Month: August 2026

At this time of year, hockey writers are particularly enamored with list-making as it provides an easy article-ular framework. Last week, The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn praised Moritz Seider’s contract as having high “positive value probability.

Today, Sportsnet’s Michael Amato discusses the NHL’s “best value” contracts, including both Seider’s deal and Lucas Raymond’s similar contract:

Lucas Raymond – 6 years remaining, $8.07 million AAV
Moritz Seider – 5 years remaining, $8.55 million AAV

With Dylan Larkin possibly having played his last game for the Detroit Red Wings, the faces of the franchise for the next half-decade should be Raymond and Seider. The Wings may be struggling to end a lengthy playoff drought, but at least they have two huge pieces of their core locked up for the foreseeable future. Raymond has averaged 27 goals and 76 points over the past three seasons, and Seider has the all-around game that could make him a Norris Trophy winner someday.

If Larkin ultimately gets traded and Alex DeBrincat walks in free agency after next season, Detroit will have plenty of cap space to spend on talent thanks to the suddenly very team-friendly deals Seider and Raymond are on.

Continued; again, I’m not a “burn it down to the foundations” person, mostly because Seider and Raymond have some peak years to give to a team that gives a damdn about results…

Tis the season to pile it on. Earlier this week, the Hockey News’s Adam Proteau ranked the Red Wings 32nd out of 32 teams because of their front office uncertainty and their offseason moves; today, Daily Faceoff’s Anthony DiMarco declares the Red Wings to be the Eastern Conference’s “Biggest Loser”:

1: Detroit Red Wings

This one was simple, low hanging fruit and honestly, the Red Wings are atop the entire league as the biggest offseason loser. It isn’t particularly close, either. 

Their captain Dylan Larkin wants out; Patrick Kane left in free agency; they traded up and coming goaltender Sebastian Cossa for futures; they failed to add any player of significance. The culmination of it all? Steve Yzerman stepping down as general manager, ending one of the most disappointing tenures for an executive  we’ve seen in quite some time.

In a division where every other team could be realistically projected as a playoff club, Detroit is clear-cut behind the eight-ball. Their fanbase may not want to hear it after a near-decade of rebuilding, but the Red Wings may need to take a step back before taking one forward. 

Look, I’m not gonna say that things are easy in Detroit right now. Larkin does “want out,” Kane did leave in free agency, these are true things.

But Cossa got bumped off the depth chart by Michal Postava and Trey Augustine; Yzerman’s stepping down is seen as a fresh start for whoever takes over the Red Wings’ front office…

And no, Keegan Kolesar, Viktor Arvidsson and Daniil Tarasov are not the moves of a contending team, I still believe that the Red Wings are going to be plucky, that they’ve got three fantastic building blocks in Simon Edvinsson, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, and they’re going to be determined to prove their critics wrong, or at least partially wrong.

If they’re competitive, scrappier and full of heart, I’ll accept whatever happens in terms of results.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen tosses out some names to watch in the Red Wings’ general managerial search:

Tyler Dellow (Carolina). Sam Ventura (Buffalo). Darren Yorke (Carolina). Brett Peterson (Florida). Those are only some of the assistant general managers known for being strong on analytics or running a quality analytics department. That’s important because Detroit Free Press sportswriter Helene St. James reports the Red Wings are looking at hiring someone with an analytics reputation as a possible director of hockey operations. According to St. James’ report, the Red Wings have hired an outside company to screen candidates.

It’s unclear whether Red Wings have decided on a single hire or a two-person leadership tandem like the Detroit Tigers have with President of Hockey Operations Scott Harris above general manager Jeff Greenberg. The Tigers seem to have an exceptional analytics structure.

Continue reading Allen discusses possible names in the GM/president of hockey operations search

Journalist John U. Bacon discusses the Red Wings’ interim general manager, one Shawn Horcoff, while speaking with Michigan Public’s Caoilin Goss:

CG: Former Michigan State hockey star Shawn Horcoff is the new interim general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. Meanwhile, the Wings have hired a search firm to find a permanent replacement for Steve Yzerman… What do you make of the interim pick and what does the team need in a GM?

JUB: Actually, the interim pick might be better than a full time one they might get. Horcoff was an All-American at Michigan State, also Academic All-American, studying finance and economics. Two very good background majors for a future general manager. He played 15 years in the NHL. He was a captain for three years, so he’s a good leader. He’s also been the GM for the Red Wings top Farm team in Grand Rapids. And as an aside, his son plays for Michigan. I don’t know how that worked out at the kitchen table, but there you are. So Horcoff has a great background. I’m not sure if he’ll be the permanent GM or not, but the Wings could surely do worse. A general manager has got to be a talent scout, a deal maker, and the hardest piece? They have to build a team with an identity and a culture that free agents actually want to play for. So sadly, it’s almost impossible to say who can do those many things until they already have the job. So good luck Wings! Here we go again.

Continued; my best guess is that Horcoff will remain an assistant GM and GM of the Grand Rapids Griffins as the Red Wings look outside the organization for their next GM and/or president of hockey operations, but we just won’t know until the process is finished.

The Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak offers a unique take on the belief that the Red Wings are going to embrace an “analytics-driven” front office under their next GM and/or president of hockey operations:

Let me get this out of the way up front: Embracing analytics does not mean replacing scouts with algorithms, ignoring hockey experience, or allowing spreadsheets to dictate every decision.

It’s a tool to aid decision-making. It’s research and findings, then having that context as one of many inputs. That’s it.

This is what businesses and other sports leagues have been doing for years. Companies increasingly rely on data-driven decision-making because intuition alone is not enough in competitive environments. Data allows organizations to test assumptions, measure outcomes, and make adjustments based on evidence rather than relying solely on tradition or instinct.

Continue reading THW’s Wolak explains the concept of an ‘analytics-based front office’

Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith guesstimates the relative positions of the Red Wings’ 2-goaltender NHL tandem (probably, anyway) and prospect 4 goaltenders on the team’s depth chart:

With [John] Gibson presumably taking on a similar starters workload to last year, the Red Wings signed Daniil Tarasov as the ostensible backup for the team at the NHL level. However, with Tarasov and Gibson both only signed through the end of the year, the Red Wings are likely to want to give Postava as much playing time as possible in the NHL.

Not to mention, Tarasov’s numbers as a backup are far from impressive. The 27-year-old Russian netminder has only had one season in the National League with a save % above .900, and that was in the 2023-24 season when he played 24 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. For that matter, Tarasov has never recorded a GAA lower than 3.05.

Continue reading Discussing the Red Wings’ goaltending depth

This morning, The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe plays “contrarian,” answering reader questions with contrary answers for the hell of it.

McIndoe facetiously answers a question about the Red Wings’ disgruntled captain, but there are grains of truth throughout his parody:

Dylan Larkin quit on the Red Wings. — Matthew G.

On the contrary, Matthew, you pillock. The only thing Dylan Larkin quit on is denial and delusion. And all he’s guilty of is being realistic.

Specifically, being realistic about whether the Red Wings can win anything as currently constructed. Which they obviously can’t.

I mean, look at the teams around the league that are having success. The Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy with Nathan MacKinnon as their top center. The Panthers won back-to-back Cups with Sasha Barkov. The Oilers went to back-to-back finals with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, then the Golden Knights went with Jack Eichel. Even the Hurricanes, a championship team with no good players, are built around a consistent point-per-game center in Sebastian Aho who also finished in the top 10 of Selke voting. If you want to contend in the NHL, it all starts with having an elite center or two.

Continue reading A kernel of truth in the ‘Larkin isn’t a #1C’ argument

The NHL Tonight entertained Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman this evening, with Friedman taking part in a 12:01 segment in which he discusses (among other topics) the Red Wings’ managerial search, but it’s not been posted in YouTube format yet, so you’ll have to click on the embedded link to watch the segment.

Friedman believes that “things are going to get ramped up” as the Red Wings identify candidates, and will begin to interview candidates through their search firm next week.

He says that the Red Wings are very serious about letting candidates know that they will have autonomy in the hockey operations department, and that the Red Wings have no shortage of resources in terms of what the GM or President of Hockey Operations feels that they need to do.

Friedman believes that it’s a wanted job, and it may be one person or two, it might not be a “hockey person” as traditionally defined, and they want whoever is interviewed to come in with a specific, concrete plan to get the Wings moving forward, make Detroit and Michigan a destination, hear specific actions, and determine how the team can facilitate the prospective executive’s plan.

Friedman says that there are names out there, but Jeff Greenberg, who is the GM of the Detroit Tigers, and worked for the Chicago Blackhawks, is not necessarily a leading contender, but as someone who’s already in the organization, will be a factor–though he’s not the favorite by any means.

Of Red Wings-related note this evening:

1. In the “Stuck Behind the Paywall” category, Marco Kasper gave an interview to the Kronen Zeitung’s Martin Quendler, and the teaser promises that he talks about his summer training, his desire to earn a contract extension with the Red Wings, the fact that he splits time between his home in Klagenfurt, Sweden, where his girlfriend Tyra is from, and Detroit.
2. Here’s a picture from Krone.at’s Florian Pessentheiner of Kasper, Tyra and Kasper’s dog, Daisy:

2. Also, former Red Wings goaltending prospect Jake Paterson is 32 now, and he spent the majority of his career in the AHL and ECHL, but the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers have just hired Paterson as their goaltending coach and video coach:

Continue reading Two things: On Marco Kasper’s summer and Jake Paterson, Kitchener Rangers goalie/video coach

Sports Illustrated’s Nathan Smith ponders whether Red Wings coach Todd McLellan should “be on the hot seat” over the course of the 2026-2027 season.

[T]his roster isn’t one that screams genuine Stanley Cup contender, as the team is relying on players in their early 20s alongside Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin, and while that’s a good starting point for a roster, this is a team that’s severely lacking star power.

Then, this off-season, Detroit made very few moves to improve the roster, and with the front office now missing a General Manager and President of Hockey Operations, there are plenty of holes for the organization to fill.

All of this heaps more and more pressure on McLellan, and while the Red Wings should likely be moving towards another rebuild, the higher-ups in the front office and the fanbase are running out of patience, and that may, unfairly at that, force McLellan and the team towards a Stanley Cup Playoffs push in 2026/27.

Continue reading Coach McLellan and the ‘hot seat’ conundrum