When the Red Wings announced Steve Yzerman\u2019s ouster from the GM position<\/a> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s malaise and begin 2026-2027 with a clean slate.<\/p>\n Now, with camp about to begin, there\u2019s nothing clean in sight.<\/p>\n Even if the Red Wings do announce a new general manager before the team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Granted, there is really only one \u201cmust\u201d 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<\/a>. He\u2019ll still need a signed deal to play when the season begins, so an agreement remains urgent business. But knowing their top-pair defenseman won\u2019t miss crucial practice time buys the Red Wings more runway.<\/p>\n \n Getting Simon Edvinsson (77) signed to a new deal before the start of the season is the Red Wings\u2019 top priority. (Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n With the rest of the roster in place and coach Todd McLellan providing continuity behind the bench, the Red Wings\u2019 players can go about their business preparing for the season. That\u2019s the good news. But whether it\u2019s handling Larkin, the future of leading scorer Alex DeBrincat \u2014 whose contract expires at the end of this season \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s fair to wonder whether that approach has become an obstacle.<\/p>\n This is still an opportunity to run an iconic, Original Six franchise. That should always appeal to candidates. But if you\u2019re another team\u2019s assistant general manager, for example, can you really leave now, with camps starting? Moreover, will the length, timing and ambiguity of the Red Wings\u2019 process give pause to prospective hires who might wonder what kind of situation they\u2019d be walking into?<\/p>\n The Red Wings may believe they\u2019re simply executing a thorough search. It\u2019s possible they are \u2014 though they\u2019ll have to forgive those of us who are growing skeptical. In public, we don\u2019t see inside the process to know how things are \u2014 or aren\u2019t \u2014 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<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 which curious minds can\u2019t help but fill with theories, speculation and even worry. That makes every tiny update \u2014 such as Frank Seravalli\u2019s and Elliotte Friedman\u2019s reporting this week<\/a> that the Red Wings requested permission to interview candidates, but did not actually interview some of them<\/a> \u2014 fan the flames of concern.<\/p>\n The simplest way to avoid this, of course, would have been hiring a GM by now. But the organization\u2019s next best option is to explain why it hasn\u2019t and to provide some indication of what progress has been made. None of that has happened.<\/p>\n So, as the Red Wings\u2019 prospects took the ice this weekend, the lack of clarity on such a pivotal hire overshadowed what\u2019s normally an energizing day on the calendar.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 4-3 shootout win over the Dallas Stars. It might have been about 22-year-old defenseman Anton Johansson\u2019s chances of making the NHL roster, or Nate Danielson\u2019s return from injury. And there\u2019s still room for all of that.<\/p>\n But as interesting as those topics are, the focus inevitably gravitates to the big picture.<\/p>\n And in Detroit, where the offseason\u2019s biggest questions remain unsettled, the big picture has been murky since July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 The sounds of hockey were back on the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 practice rink Saturday. Skates dug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1786,385,99],"class_list":["post-846571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Detroit's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2256961591-scaled-e1789285856925.jpg\")
<\/p>\n