In his latest “Red Light Newsletter,” The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe weighs in on the Red Wings’ tumultuous offseason:
We had a bit of a bomb dropped on us yesterday, in what’s normally the slow-news dead zone of mid-July: Steve Yzerman is out in Detroit.
Well, not “out,” at least not all the way. Instead, Yzerman has been kicked upstairs, where he’ll be an advisor to owner Chris Ilitch. That’s not quite the same as being sent to the unemployment line, but make no mistake — this is the Red Wings firing Yzerman as GM, in spirit if not in so many words.
Max Bultman goes deeper on what it all means, but in the immediate aftermath, three questions loom:
What now for the Red Wings?
It’s unusual for a team to make a GM change this late in the offseason, and it was notable that there was no immediate replacement named, which ends any thought that this was some kind of planned succession scenario. Instead, the Wings will start the hunt for a new GM — weeks and, in some cases, months after other teams making changes have already hired theirs.
In theory, this should be a reasonably attractive job, one in a strong market and with some good young pieces already in place. But the pressure will be high, as patience is running exceedingly thin in Detroit these days. If Steve Freaking Yzerman ran out of time, how much runway can a new GM expect to get?
What does this mean for Dylan Larkin?
Yzerman vs. Larkin had been shaping up to be the story of the summer, and now it’s over. Did … Larkin just win? Did the Wings’ current captain just beat their old one in a power struggle? And if so, does that mean there’s a way for him to come back after his trade demand, or that a new GM will be told to move him to one of his preferred destinations?
Is this it for Yzerman’s front office career?
In theory, it could be. Yzerman is 61 years old, and he might decide that it’s time to ride off into the sunset, cashing some (presumably large) paychecks for doing occasional consulting work while retaining most of his hero status in Detroit.
But I can’t help but think back a decade or so to when the Devils kicked GM Lou Lamoriello upstairs. Like Yzerman in Detroit, Lou felt like a lifer in New Jersey. But after being “promoted” out of the job he’d held for 28 years, he lasted just a few weeks in his new role before quitting to become GM in Toronto. Will Yzerman be looking for a similar opportunity at some point in the next year or two? We’ll find out.
Continued (paywall); Yzerman’s not going to leave Detroit; as several Wings columnists have said, it’s very evident that, given the timing of this decision, it was Yzerman’s and only Yzerman’s decision to step away from the GM’s position.
