thrill seeking behavior? Death wish? The big crash that messed him up the first time was pretty nuts, no sane person would have been trying to take the turn he did.
Yup - I remember a long interview with Yzerman when he took the job and the concept he laid out was to bring in talent no older than Larkin and to have a cup challenging team while Larkin was still in relatively prime production. He clearly thought at the time he could pull off a gradual build without going any further down. 20/20 as they say...