Steve Yzerman is returning to Detroit, and he faces a major decision in his approach to building

Maybe it always seemed like a forgone conclusion. When Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager of the Lightning, telling his players he wanted to be closer to family in Michigan, this always was the logical next step. But for the city of Detroit, and Red Wings fans patiently working their way through a rebuild, breath was still being held.

You can release your breath, Detroit.

Early Friday, the Red Wings announced they would hold a 3 p.m. news conference featuring owner Christopher Ilitch, Yzerman and Ken Holland. This was the opposite of burying news on a Friday. This was making sure you dominated the news cycle all day long.

An NHL source confirmed with The Athletic that Yzerman will be named Red Wings GM and Holland, the current GM, will remain with the organization as senior vice president.

And now the work begins. From his mentor, Yzerman inherits a young roster loaded with talent. Dylan Larkin has emerged as the captain-in-waiting. Filip Zadina is the young scoring phenom with 30, maybe 40-goal potential. There are nice pieces like Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Andreas Athanasiou. There are a slew of draft picks too.

But unlike Tampa Bay, where Yzerman arrived with Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman waiting for him, the most important pieces are still to be assembled. As it was with Holland, that becomes Yzerman’s biggest challenge and will be the most fascinating strategic decision to watch from him early on in his tenure with the Red Wings.

With Holland, it was clear. He eventually dug in to the rebuild, but it was painful. This is a guy wired to win. He had very little stomach for the kind of losing that often leads to the talent at the top of the draft. If nothing changed this offseason in the front office, you got the sense that the Red Wings were quite content to put their foot on the gas this summer. You could already see the message: Just look at these playoffs! Anyone can win. Nobody expected the Islanders to be in Round 2 and here we are.

There’s cap space and draft picks and lots of speculation around the league that the Red Wings are one of the teams poised to make a splash in free agency. Or even more aggressive, acquire another young piece through an offer sheet. Those are the kind of moves a team makes when it is tired of losing and ready to get back into the playoffs. And it’s understandable. Springtime in Detroit doesn’t feel quite right without the Red Wings still playing. It’s not quite April in the D when Dylan Larkin is playing his hockey in Slovakia.

Yzerman’s arrival, however, is an opportunity to recalibrate. When a new GM comes into a franchise, even one as closely connected as Yzerman is to Holland and the Red Wings, it also resets the timeline. The baton is being handed off and Yzerman’s approach, his comments at the news conference today, will be so telling.

Has the landscape of the NHL changed enough since he took the job in Tampa that it makes sense to be aggressive in the immediate pursuit of the playoffs? If anything, his experience in Tampa has reaffirmed something that Holland has said all along: It’s hard to win a Stanley Cup. Just collecting young talent alone doesn’t guarantee anything.

We’re seeing franchises right now rewarded for their aggression. In Columbus, GM Jarmo Kekalainen pushed all in at the deadline. But even before that, he was aggressive in his trades, acquiring Seth Jones in a monster one. Kekalainen took swings in free agency and was creative in moving around salary. Vegas GM George McPhee certainly wasn’t waiting to draft and develop that team to success. He had five years of runway to develop that franchise and passed on it to try to win immediately instead. That team is a potential powerhouse.

The one thing we do know is this: Yzerman will be decisive. That’s one of his biggest strengths as an executive. He’s willing to make tough decisions. When the Lightning didn’t have the look of a playoff team, he sold at the deadline. When it was time to push, he was as aggressive as anyone. He not only landed Ryan McDonagh, he was in on Erik Karlsson and John Tavares.

For the fans of Detroit, he’s a link back to the glory days. But more importantly, to the Red Wings rebuild, he brings cachet, respect and instant credibility. If he’s hard-lining a player in contract negotiations, they know he’s serious. Just look at the salary structure in Tampa. If he wants in on a big name, they’re taking his call. The combination with Holland, as connected and well-liked as anyone in hockey, is a powerful one if it remains intact.

It didn’t end the way Yzerman might have envisioned in Tampa but the Lightning are set up to compete for a Stanley Cup for a long time. He left that team unquestionably better than he found it. It may look like unfinished business in Florida but with Yzerman, the truth is becoming what so many people in the game suspected all along. The unfinished business is in Detroit.

(Photo: Dave Reginek / NHLI via Getty Images)