Chris Ilitch’s message to Red Wings fans landed with the kind of thud that’s hard to ignore.
It came after fans opened the season chanting “sell the team” at both home games and after Dylan Larkin was booed during introductions. On Monday, Ilitch responded with a letter on LinkedIn. The Red Wings are 1-2, their top-pair defenseman is in Sweden, and the more time you spend with the letter, the worse it feels.
The line that sticks out most is this one:
"I get it and certainly feel the same"
That’s a striking thing for the governor and CEO of the franchise to say. Ilitch is the one who decides who runs the team and when that changes.
Fans don’t have that power. He does.
So when he says he feels the same frustration, it comes off less like empathy and more like he’s standing outside the problem he created.
He also wrote that Hockeytown showed up on opening night. It did, in a limited way.
Some fans were there, but they were also chanting for him to sell the team. He said he enjoyed visiting with fans before the game, too.
If that experience was enjoyable, it clearly wasn’t shared by everyone in the building.
Grind Line Podcast co-host Ryan attended and said he has never seen more empty seats at a home opener. He also said upper-level tickets were available for under $100.
That stood in sharp contrast to the summer, when two lower-bowl seats were priced at more than $500 after fees. When Larkin’s name appeared on the screen, the production crew cut to music to cover the boos.
Fans held signs calling for a sale, at least one wore a bag over his head, and Ryan said he remembered only one Larkin jersey that hadn’t been crossed out or covered.
The letter also leans on a familiar idea, comparing the Red Wings to Detroit itself and describing both as shaped by “grit and determination.” The problem is that Detroit earned that phrase through real hardship. The Red Wings’ current mess was built by a series of bad decisions from Ilitch’s own office over the summer.
What the letter doesn’t say matters just as much. It never mentions Steve Yzerman’s removal or where the GM search stands.
It doesn’t address the chants, either. And while that silence hangs over the team, the organization looks like this: Ilitch let Yzerman handle the draft and free agency, then moved him out on July 15.
A search firm was brought in, and it took two months to name an interim GM who had been doing the job the whole time. Chris Johnston reported that the first contract offer to Simon Edvinsson didn’t come until September 17, two days after Horcoff received the interim title.
Edvinsson, a 23-year-old top-pair defenseman, is now training in Sweden and reportedly asking for a trade. The captain asked out and lost the C, then got booed on opening night. For a team already ten years removed from the playoffs, that’s a brutal stretch, and ownership’s fingerprints are all over it.
Ilitch may be hoping for patience, but the only language he seems likely to hear right now is money. The team is giving two free tickets to anyone who signs up for DSN and emailing fans about quarter-season packages. The hope is that sales stay down, because an empty arena on TV is the kind of image that can get sponsors and advertisers to notice.
There’s also the matter of how he delivered the message. Fans are on X and Threads.
Ilitch chose LinkedIn. His only lengthy interview this fall, with Bob Wojnowski, produced one real headline: the search won’t be rushed and could extend beyond this season.
He still hasn’t faced a full media scrum. A professional networking site is where people announce promotions and post job listings, which makes it an odd place to try to calm a furious fan base.
Mike Ilitch spent years building goodwill with Red Wings fans. His son has burned through a lot of it in one offseason.
At this point, words only matter if they’re backed up. Sign Simon Edvinsson.
Name a general manager. Until then, “I get it” costs Chris Ilitch nothing, while the fans are left paying for everything else.
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Dylan Larkins return to the Red Wings lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury gave Detroit a familiar jolt, even if the circumstances around him remain anything but simple. He had already been through a summer trade request, and the noise around that decision has not faded, but he was back on the ice and helped the Red Wings beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 with the kind of night Detroit needs from one of its most important players.
The return also came with a reminder that the situation is still uncomfortable for everyone involved. Larkin heard boos from fans and took some chirping from opponents, but he said his focus is on playing and helping the team win until a trade happens. For now, the Red Wings are getting production from a player whose future has been a topic all season, and that reality is hard for their fans to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
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One possible way to bridge that gap is a performance-based contract structure that would limit risk for the team, a setup that could make Laine more palatable to clubs looking for upside without a heavy commitment. For the Red Wings, the intrigue is obvious: add scoring talent without overexposing the roster-building plan. The question now is whether Detroit stays in the mix long enough to matter, or whether another team moves first and leaves the Wings watching from the sidelines. [Read more 🡒]