Frontrunner for Red Wings' next GM revealed by Elliotte Friedman
Photo credit: Leon Halip-Imagn Images
Steve Yzerman is out as Red Wings GM, and names are already flying.
The timing is the story nobody's chasing.
Yzerman stepped down Wednesday into a senior advisor role, ending seven seasons that produced a 224-251-62 record and no playoff berth. Detroit's search is being led by Ilitch Sports CEO Ryan Gustafson.
Elliotte Friedman was first out of the gate on NHL Tonight, floating Brendan Shanahan and warning that many more names would follow.
That set off the predictable parade: Shanahan, internal options Kris Draper and Shawn Horcoff, and outside executives like Evan Gold.
But the candidate beauty pageant is the wrong thing to watch. Look at when this happened, not who gets named.
The chair opened after every big decision was already made
The draft is finished. Free agency's opening wave is already spent.
Yzerman built this roster over the summer - six July 1 signings, the Keegan Kolesar trade, a full draft class. Then ownership moved him upstairs.
A new GM normally wants to own the draft and July 1. Detroit handed both to the man they were replacing.
Whoever takes the job inherits a house someone else furnished.
They get a cap sheet, a bottom six, and a staff under Todd McLellan they had no hand in assembling.
The Larkin decision is being handed to a ghost
Dylan Larkin's trade request is still unresolved, and it is the single most consequential call this franchise faces.
Now it belongs to a GM who hasn't been hired yet. Either Yzerman settles it as a lame duck, or Larkin's future freezes for weeks while Detroit interviews.
Either path strips the incoming executive of control over their defining first move. That's the real cost of swapping leaders in mid-July instead of in May.
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