The Detroit Red Wings’ general manager search has now dragged deep enough into the calendar that the silence has become the story.
Two and a half months after Steve Yzerman stepped down, the team still hasn’t landed a new GM. Detroit hired an outside firm to run the search, and two names - Jeff Greenberg and Shawn Horcoff - are already out of the running. Beyond that, the organization has given the public almost nothing to work with.
That vacuum only got louder when Elliotte Friedman weighed in on 32 Thoughts and said, "Detroit has asked for permission [to interview GM candidates] but hasn't interviewed them," Friedman shared on 32 Thoughts.
That’s the part that stings: the Red Wings have spent nearly three months on this search and, according to Friedman, haven’t even gotten to the interview stage with candidates they already reached out about. Whether the delay sits with the outside firm or owner and CEO Chris Ilitch is unclear, but the lack of movement has become impossible to ignore.
Friedman also said he’s still catching up after his own contract situation disrupted his coverage: "I will confess as my contract stuff was going on that dropped out on it a bit, so I have to get a better handle on where it's at."
He’s not the only one pointing to the same issue. Frank Seravalli made the same basic observation on yesterday’s FAN Morning Show.
The frustration around the Red Wings’ leadership hasn’t been limited to this GM search, either. Earlier this offseason, Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press reported that the team was very close to signing 40 goal scorer Steven Stamkos before Ilitch shut it down.
At this point, the optics are bad no matter where the blame lands. If the outside firm is driving the process, the follow-through has been shaky.
If Ilitch is the one slowing things down, that’s its own problem. Either way, the Red Wings are left looking like a team casting a wide net and then failing to do anything with what they catch.
And with training camp only a few days away, the absence of a GM only makes the situation look more disorganized. The candidates and the organizations they work for will remember how this played out, and that could matter later when Detroit needs help on the trade market.
For a franchise with this much history, the current level of drift is hard to explain. The Red Wings need to say where the search stands, who they’re still considering and what comes next. Right now, the silence is doing them no favors.
In Other News...
Red Wings Can Chase Chris Kreider But One Problem Looms
The Chris Kreider situation opened an intriguing door for clubs looking to add scoring, and Detroit is firmly in that group. The Red Wings have room under the cap and a clear need to finish off chances, which is why a player with Kreiders rsum naturally comes into the conversation whenever he becomes available.
The complication is that interest alone may not be enough to make this work. Kreider has strong reasons for wanting to land back in the Eastern Conference and closer to family, and league chatter suggests he may not be eager to report everywhere he could theoretically end up. For the Red Wings, that means the challenge is not just making a case on hockey terms, but convincing him that Detroit is the right place amid a run of uneven results and some lingering uncertainty around the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkins Trade Push Has Created A Messy Red Wings Stalemate
Dylan Larkins trade push has left the Red Wings in a strange holding pattern, with the veteran center openly asking out and trying to steer the process by naming a three-team trade list. Instead of creating traction, it has complicated everything around him, and Detroit is still sitting with the same uncomfortable reality: a franchise player who wants a move, but a market that has not developed the way either side might have hoped.
The problem for the Red Wings is that the interest has been thin under the current conditions, with Florida, Vegas and Minnesota all showing limited or no appetite to jump in, and Philadelphia also not lining up as a serious answer. For now, Larkin remains in Detroit, and the uncertainty around his future has turned what should have been a clean exit into a messy stalemate that could linger well beyond this stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Prospects Have A Real Chance To Force Camp Decisions
The first real taste of hockey season is about to hit Detroit, with the Red Wings set to host an NHL Prospects Tournament from Saturday through Tuesday at the Belfor Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena. The event will bring together prospect teams from the Red Wings, Blue Jackets, Penguins and Stars, and each club will play three games in a setting that gives young players a chance to stand out before the main camp calendar really gets moving.
For Detroit, the attention naturally falls on a group of former draft picks who arrive with something to prove, headlined by names such as Nate Danielson, Carter Bear and Trey Augustine. Prospect tournaments are often more about promise than certainty, but this one gives the Red Wings an early look at players who could start influencing camp decisions almost immediately, even if the biggest questions are still waiting to be answered. [Read more 🡒]