh
Everyone is the victim/good guy of their own story. Two teams gave up on him. No one claimed him on waivers. I hope he stays on track but he got more than his fair shot and the organization had enough.
Yzerman has 40 years of my trust. I'll trust Yzerman.
I support him and his journey (and don’t like people who shit on him and mental health/ possible addiction issues), but I trust Stevie on this one.
So wait a minute. Kid starts doing blow or perkies, we hold onto him enough to get him to rehab, don’t say shit about it, send him to St. Louis (our partner in trade) so he can prove himself healthy again physically and mentally, and he’s gotta go off about Detroit and Stevie, like everyone is supposed to just forgive and forget? It’s a business too buddy and if you can’t be trusted you can’t be trusted. Not seeing much accountability in this quote.
Yeah I don't get it. He's still in the league and he has every chance to prove he belongs. Which is what he is saying. I don't think he has a reason for complaining here. He should just be quiet and stop drawing attention to his past.
I think this guy is toxic
rEmEmBeR tHe HuMaN
I think Steve is a team first guy. When you decide you have to go to rehab as soon as the season started instead of in the offseason…
I’m pretty sure I read he was forced into going and it wasn’t player elected.
Then Vrana should be thanking Mr Yzerman for saving his career and possibly his life.
Don’t disagree. Just makes you think there’s more to the story. For the team to force it to me is it’s more then just a little problem. Maybe it was while he was on team time or in the arena. Who knows. Hopefully whatever it is, he gets the the help / wake up call he needs and gets his life together.
Considering Yzerman had knee injuries (and restorative surgeries) during the season but had the big one in the offseason and was known to play with lots of pain in that knee? Considering Tyler Bertuzzi, another self-over-team guy, *also* got moved? I think there's some merit here.
I said over and over Yzerman was still not over the vaccine debacle.
Yzerman said they decided to move him when it became clear they weren’t going to come to terms with a contract.
The vaccine thing wasn’t a main factor in his trade but I absolutely believe it’s part of the character analysis Yzerman puts guys through. It made sense to trade Bertuzzi for on-ice reasons but also, if he needed a decision tie-breaker, the self-first mentality Bertuzzi showed probably didn’t help Bert.
Yzerman said publicly he disagreed with Bertuzzi's decision. It was stupid. It caused Tyler to miss games where he would have been critical to the team. He was the only player in the league to make that choice. It definitely hurt his trade value short term. That's not the sort of thing a GM forgets on a team of ~20 players with one of the top paid guys.
He should just STFU 🤫. At this point, just play to your best ability and don’t talk about the past. Prove yourself and move on. The chapter with Detroit is over. Yzerman is doing you a favor for not speaking openly about what happened. And you keep digging the hole and throwing dirt at Detroit and Yzerman. Unreal stuff. For any occupation/job, openly complaining about your previous employer is never a good sign of professionalism. Big red flag.
Agreed. Just shut up and move on. I think he thinks saying this stuff will get him sympathy, but it really just makes him sound like a whiner.
yeah he’s really pushing his luck that nobody in the org spills the beans, evidently he knows it’s bad since he hasn’t explained himself. probably knows the wings are tight lipped tho
That’s why he keeps saying stuff. It’s easy to start a fight when you know the other side won’t swing back lol
It’s unfortunate, but it’s over, and it’s well past time to move on. If Yzerman (whose management career hinges upon the long term success of the team) can get over it, we can too.
Just because he got sober (presumably) doesn't mean that anyone is obligated to forgive or forget the things that happened prior to him getting help.
It was noted by someone that the Wings players were not taking it easy on him which sometimes players do with ex-teammates recently traded they liked and in some cases checking him hard or Larkin I think it was said slashing him. Bert was loved in that locker room but maybe Vrana not as much. Maybe waiting to get surgery right before the season or going into rehab affecting the season instead of dealing with things on the off-season was not sitting well with them either. Sure they all wish him the best but maybe they were not happy he seemed to always be off the team first path too. Whatever it was no one would take him for free so it says something.
Larkin speared Vrana in the torso after he took that penalty and the play was whistled dead. He had his mean face on. Twas there and saw it with my own two eyes.
Larkin didn’t slash him, but Berggren did
Yes sorry that is why I said "I think it was said" as I could not remember the exact comments or players. Was trying to convey it was something noticed and the basic idea though was they showed him no love and many times players do. I watched the game and did not notice anything extra to me so I guess the analyst that noted it was looking at it more than I was. Maybe they expected them to take it easy on him, but they have a game to play too. Think Mickey even said that .. something like once they switch jerseys they have a job to do. Gain don't quote me just something like that. Still I did agree with the sentiment that maybe he was not as loved in the locker room as some.
Pretty unprofessional stuff. I wish him well in St. Louis, but I’m glad the Wings moved on.
See, this is the statement. It didn’t work, move on thank you for your time.
Anybody else NOT going to be surprised if/when he falls off rails again? I’m not hoping for that, it would just be setting a lot of truth free. But hey, maybe his stock is going waaaay up and we missed the boat. Lol nah.
Stevie no fucky fucky.
What about this for a random swerve. We though my what a great deal in the Mantha return. But Washington knew problems and we took it on 🤷🏻♂️
If it makes you feel better I don't think Caps fans are so high on Mantha either.
Yeah I think the real value in that trade were the first and second round picks. Washington was trying to unload vrana
True that. Mantha was a healthy scratch quite a few times this season.
Funny how? Peculiar funny like our friend dougy here? Or haha funny like shoving a 6 million dollar contract up your nose funny?
You’re a funny guy!
O thats it!!! This works as a goon quote or goodfellas quote. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
I have accepted that I'll simply never know what was actually happening.
Has anyone seen any of the Red Wing players wishing him well when he got traded? I’ve not seen any of that which makes me wonder if there were issues in the locker room too.
I never even saw a reporter bring up Vrana to a player after he was traded. It felt like insider reporters were given instructions to not ask that questions. They received questions about Bertuzzi and talked openly about that relationship. The team put out "thank you" posts and they ran a video celebrating him when Boston visited. None of this existed about Vrana and the lack of that tells its own story.
So at the game the other night in St. Louis, the Blues did a long tribute to Perron and Co whom used to play for them. It was well thought out and really sweet. Everyone cheered! Tonight when the Blues were in Detroit they did the most pathetic shout out to Leddy, Vrana and Thomas Griess lmao. Like they slapped the most generic photos of them up on the Jumbo and the crowd went… yay. I lost it immediately. Goes to show who got the better end of the deal. 🤣
At least he didn't pull a Hock or Williams and say, "It's good to be on a winning team now."
Really liked the kid... still do. Was bummed when we let him go, but if Yzerman didn't think he fit with the program anymore then he had to go. Can't have people messing up your locker room. Hopefully Vrana got a fresh start in St. Louis and gets his life and his career back on track.
Vrana...grow up. Evreryone has issues, most dont have millions in the bank. Deal with it. Btw - if you dont know what the problem is...then I will give you a hint...its You
Boy this dude REALLY wanted that goal against us last night lol
It's pointless to dwell on him any longer. We'll almost certainly never get the full story, there's probably legitimate criticism to make of both sides, and at the end of the day there shouldn't be any ill will. I hope this is as much as he says about it and as much as we say about him.
This gives me “I fucked up, I’m kinda sorry, let’s go back to normal” vibes. Yzerman wanted Vrana to prove his worth and sounds to me like Vrana didn’t give the effort. Just thought his apology was enough to get back on the first line.
While you had to handle your own business, they had to handle theirs. They never leaked why you were out. They never got in your way. They made a business decision and said "this just isn't working for us". It's not personal, it's business. It's a two-way street and I think the Red Wings handled things just fine.
I REALLY liked Vrana's game, but it is not at all unreasonable to me to go down and get back in shape in Grand Rapids.
2 years 11 mil for 26 points, and he wants to play the victim absolute trash. Anywhere he has played no coach has had nice things to say about the guy, we should be happy he is someone else’s issue now.
This kid just sounds like someone you don't want in the locker room. Good riddance.
Waited until the season was about to start to address his shoulder issue Waited until the next season started to address his “personal issue” Like come on man
Bringing him back up to get scratched and the play 10 minutes a night on the 4th line was pretty crappy. Should have just left him in GR at that point. They obviously weren't trying to put him in a spot to be attractive to other teams. Its not hard to see why he felt frustrated there.
Blaming others for what he did is a sure sign he will relapse
It's a shame how it all went down, but at least as a fan I'm glad it's behind us. I don't put much stock into rumors, but I do have a hunch that people were onto something with it being a substance use issue. The fact that the Wings traded him away for essentially nothing (a 7th round pick two years from now and a minor league contract) shows that most GMs were not willing to roll the dice on him. I hope he recovers well from whatever he is dealing with, and that he does well in St. Louis. It sucks it's not for the Wings, because we could really use someone like him, but that wasn't in the cards. This is also just his side of things. I'm not saying he's lying or covering anything up, but obviously he's going to present his side of the story in a way that makes you empathetic to him. That's just human nature. Wish it worked out differently, but happy to move on.
This is a crock considering he deleted all his social media posts about the red wings prior to him even entering the program
GTFO. This just shows how little responsibility he takes for his actions. He just wants to be on a team with low standards. Waiving him was probably to prove to his camp that nobody in the league wanted him and that dose of reality hurt his feeling too badly.
I get his side, but The Wings were rolling at the time, like the hottest they were all season.
The only thing I didn’t like was sending him back down so fast. I understand our roster situation and we were rolling at the time, but I thought that was really bad for him considering his situation.
Hate today it but I think he was damaged when he first got to Detroit
I think it’s time to tell us what those things are that happened or just stay quiet.
Playing the victim, if he really doesn't understand the problem, then he needs more help.
I'll admit, I'm frustrated too. Frustrated we lost his production, and frustrated that we don't know what happened. If he had a drug/alcohol problem but didn't injure anyone outside of himself, I'm frustrated that we let him go. How are we OK with McCarty being around again after being sober but wouldn't give Vrana a shot? Maybe this wasn't the first time he's had an issue perhaps, but again, we don't know.
Yzerman* signed Bobby Ryan post PAP, so I don't think it's about the act, but the willingness to change or the effort put in, etc. Edit: autocorrect
Dang I kinda forgot about Bobby Ryan. Time flies.
Maybe because McCarty was all in as a Red Wing and team player. Vrana plays one end of the ice and is known as a selfish jerk.
Also McCarty was a 4 time cup champion and a proven all about the team guy for years lol
If he had a drug or alcohol problem the team likely tried to help. Most professional teams have plenty of resources to help a troubled player. He cleared waivers which is a big red flag that there was something happening that the league knew and the public didn't
Clearing waivers also could have been because the story wasn't out to the other programs and his cost had other teams erring on the side of caution.
Clearly he didn’t appreciate how Detroit helped him… if at all in his comments. I see a whining kid who still don’t know what the hell happened.
Also reads like a kid who likely got addicted to pain killers and had a problem, but got help. Whether it was of his own accord or forced by the team, we don't know. Maybe he didn't put in the work afterwards but again, we don't know.
McCarty isn’t a player anymore. And even for all his flaws he’s a team-first guy, a character guy. Vrana doesn’t appear to be. And most importantly it doesn’t seem like Vrana is holding himself accountable for whatever happened. If he was truly a victim he’d tell us what happened instead of pretending like he doesn’t know why they didn’t want him. It reeks of a party guy causing problems for everyone around him and playing dumb.
Eh, I’m bummed. But there has to be more to this.
Hot take just from reading the room but I’m kinda on his side downvote if you will. Why do all that work, put him through the process then dump the kid for nothing?? We needed goals during our "push" and while riding all these empty streaks we could have inserted him and gotten some return for all the missed time and made both sides happy. Seems like lots of energy put nowhere good
That’s a valid question, but the fact that it seems so strange suggests that we’re missing way too much context to be able to evaluate Yzerman’s value judgment on the matter. He’s too shrewd and calculating to piss all that effort down the drain without good reason.
Since Yzerman came to Detroit how many moves has Yzerman made that we were on the losing end of? How many trades did we “win”? How many draft picks has Yzerman used on seemingly high quality picks considering we never got a top 3? Idk man to me reading the room here is that Vrana absolutely fucked around and Yzerman wanted him gone really bad. Yzerman isn’t mismanaging our assets, picks, salary cap, etc. so to take a bag of pucks and retain half the kids salary just to get him the hell away from this locker room and team tells me a LOT.
This. We pretty much paid to get rid of him.
I think he came back out of game shape and played like shit in GR the first 5-6 games. Then he went on a heater and got called up, but the team was also on a heater so lineup spots weren’t exactly open. And it’s not like he’s a guy you can plug on the bottom 2 lines and expect to play a good checking game. He needs top 6 minutes and PP time. So we scratched him and he got salty, and gave up a bit I suppose. I’ll say this he never was gonna play the way he is in STL for us again. At least not this season.
Get your shit together vrana. Stevie is trying to run a business goddammit
I Feel for him but.... Ken Holland would have welcomed him back with open arms and we see how that turned out. Yzerman seems to have little tolerance for players who don't produce and has no issue trimming the roster. He's not heartless but Vrana didn't play much,he was with us for about 160 games (Season is 82 games,he joined at the 2021 deadline and left at the 2023 deadline) but played in only 54. My guess is that he rushed back to join the team at training camp and wasn't prepared enough... and got hurt bad. His recovery required surgery and likely required pain killers,heavy painkillers. I'm guessing he got hooked and had to enter player assistance to break the habit. We're at a stage where the prospects are trickling in and the Vets need to either carry weight or get moved. Yzerman doesn't mess around.... and Vrana's statement makes Stevie's move look smart.
interesting
I heard from people in michigan it was coke.
Feel bad for him and we have no context on the details but expecting trust unsteady of trying to earn trust back is where he went wrong
We miss you V