Just as an FYI, because everybody seems to have missed it: in addition to Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson (Sweden), Moritz Seider (Germany) and free agent signing Eduards Tralmaks (Latvia), Red Wings center Marco Kasper is going to play in the World Championship next week, representing his native Austria.
The Austrian Ice Hockey Association posted the news on their website last week.
Holy shit, folks. Red Wings fans seem to have too much time on their hands, because there’s “much ado about nothing” going on both within and without the fan base, with the clickbait kings of the interweb benefiting the most from misplaced rage.
So Dylan Larkin, the Red Wings’ captain, did what captains do, and discussed his disappointment regarding the Red Wings’ relatively quiet trade deadline during his postseason press conference.
Good! A team captain fairly and understandably expressed criticism of the team’s management group, most probably expressing the feelings felt by the majority of his teammates through his statements. That’s good and healthy and normal for a leader to speak out for his charges; I was happy to hear that Larkin was comfortable enough in his role to offer some constructive criticism as his days in the media sun for the 2024-2025 season draw to a close.
As far as I’m concerned, Larkin utilized the proper medium by which to express his thoughts and feelings about his team’s direction, and he did so while also expressing a high level of personal responsibility for the team’s disappointing finish. All healthy and signs of strong leadership.
A few days later, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman held an incredibly organized press conference, utilizing Wings coach Todd McLellan as his “wing man,” and Yzerman expressed a different opinion than Larkin’s, suggesting that the team’s best players should have provided a post-trade deadline “boost” after Yzerman was unable to swing a substantive deadline deal.
Moreover, Yzerman stated that he’d addressed the issue with Larkin over the course of the team’s exit meetings, and while GMSY chose not to make his comments to Larkin public, he encouraged Larkin to share them with the media if he wishes to do so.
Good! A GM’s job involves explaining his rationale for trades made or not made, and Yzerman did that. Just as importantly, Yzerman shared his side of the story in a meeting with the captain. That’s what you want to hear–that there are open and honest lines of communication between players and management.
As you might imagine, I was taken aback by the attempts made by the clickbait kings and sports talk radio hosts to play this stuff up as trade rumor-inducing fodder, or indications that the relationship between a traitorous captain and ineffective GM have been irreparably strained.
I call bullshit.
Continue reading Suggestions of a Larkin-Yzerman feud are bullshit