DETROIT — The sounds of hockey were back on the Detroit Red Wings’ practice rink Saturday. Skates dug into the ice, pucks bounced off pads — it was welcome white noise after the franchise’s loud, dramatic summer.
There was only one problem: While the start of this weekend’s prospect tournament heralds the end of hockey’s offseason, absolutely none of the Red Wings’ summer drama has been resolved.
Sure, the team released a statement Saturday about Dylan Larkin, announcing that he would not wear the captain’s “C” to begin the season after requesting a trade earlier this summer. But when he reports to camp Thursday with the rest of the team, his future will remain up in the air — waiting, like so many, for the team to name a general manager.
When the Red Wings announced Steve Yzerman’s ouster from the GM position in mid-July, the timing was unusual. Detroit had already let him handle the draft and free agency; he even traded away a top prospect in Sebastian Cossa. The Red Wings had also missed the standard front-office hiring cycle, as the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks made their own GM hires in the first half of the offseason.
But if there was any upside to a mid-July change, it was that the Red Wings could move at their own pace, not competing with other organizations for their top choices. After all the noise around Larkin and Yzerman, the leadership change also offered a chance at a fresh start. Perhaps the team could move on from last season’s malaise and begin 2026-2027 with a clean slate.
Now, with camp about to begin, there’s nothing clean in sight.
Even if the Red Wings do announce a new general manager before the team’s first official practice on Thursday, the window for a smooth transition has passed. A new head of hockey operations will be stepping onto a moving treadmill with little time to plan.
Granted, there is really only one “must” before the season when it comes to the roster: a new deal for Simon Edvinsson, who is set to do the Red Wings a huge favor by reporting to camp without a contract. He’ll still need a signed deal to play when the season begins, so an agreement remains urgent business. But knowing their top-pair defenseman won’t miss crucial practice time buys the Red Wings more runway.
Getting Simon Edvinsson (77) signed to a new deal before the start of the season is the Red Wings’ top priority. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
With the rest of the roster in place and coach Todd McLellan providing continuity behind the bench, the Red Wings’ players can go about their business preparing for the season. That’s the good news. But whether it’s handling Larkin, the future of leading scorer Alex DeBrincat — whose contract expires at the end of this season — or any other organizational changes that a new GM might normally make upon arrival, the time to address those matters in the quiet of summer has passed.
While it was understandable for the Red Wings to not want to let their late GM change induce a rushed search for his replacement, at this point it’s fair to wonder whether that approach has become an obstacle.
This is still an opportunity to run an iconic, Original Six franchise. That should always appeal to candidates. But if you’re another team’s assistant general manager, for example, can you really leave now, with camps starting? Moreover, will the length, timing and ambiguity of the Red Wings’ process give pause to prospective hires who might wonder what kind of situation they’d be walking into?
The Red Wings may believe they’re simply executing a thorough search. It’s possible they are — though they’ll have to forgive those of us who are growing skeptical. In public, we don’t see inside the process to know how things are — or aren’t — progressing. Neither, really, do those around the sport. All we can say for certain is that one candidate, Detroit Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg, withdrew from consideration earlier this week.
A quiet, methodical process is fine in theory, but everything has its limits. When the GM search drags on this long, with so little communication, it creates an information vacuum — which curious minds can’t help but fill with theories, speculation and even worry. That makes every tiny update — such as Frank Seravalli’s and Elliotte Friedman’s reporting this week that the Red Wings requested permission to interview candidates, but did not actually interview some of them — fan the flames of concern.
The simplest way to avoid this, of course, would have been hiring a GM by now. But the organization’s next best option is to explain why it hasn’t and to provide some indication of what progress has been made. None of that has happened.
So, as the Red Wings’ prospects took the ice this weekend, the lack of clarity on such a pivotal hire overshadowed what’s normally an energizing day on the calendar.
In another year, the story might have been about Trey Augustine getting the start in goal as he begins his pro career, or a standout game from Carter Bear on the wing in Detroit’s 4-3 shootout win over the Dallas Stars. It might have been about 22-year-old defenseman Anton Johansson’s chances of making the NHL roster, or Nate Danielson’s return from injury. And there’s still room for all of that.
But as interesting as those topics are, the focus inevitably gravitates to the big picture.
And in Detroit, where the offseason’s biggest questions remain unsettled, the big picture has been murky since July.