The Tampa Bay Lightning are your Stanley Cup Champions! Which is a great thing for the Detroit Red Wings and their new GM Steve Yzerman.

The Tampa Bay Lightning shut out the Dallas Stars, 2-0, to secure their 4th win in the Stanley Cup Finals. Tampa lifted King Stanley’s Cup. That’s great news for Tampa Bay and great news for The Detroit Red Wings and Steve Yzerman.

Steve Yzerman spent 2010-2018 as the GM of the Lightning. Leaving his position to come lead the Detroit Red Wings back into greatness. But his impact on Tampa Bay’s culture and roster played a major role in that team winning the Stanley Cup.

Yzerman on Tampa Bay and the Stanley Cup

“I’m not sure if it’s satisfaction but I would be really happy for the organization, Jeff Vinik, Julien BriseBois, the players, the coaching staff. That community is really a great little hockey market, a really cool community and they really embrace the Lightning.”

“I have great friends (in Tampa Bay) and you know the players, I got to know them well and they’ve built up to win a championship so yes, being so close to the Tampa franchise, I think it would be wonderful for them to win.

Big Moves helped the Lightning

One of the biggest moves that Yzerman made in Tampa Bay before he left was acquiring forward J.T. Miller and defenseman Ryan McDonagh via trade. Yzerman sent Namestnikov, prospects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden, a 2018 first-round pick and a 2019 conditional second-round pick to the Rangers. At the time it was a pretty heavy price to pay. But the deal has worked for both sides.

The consistency McDonagh provided on the Defensive end really helped the team development of the team and chemistry on the ice.

Those are the moves that I hope Steve Yzeman makes as GM of the Detroit Red Wings. He let go of Jonathan Ericsson which was a good step.

Now all we can do is wait and see if Steve Yzerman can make the right moves. If the results of this years Stanley Cup Finals are any indication of what’s to come, we might be able to start calling ourselves “Hockeytown” again!