The Athletic’s Max Bultman weighs in regarding the “murky situation” that the Red Wings find themselves in as the team operates without a general manager, discussing the next GM’s to-do list…
Even if the Red Wings do announce a new general manager before the team’s first official practice on Thursday, the window for a smooth transition has passed. A new head of hockey operations will be stepping onto a moving treadmill with little time to plan.
Granted, there is really only one “must” before the season when it comes to the roster: a new deal for Simon Edvinsson, who is set to do the Red Wings a huge favor by reporting to camp without a contract. He’ll still need a signed deal to play when the season begins, so an agreement remains urgent business. But knowing their top-pair defenseman won’t miss crucial practice time buys the Red Wings more runway.
With the rest of the roster in place and coach Todd McLellan providing continuity behind the bench, the Red Wings’ players can go about their business preparing for the season. That’s the good news. But whether it’s handling [Dylan] Larkin, the future of leading scorer Alex DeBrincat — whose contract expires at the end of this season — or any other organizational changes that a new GM might normally make upon arrival, the time to address those matters in the quiet of summer has passed.
Bultman suggests that the uncertainty around finding the team’s next hockey executive cast a shadow upon the start of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament, and while Bultman argues that the Red Wings’ head managerial job does hold a certain elite appeal…
He suggests that the Wings have bumbled the search in terms of communicating its progress with the media and public. He’s 100% right there:
The Red Wings may believe they’re simply executing a thorough search. It’s possible they are — though they’ll have to forgive those of us who are growing skeptical. In public, we don’t see inside the process to know how things are — or aren’t — progressing. Neither, really, do those around the sport. All we can say for certain is that one candidate, Detroit Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg, withdrew from consideration earlier this week.
A quiet, methodical process is fine in theory, but everything has its limits. When the GM search drags on this long, with so little communication, it creates an information vacuum — which curious minds can’t help but fill with theories, speculation and even worry. That makes every tiny update — such as Frank Seravalli’s and Elliotte Friedman’s reporting this week that the Red Wings requested permission to interview candidates, but did not actually interview some of them — fan the flames of concern.
The simplest way to avoid this, of course, would have been hiring a GM by now. But the organization’s next best option is to explain why it hasn’t and to provide some indication of what progress has been made. None of that has happened.
Continued (paywall)
