The Detroit Red Wings may be drifting toward the simplest answer to a problem they’ve spent the summer trying to solve.
On Tuesday, 31 NHL general managers and the Red Wings’ representative met over Zoom for a league-wide session, and according to reports, that representative was assistant GM Shawn Horcoff. If that becomes the norm, it may not be a surprise.
Detroit Hockey Now checked with several NHL sources, including people who would likely know if the Red Wings were close to hiring someone from outside the organization to replace Steve Yzerman as GM. Nobody DHN spoke with could say with certainty that an outside hire was imminent. More than that, DHN couldn’t find anyone around the league who could confirm that outside candidates had even been interviewed.
That doesn’t prove the process never happened. But around hockey, silence usually says something.
This is an industry that runs on gossip, and when a major move is close, the word tends to leak. So far, that hasn’t happened here.
What has become clear is that Red Wings assistant GM Kris Draper has been told he won’t be getting the job. Detroit Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg also pulled his name out of the running on Monday.
There have been outside names tied to the opening, including Jeff Kealty of the San Jose Sharks and Brett Peterson of the Florida Panthers. But there were also published reports saying Kealty told people he never interviewed for the Detroit position, and there’s no firm proof that Peterson did either.
That leaves the Red Wings in a familiar kind of limbo, and it has sparked the possibility that Horcoff could end up in the chair by default. One report on social media put it bluntly: “After wasting an entire summer, the Detroit Red Wings will hire Shawn Horcoff as their next GM…. Watch… #AlwaysRebuilding #LGRW”
Maybe. Possibly. Probably.
At this point, that may be the most practical path left. Detroit could even hand Horcoff the job on an interim basis for one year and revisit the search next offseason.
The timing is the issue. If the Red Wings were going to bring in someone new this close to the season, why hasn’t it happened already? And if Horcoff was the preferred choice, why isn’t the announcement already in place?
Instead, the summer has gone by with no clear resolution. The Red Wings have alienated their captain, moved on from a franchise icon at GM, and still haven’t settled on who’s taking over.
Now the clock is nearly out.
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