Of diverse Red Wings-related note this morning:
MLive: Ansar Khan wonders whether the Red Wings will attempt to rebuild or move forward now that Steve Yzerman will no longer be the general manager:
That will depend largely on whether Larkin still wants out. If he rescinds his trade request, then the Red Wings will be all-in on trying to reach the playoffs next season. Yzerman’s moves in free agency indicated he was in win-now mode. He signed left wing Viktor Arvidsson to boost the team’s five-on-five offense and traded for Keegan Kolesar to add some much-needed toughness. He also tried hard to re-sign 37-year-old Patrick Kane, who’s apparently destined for Buffalo or back to Chicago.
If Larkin still wants out, the new GM can continue to follow Yzerman’s lead and try to get back players who can help immediately, particularly a top-line center. But that won’t be easy unless Larkin, who has a full no-trade clause, expands his list of approved destinations beyond Florida, Minnesota, Vegas and Dallas, or if a third team gets involved.
That’s why the Red Wings’ might opt to get futures (prospects, draft picks) and take a step back. In that case, they’d probably trade 41-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat goaltender John Gibson and defenseman Justin Faulk at some point during the season with all three entering the final year of their contracts.
That surely wouldn’t please young franchise cornerstones Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, who haven’t appeared in a playoff game in five seasons.
It won’t help sell tickets. Fans are hungry for playoff hockey, which they haven’t witnessed since 2016.
It won’t please coach Todd McLellan, assuming the new GM opts to retain him. He was hired midway through the 2024-25 season to be the closer and get the team into the playoffs after 2½ seasons under Derek Lalonde.
Continued (paywall); again, I’m not a fan of the “rebuild from the foundations” plan as fans have been asked to pay more for tickets repeatedly, and the team would waste some of Seider and Raymond’s prime years…
Detroit Free Press: The Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez offers a surprisingly circumspect column, wondering aloud whether the the Red Wings organization chose to attempt to salvage its relationship with Dylan Larkin over keeping Steve Yzerman…
According to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly, the two men had a relationship that had grown increasingly strained with mounting losses. Yzerman was frustrated with a captain who wasn’t playing at a higher level and doing enough leading, while Larkin was frustrated with a GM who preferred to trade away good players instead of acquiring significant help.
Yzerman and Larkin met often in Yzerman’s office at Little Caesars Arena. The frustration came to a head during their final meeting shortly after the season ended when both men arrived ready to air grievances. But Yzerman was far more aggressive in his criticism of Larkin and “just tore him apart,” according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.
Not long after that meeting, Larkin requested a trade, agreeing to waive his no-trade clause for three teams: the Vegas Golden Knights, the Minnesota Wild and the Florida Panthers. The trade request from Larkin, a quintessential homegrown star who grew up in Waterford and played at Michigan, was seen as an indictment of Yzerman’s leadership and his stewardship of an organizational rebuild that just passed the decade mark.
In the two weeks since NHL free agency began and when the market should have been its hottest for Larkin, there was no hint of a potential trade in the works. At a news conference during the draft, Yzerman only briefly addressed the trade request and seemed to have little interest meeting Larkin’s demands, while pointing out he had five years left on his eight-year, $69.9 million contract.
“My job as the manager of the Detroit Red Wings is always to do what is in the best interest of the Detroit Red Wings, and I will act accordingly to that,” Yzerman said. “I cannot make any guarantees, or did not make any guarantees, that that request could or would be met.”
After speaking with people inside and outside the organization who are familiar with its workings, I found no consensus for why Yzerman was removed at such an inopportune time, with the draft and the crux of free agency over.
Detroit Hockey Now: Along those lines, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff argues that “putting a legend in charge doesn’t work“:
From Bart Starr to Bobby Clarke to Magic Johnson, there’s a mountain of evidence that just because you led a team to glory as a player, it means you’ll do likewise as a coach or GM. However, the Wings didn’t need to look far to understand this reality.
All they had to do was look at their own history. Steve Yzerman was removed from his position as GM of the Red Wings on Wednesday. As captain of the club, he led the Wings to three Stanley Cup titles. In seven seasons as GM in Detroit, the club never played a single Stanley Cup game.
He has good company in this malady among the legendary wearers of the Winged Wheel.
Alex Delvecchio was also captain of the Red Wings and a three-time Stanley Cup winner. As coach of the team from 1973 to 1976, Delvecchio went 53-81-21. The Wings never made the playoffs with Delvecchio behind the bench. As GM of the team from 1974-77, Delvecchio’s Detroit clubs also never made the playoffs.
Ted Lindsay was captain of the Red Wings and a four-time Stanley Cup winner. As coach of the team in 1980-81, Lindsay was 3-14-3. He was also GM from 1977 to 1980. In his five seasons as coach or GM, the Wings made the playoffs once. They won a best-of-three first-round series.
Max Smith also discusses the state of the “Yzerplan“…
For all intents and purposes, the “Yzerplan” is dead. It’ll take a year or two before the true ramifications of the move are seen. However, that clock won’t truly start until Detroit’s next GM steps into the chair.
In the [meantime], Yzerman will still go over the day to day operations of the team. What effect on the current offseason this move has is anyone’s guess. Dylan Larkin’s trade request hangs over the team and any potential general manager candidate’s head while he is on the team.
It’s hard to say whether or not Yzerman stepping aside helps hurry the situation along any further at the moment, but at the very least, it changes what the Red Wings will get in return for the disgruntled center. The old plan was to build for contention for the coming year.
The new GM might want a clean slate and to clean house, which means future draft picks to put his (or her) name on, which was Yzerman’s major sticking point when it came to Larkin’s trade.
The Athletic: Max Bultman posted a set of potential candidates to be the Red Wings’ next general manager:
Ties to the organization / Established NHL GMs
Shawn Horcoff: Currently an assistant general manager in Detroit, Horcoff managed the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate in Grand Rapids to a near-historic campaign this past season. He has NHL GM potential, and now that there’s an opening in Detroit, he becomes the most logical internal candidate because of his experience managing the Griffins. The big question will be whether the Red Wings can go internal with this hire — if they want change, does promoting from within accomplish that?
I think it still could, as Horcoff is his own person, and his success in Grand Rapids has been significant. But it’s a question the Red Wings will have to ask in the process, and one that fans will have as well.
Ryan Martin: Martin is an associate general manager with the New York Rangers and GM of their AHL affiliate in Hartford. But before that, he spent 16 years in the Red Wings’ front office, managing the Griffins and working under Ken Holland and then (briefly) Yzerman. He’s also been a big part of USA Hockey at the junior and senior levels, including serving as GM for the 2022 World Championship team. He has history and familiarity with the organization but is removed from the current management group.
Brendan Shanahan: Shanahan may be more of a president than a general manager, but that’s one route the Red Wings could take with his hire — pairing a seasoned executive with an up-and-comer in a president/GM combo — and Shanahan has major experience in an Original Six market in Toronto. Ultimately, it never felt as if his Maple Leafs teams lived up to their potential, and it would be interesting (and perhaps impractical) to go from Yzerman to one of his former teammates from the same era, but Shanahan does have experience that could translate in Detroit, especially if paired with an up-and-comer.
Marc Bergevin: Bergevin is an associate general manager in Buffalo, but he’s another who has experience running an Original Six hockey operations department from his time in Montreal. He was the general manager for the Canadiens’ run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, and while he was replaced by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes the following season, he helped lay the groundwork for their current success by trading for Nick Suzuki and drafting Cole Caufield. Like Shanahan, Bergevin could make a lot of sense as a president overseeing a younger general manager.
TSN: In an uncredited article, TSN wonders where the franchise goes next:
What to do with DeBrincat, Copp?
The future of other key forwards beyond Larkin is also in question for the franchise as winger Alex DeBrincat and centre Andrew Copp both enter the final season of their current contracts.
DeBrincat would be a heavily sought after option on the free-agent market in 2027, should he get there, after posting 41 goals and 85 points in 82 games last season. The 28-year-old forward became eligible to sign an extension on July 1 as his four-year, $31.5 million deal signed with the Red Wings in 2023 as part of trade from the Ottawa Senators.
Larkin carries the highest cap hit among Red Wing forwards at $8.7 million, followed by Lucas Raymond, who is signed at $8.075 million through 2032, and then DeBrincat and Copp ($5.625 million) join the list.
Moving either DeBrincat or Copp as pending unrestricted free agents this year would also not be without complication as both own trade protection. DeBrincat holds a 16-team no-trade clause, while Copp can submit a 10-team no-trade list.
Cap space available, but for who?
Detroit’s off-season to date has done little to inspire fans that a major step forward is ahead. The Red Wings added forward Viktor Arvidssonon a two-year, $10 million deal, signed goaled Daniil Tarasov to a one-year, $2 million deal and added Keegan Kolesar in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights in an otherwise quiet July 1.
The next head of hockey operations will have plenty of cap space to work, though limited options remain on the free-agent market. The Red Wings have $19.6 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, with restricted free agent defenceman Simon Edvinsson still in need of a new contract. While Yzerman will still be in charge of day-to-day operations until his successor is named, negotiations with Edvinsson will likely fall into the domain of the new hire.
Forward Michael Bunting is the top remaining name from TSN’s Top 50 free agents on July 1, followed by veteran winger Mats Zuccarello and defenceman John Klingberg. Future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane is also still unsigned after spending the past two seasons in Detroit, along with forwards David Perron and James van Riemsdyk who also closed out the year with the team.
The future also offers no shortage of options for Yzerman’s successor, with Detroit projected to have $63.2 million in cap space next summer, per PuckPedia, with 13 players currently under contract.
