The Simon Edvinsson situation has turned into a mess for the Detroit Red Wings, and Elliotte Friedman isn’t placing the blame in just one spot.
On the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Friedman pointed directly at Steve Yzerman while discussing Edvinsson’s preference to be traded. In Friedman’s view, the issues that have piled up in Detroit trace back to the way Yzerman handled contract talks with the team’s younger players.
“I reported that their (Red Wings) preference was a bridge. That was certainly the case when Yzerman was still in charge. And the one thing is there’s a lot of talk about Detroit doesn’t want to pay anyone.”
Friedman said Yzerman believed too much money was being pushed toward young players too early, and that stance shaped the negotiations.
“He thought the money for the young players was too much too quickly. And he negotiated hard.”
That hardline approach, Friedman said, showed up across multiple deals, not just Edvinsson’s.
“He negotiated hard with Seider… He negotiated hard with Raymond. He negotiated hard with Larkin, even in Larkin’s deal that led up to unrestricted free agency where he extended. And he negotiated hard with Edvinsson.”
Friedman returned to the same point later in the discussion, stressing how strongly Yzerman felt about the timing of those contracts.
“When Yzerman was in charge, he, one of the things he strongly felt was it was too much too soon for them, and he fought them hard.”
The fallout has already been felt with Larkin, and Friedman’s comments suggest the same pattern helped create the current Edvinsson standoff.
Still, this isn’t being laid entirely at Yzerman’s feet. The Red Wings organization also dragged its feet in sorting out the front office situation, and that delay left the whole matter hanging in the air for far too long. Even with Shawn Horcoff now running things on an interim basis, the club never moved quickly enough to settle the issue during the summer.
That slow rollout matters here. Had the Red Wings named Horcoff months ago, an Edvinsson extension may already be done. Instead, the uncertainty kept building, and the situation has now reached the point where a trade feels like the most realistic path.
Even then, there’s no clean promise that this gets resolved quickly. It could still drag on and become a distraction that hangs over the Red Wings’ season.
For now, the Edvinsson and Larkin situations look tied to Yzerman’s approach, but the organization as a whole has helped create the larger debacle. The best-case scenario is still the simplest one: a resolution that leaves everyone satisfied.
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