The Detroit Red Wings have a serious problem.
It isn’t simply that they haven’t found a replacement for Steve Yzerman.
The bigger concern is that the lengthy search for a new general manager could be revealing something about how the organization operates.
Yzerman’s departure came at an awkward time. By the middle of the summer, most of the obvious NHL executives who might have been interested in a new opportunity had already settled into their jobs. That left Detroit searching at a time when the pool of readily available candidates was considerably smaller.
The Red Wings apparently hoped to have Yzerman’s successor in place by Labor Day. That deadline came and went.
Then Jeff Greenberg, the general manager of the Detroit Tigers, withdrew his name from consideration.
And even some of the other names linked to the position have turned out to be less certain than initially believed. Frank Seravalli reported that San Jose Sharks assistant GM Jeff Kealty had not actually interviewed for the position despite Detroit receiving permission to speak with him.
At some point, the question stops being, “Who will Detroit hire?”
It becomes, “Why is this taking so long?”
The Red Wings Need More Than Just a New GM
There is a legitimate argument for taking your time with this decision.
The Red Wings cannot afford to get the next hire wrong.
Yzerman was supposed to be the architect of Detroit’s rebuild, but the team never made the playoffs during his tenure. The organization has now gone 10 consecutive seasons without a postseason appearance, leaving whoever takes over with enormous pressure to finally change the direction of the franchise.
That makes due diligence understandable.
Detroit has reportedly hired a search firm at owner Christopher Ilitch’s behest, with the organization looking for an analytics-driven executive. That suggests the Red Wings aren’t simply trying to find another version of Yzerman. They are looking for a different approach.
But the timing is becoming a problem.
Training camp is essentially here. The roster still needs decisions. Dylan Larkin’s future remains unresolved. And now Larkin will report to camp without the captaincy after the Red Wings decided to begin the season without naming a new captain.
That’s an extraordinary amount of uncertainty for a team that desperately needs stability.
The new GM will immediately inherit the Larkin situation, among other major decisions. It would obviously be better to have that person in place before the season starts rather than asking the coach and interim hockey operations staff to navigate the transition.
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Detroit Has to Give the Next GM Real Authority
This might be the most important part of the entire search.
A potential GM isn’t just evaluating Detroit.
That executive is also evaluating Detroit’s ownership and how much freedom they will actually have.
Reports surrounding the Red Wings have raised questions about how much autonomy the general manager would have over major roster decisions. A previous report suggested that ownership played a significant role in the organization’s inability to land Anthony Mantha and Steven Stamkos. Whether every detail of those situations is accurate or not, the perception itself could become a problem for Detroit.
Why would an ambitious NHL executive leave a stable organization to take a job where every major decision potentially requires another layer of approval?
That’s something the Red Wings need to address.
The organization can hire the smartest, most analytics-driven executive available. It won’t matter much if that person doesn’t have the authority to actually run the hockey department.
And that could explain at least some of the caution surrounding the search.
Detroit isn’t just hiring a general manager.
It’s deciding what its hockey operation is going to look like after the Yzerman era.
There is nothing wrong with taking the time to get that decision right. In fact, the Red Wings probably should be taking it seriously.
But they also need to understand that indecision has a cost.
The team already has one of the NHL’s longest playoff droughts. It doesn’t need another year of organizational uncertainty.
The next Red Wings GM needs a clear mandate, real authority and a plan to turn this franchise around.
Otherwise, Detroit could spend all summer searching for the right person only to discover that the real problem was never the name on the GM’s door.
Red Wings GM Search Could Reveal a Bigger Problem in Detroit