From the moment Steve Yzerman returned to the Detroit Red Wings as general manager in 2019, the city and franchise he once led to glory as a player wanted desperately to believe he could do it all again in the front office.He brought hope. He said the right things. And there were moments where it looked like it just might work.But on Wednesday, the Yzerman era came to an abrupt end when the Red Wings announced he would transition from his role as executive vice president and general manager into a senior adviser to governor and CEO Chris Ilitch.Technically, Yzerman remains in his current role while the Red Wings conduct a search for a new head of hockey operations. And it’s unclear how long that process could take. But Wednesday marks the functional end of Yzerman’s tenure, which once seemed to carry so much promise.Can Gabe Perreault get to Nikita Kucherov’s level?Scott Wheeler, Corey Pronman and moreThere are all kinds of questions that follow the news. One big one is the timing, three months after the season ended in yet another late-season collapse, and just two weeks after the busiest portion of the offseason. But the two most important questions are: What went wrong? And where do the Red Wings go from here?The Red Wings never made the playoffs in seven seasons under Yzerman, and now their postseason drought sits at a decade. His departure comes at a time when their captain and top center, Dylan Larkin, has requested a trade from his hometown franchise. All is not well with the Red Wings, and the release announcing the leadership change acknowledged as much.“Clearly, we are not where we and our fans expect to be as an organization,” Ilitch said. “I’m looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves.”Ilitch had plenty of kind things to say about Yzerman in the release, including that his “lifetime of contributions to the Red Wings has meant more to this franchise than words can truly express, and I have the highest level of respect for his continued commitment to our organization.” That Yzerman will now apparently serve as an adviser to Ilitch himself is notable too.But between the on-ice results and off-ice tension, something had to change. Now, it will.There are many different lenses through which to view Yzerman’s tenure. Start with the bottom line, which is that the Red Wings still remain outside the playoffs, and have been passed by several divisional opponents who were on parallel rebuilding timelines. The Montreal Canadiens just went to the Eastern Conference final. The Buffalo Sabres — who held the mantle of the league’s longest playoff drought before Detroit — just won the Atlantic Division. The Red Wings are still on the outside looking in.