There’s an interim GM now, but many questions remain for the Detroit Red Wings
The Chris Johnston Show: Chris Johnston discusses the Detroit Red Wings mess, whether it will be awkward if Dylan Larkin returns and how things are going with their GM search. Interim GM Shawn Horcoff has permission to do the contract for Simon Edvinsson.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Julian McKenzie: “Okay, I wanna, I wanna get to the players who have some trade requests before we get to Quinn Hughes and his situation. Since those were two of the biggest stories to come out of this offseason, obviously Dylan Larkin in Detroit, wanting out of Detroit. He’ll report to training camp, but he won’t be there as captain. The C’s taken off of him.
Where are we at with that situation right now, and how awkward do you anticipate that situation being once he reports back to the team?”
Johnston: “I mean, it’ll be a little awkward, I suppose, because there’ll be questions about it, and obviously there’s a lot of focus on it. I kind of feel like players in general, though, like I, I think everyone generally gets it.
I’m not saying every one of Dylan Larkin’s teammates are probably in agreement with this or want to see him go, but like I don’t know. I, I think that, I think they want to get back to doing their business. It’s not that awkward.
Do you know what’s awkward for me in Detroit? Is they, they don’t have a general manager.”
McKenzie: “And that’s the next question I have.”
Johnston: “But right, but like to me, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to separate the two ideas because it’s like first of all, and obviously Shawn Horcoff‘s there, and he’s you know in the interim seat. So you know I’m not saying that they’re completely rudderless.
They’ve got a player in Simon Edvinsson, restricted free agent defenseman, big part of their future. He’s unsigned right now. They’ve got no one who is greenlighted to be able to sign him. Now, the, the good news there is that he’s, he’s willing to go to camp even without a contract, which is not something often players will do.
You know, they’ve even got a player like Alex DeBrincat. We were talking about that Tuesday deadline before the CBA changes. If they had, if they had a GM, I do think that’s at least a player you would explore because he’s one year out from being a UFA. Do you do an eight-year deal? Can we get him at a certain number that makes sense for the Red Wings right now?
I can tell you at this point in time, it’s just not happening because there’s no one to do that deal. There’s no one out there that, you know, can can basically sign that. And so look, that doesn’t mean DeBrincat’s gone. You know, I’m sure he’ll accept a seven-year contract in the future once they get a GM in place. But the AAV might be a little higher than it would have been on an eight-year contract.
So I just find it, you know, sort of suboptimal for the Red Wings to be in this position where training camp’s open. They haven’t hired someone. You know, I know that they were looking for sort of a more analytically inclined GM. I think they’re looking for, you know, one of the next great potential GMs in the league, as opposed to going with more of a trusted hand or a bigger name.
But once Jeff Greenberg, who seemed to be their, their focus, the Tigers’ general manager, pulled out of the running what week, week or so ago, you know, I think they’ve had to kind of go back to the drawing board. And so it doesn’t seem like they’re close to too much in terms of naming one. Unless maybe they pivot and just, you know, take the interim tag off Shawn Horcoff, as I mentioned, is running things in the interim. You know, well-respected guy who’s been the assistant GM there.
But you know it’s kind of just a murky situation in general, and it’s not helped by the fact that their captain asked for a trade, didn’t get traded, and is now no longer their captain.”
McKenzie: “Is there another candidate laying in the, in the weeds in, in Detroit now that Greenberg has pulled himself out of it?”
Johnston: “You know, I’ve heard some people around the league wonder: Do they pivot off of their thought, like, would they go after, say, someone like Brendan Shanahan? I checked in on that over the weekend. It doesn’t sound like anything’s cooking there. At least at this point in time,
You know they’ve largely been focused on talking to assistant GMs on teams that have had success. Someone like Brett Peterson of the Florida Panthers, one of the assistant GMs there. And look, we’ve already seen Sunny Mehta, who is also an assistant GM in Florida, you know, hired by New Jersey this offseason. You probably could have worse ideas than go and hire from a front office that did build a team that went to three straight Stanley Cup Finals before running into a pile of injuries last season.
But you know, I don’t, I, I don’t have anyone I can brand a frontrunner because it really does feel like it’s a bit of back to the drawing board for for the Red Wings organization, deciding which way they’re going to go here. But you know, they have seem to really want to prioritize, I guess, forward-thinking, maybe younger. Although I don’t think age is really the requirement.
Just more someone with some new ideas versus you know there are some GMs out there, obviously that have had you know multiple other jobs in the past that that could be available for hire. They just haven’t been on the Red Wings radar so far.”
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