The Detroit News’s John Niyo weighs in regarding the Red Wings’ decision to relieve Steve Yzerman of his duties as GM, promoting Yzerman to an advisor to CEO Chris Ilitch. Niyo argues that the Larkin stalemate is what cost Yzerman his job:
Whatever the reasons, though, the resulting standoff — as Larkin, the homegrown star, used his contractual no-movement rights as leverage and Yzerman apparently held firm to his own trade demands with other NHL GMs — left the Red Wings in a seemingly intractable spot.
Whether Yzerman’s pending exit as GM will change any of that remains to be seen. I wouldn’t bet on a quick resolution, for what it’s worth. Ilitch said he’s “looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves,” but Yzerman will remain in his current role running the day-to-day hockey operations until his successor is named. And the next obvious inflection point really isn’t until training camp in September.
Beyond that, there’s still much more to be figured out here, including a new contract for another young cornerstone piece, defenseman Simon Edvinsson, who’s a restricted free agent, and a possible extension for Alex DeBrincat, a 40-goal scorer whose interest in re-signing could hinge on what happens next with Larkin.
There’s still time to resolve that this summer, obviously. But, clearly, the urgency reached a breaking point here in recent weeks. And if you were listening closely back in late April, Yzerman actually admitted that might be the case as he talked about the self-assessment that comes necessarily, if not naturally, in a situation like this.
“I think everything has to be assessed, how we do things,” Yzerman said. “It would be ignorant to not really have an in-depth look at our team, at our organization, for sure. Do we need major shake-ups? Maybe, maybe not.”
Continued (paywall); Niyo duly notes that the Wings still need a shake-up of a sort–in terms of results, which is gonna take time.
