MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that the Red Wings ought to hire interim general manager Shawn Horcoff as the team’s GM and/or president of hockey operations, given that training camp is a week and-a-half away, that Simon Edvninsson has yet to be re-signed, and given that the Dylan Larkin situation hangs over the team like a black cloud:
If they have no external candidates they’re sold on, or if no top candidate wants to leave his current team this close to the season, why not put Shawn Horcoff in charge?
That could be Red Wings governor and CEO Chris Ilitch’s best option at this point – promote Horcoff, if not permanently then at least on an interim basis.
Horcoff knows the organization as well as anyone, having worked for three years as assistant GM for the Red Wings and the GM of the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins. Horcoff worked alongside former GM Steve Yzerman and assistant Kris Draper in all hockey operations matters as well as handling day-to-day responsibilities for the Griffins – personnel decisions, contract negotiations, player movement.
He is currently handling the Red Wings day-to-day operations.
Khan duly notes that the Red Wings’ timing in terms of relieving Steve Yzerman of his duties in the middle of the summer (July 15th) to supposedly look over 100+ candidates for the job via the Turnkey ZRG firm put the Wings on their back foot in terms of being able to swing for top managerial talent, and he offers the following names as potential GM candidates:
Assistant GMs Brett Peterson (Florida), Jeff Kealty (San Jose) and Scott White (Dallas) are among the names that have been floated as candidates.
I’m not certain what to say here. There’s a very solid argument for hiring at least an interim GM who will be allowed to negotiate contracts and make trades given the team’s inertia over the past summer, and given that inking a secondary scorer in addition to re-signing Edvinsson and resolving Larkin’s situation wouldn’t be a bad idea…
But do the Wings make a hire for the sake of expediency here, or do they “wait for the right guy?” (or gal?)
That’s the choice that Chris Ilitch and the Red Wings’ hockey operations department faces at present.
