Jim Devellano didn’t shy away from the mess surrounding Dylan Larkin, and he didn’t pretend the Red Wings have been perfect through their rebuild, either.
Speaking with John Keating and Chirs Osgood on the Ozzy and Keats Podcast, the longtime Detroit executive said the organization and its captain have at least found some common ground again.
"I wish it hadn't have happened [with Larkin]," Devellano began. "But we've kind of kissed and made up.
We let bygones be bygones. We'd really like you to stay, and that's kind of where it stands now, but...
McLellan and his players said it best. We're better with him in the lineup than out of the lineup."
That comes at a delicate moment, with Larkin reportedly having expanded his trade list. He has not pulled back his trade request, and the situation still doesn’t appear settled. Devellano, though, is clearly holding out hope that the relationship can be salvaged.
If there really has been a reset between the two sides, Larkin still has a long way to go in winning back the fanbase. The tension is obvious, and the current arrangement doesn’t feel sustainable for anyone involved.
The conversation wasn’t only about Larkin. Devellano also reflected on the work it took to build championship teams, drawing from his role in creating the New York Islanders dynasty of the 1980s and the Red Wings powerhouse of the 90s and 2000s.
He pointed back to the 1989 draft as one of the defining examples of what a great front office can do. Detroit selected six players in that class who each went on to play more than 1,000 games: Sergei Fedorov, Nick Lidstrom, Mike Sillinger, Bob Boughner, Dallas Drake and Vladimir Konstantinov.
But Devellano was quick to note that a rebuild in the modern NHL is a different animal.
"Rebuilding today in a 32 team league isn't exactly what it was when we came to Detroit," Devellano said. "The problem today is 16 make it, 16 don't make it.
The last three years - just to give the Red Wings some credit - we were over .500, so it's not like we were below .500. Last season, we were 10 games over .500.
It hasn't been an easy rebuild, but everybody's hanging in."
He also pointed to one area that has held up reasonably well: the blue line.
"One of the positives I've seen is the defense. Look at the two Swedish kids that came in (Albert and Anton Johansson).
[Anton] has been able to just go in and play... I like our defense.
Our defense even without Simon Edvinsson is okay.
Still, Devellano made it clear where the roster has fallen short.
"Where we've had trouble is that we're short a couple top-six forwards. Guys I would call needle-movers. If we'd had even one of those the last three years, we'd probably be in the playoffs."
For all the frustration around the team right now, Devellano kept circling back to the same idea: there are reasons for optimism. Whether that optimism matches the mood around Larkin, though, is another story.
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