The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe discusses teams which had the “most bizarre” offseasons in the Eastern Conference this morning, with the Detroit Red Wings taking the title:
Detroit Red Wings
The offseason so far: The summer was dominated by the Dylan Larkin saga, as the team’s (then) captain decided he wanted out, shooting him to the top of the offseason trade board and making hum public enemy number one for the vast majority of Wings fans. That was especially true once we found out he intended to use his no-trade clause to narrow his list of potential destinations down to just a reported three.
The response from around the hockey world was nearly unanimous: Hold the line, Steve Yzerman!
Uh, Steve? You still there, Steve?
But their strangest story was: Ditching Yzerman as GM, which is something a lot of us figured they’d never have the courage to do. (Even if it was framed as a promotion to senior advisor or whatever.)
But what made this situation even weirder is the timing. The move didn’t come after the season ended, or even after some sort of multi-week organizational review. Instead, the Wings waited until mid-July to drop the bomb. And they somehow still haven’t hired a replacement.
Bizarro-meter ranking: 9.4/10. And after all that, Larkin will report to camp after all, but will be stripped of the captaincy. Quite the way to cap off the league’s weirdest offseason. Congratulations on winning something for the first time in a decade, Wings fans.
Continued (paywall)
