Yzerman steps down as GM

[Jason_R]

7 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

I agree.  As much as the guys playing are too young to understand, all of the  front office folks know what this franchise has been and can be again.  

Yes. That first paragraph was a summary of Friedman’s comments but I agree. 

[Shinzaki]

Shanny would be interesting ...

[Jason_R]

There’s a good summary on Reddit of Ansar Khan’s appearance on a podcast to discuss the Yzerman situation. I’m stealing some of the summary. 

Ilitch family is big into analytics as evidenced by Scott Harris hire. Khan expects an outside hire. 

Larkin and Yzerman have clashed for a long time, probably since Yzerman made Larkin wait to become captain. Khan says Yzerman was “very irked” by Larkin’s comments about no help at the trade deadline and felt that Larkin “embarrassed” him. 

[buddha]

no shanahan.

go outside.  get someone with new thinking.  it's too bad dubas is taken, i'd take him over shanahan any day of the week.

raid carolina.  can yzerman pull brisebois?  get new blood.

[Shinzaki]

Sunny Mehta would have been great

[Mr.TaterSalad]

37 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

Sunny Mehta would have been great

The guy is a Michigan Man too, born and raised in Grand Rapids.

[Hongbit]

11 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The guy is a Michigan Man too, born and raised in Grand Rapids.

Favoring players and execs based on their tie to the state of Michigan has been one of the issues that has led to the downfall of the organization.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hongbit]

12 hours ago, buddha said:

raid carolina.  can yzerman pull brisebois?  get new blood.

Anyone from that front office that’s been able to build in Raleigh with the cheapest owner in sports should be in very high demand.  

[Jason_R]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7448030/2026/07/16/detroit-red-wings-general-manager-candidates-steve-yzerman/

Max Bultman has thoughts, with good detail on some quant-heavy candidates. Also observes (rightly in my view) that Shanahan is better as candidate for a senior executive role if one is created to buffer a first-time GM. But not as GM. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

15 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

Favoring players and execs based on their tie to the state of Michigan has been one of the issues that has led to the downfall of the organization.

Of course, it's a joke on the old "we only hire Michigan Men" bit from down the road in Ann Arbor.

[buddha]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7450167/2026/07/17/steve-yzerman-red-wings-general-manager/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.yVA.k1V1.AOPMCgCYkx_W&smid=ta-android-share

good piece from max.

also a good podcast from parshanth on wwp.

looking back on yzerman's tenure and assessing what went wrong.  basically:

no lottery luck

bad drafting outside seider/ed/raymond (still incomplete but trending to no stars and few hits outside round 1)

failing to pick a lane.  signing copp/compher/chairot/maata/perron/gothisebere to deals that made it appear you were trying to move toward winning now, but then trading hronek, then walman, letting ghost and perron walk for little savings.  what was the point?

the disastrous free agent signings of tarasenko, appleton, holl, compher, and the bad deal to rasmussen.

as we all note, they have a good group of middle six prospects who should start to contribute soon(ish).  unfortunately that group of "middle six ceiling" guys includes two top 10 picks who you needed to be more.  they have some bits you can trade at the deadline: gibson, copp, and potentially debrincat.  they can probably move faulk now, but if they hang on to him its likely they could get a first.

and theyre the likely to be the worst team in a stacked atlantic division which gives them a shot at landon dupont.  

[Shinzaki]

Not adequately replacing Bert on the top line was a big factor...I think...in Larkin becoming more disastified

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

Not adequately replacing Bert on the top line was a big factor...I think...in Larkin becoming more disastified

no doubt, but Larkin isn't dumb, he could see the same futility and lack of direction in the all moves being made that Buddha listed above.

But I'm sure it was especially galling to Larkin to be lectured by Yzerman about his performance when virtually every  season Yzerman played in Detroit the roster included the kinds of enforcers protecting the Wings skilled players like himself that he has failed to provide the skilled players on the team he's built (Kocur, Probert, McCarty, Grimson just off the top of my head). As much as Larkin has been constantly run at in the last few seasons I have to believe that has also been a very sour point with him in general as well as the lack of a strong winger for his line in particular.

Edited July 17 by gehringer_2

[Mr.TaterSalad]

4 hours ago, buddha said:

and theyre the likely to be the worst team in a stacked atlantic division which gives them a shot at landon dupont.  

Not if they don't trade Larkin and go into the season with the current roster they have. I think they'll be second from the bottom in the Atlantic, but ahead of Toronto. I also think they'll have a better records than the Blue Jackets, Rangers, and Senators in the East and Blackhawks, Canucks Jets, and Kraken in the West. They will be stuck in purgatory and have somewhere between the 8th and 12th best lottery odds for the 1st overall pick. Larkin must be traded if they want to have good lottery odds for the #1 overall pick. Without it they are the 2010-2020 Pistons.

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

... stuck in purgatory and have somewhere between the 8th and 12th best lottery odds for the 1st overall pick. Larkin must be traded if they want to have good lottery odds for the #1 overall pick. Without it they are the 2010-2020 Pistons.

Even if they have the worst record in the league they could still be the 2021 Red Wings and get SHAFTED in the lottery.

Again.

Did I mention I HATE the ****ING lottery?!?!?!?!

[buddha]

if illitch decided NOW was the time to boot yzerman upstairs, he really is not a good owner.

AFTER the draft, AFTER free agency, AFTER all the other gms have been hired, AFTER all the potential larkin suitors have traded their assets....NOW you decide you need to pivot?

once again he lets someone hang around too long, just like he did with avila.  and he fires him after all the big decisions for next year have already been made, thus hamstringing the organization's future planning.

bad leadership.

[buddha]

if yzerman looked at the landscape and had the self-realization to know he isnt the man for the job anymore, that's a different story.  but the most likely explanation is that illitch made another decision too late.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

if illitch decided NOW was the time to boot yzerman upstairs, he really is not a good owner.

AFTER the draft, AFTER free agency, AFTER all the other gms have been hired, AFTER all the potential larkin suitors have traded their assets....NOW you decide you need to pivot?

once again he lets someone hang around too long, just like he did with avila.  and he fires him after all the big decisions for next year have already been made, thus hamstringing the organization's future planning.

bad leadership.

LOL - you're as down on Ilitch as I was on Yzerman. But no doubt if Yzerman had to go it would have been better at the end of the season so the new guy gets the draft and the chance to move Larkin before the draft. All true.

But we can guess what actually happened was that Ilitch was waiting to see if Yzerman worked his way out of it and when it started to look like Yzerman's plan was to just start the season with Larkin still on the roster and no other resolution, he saw that was untenable.  And to be fair, just judging by the shift here, I think until pretty recently a lot of people thought Yzerman would have found a way to move forward.

[lordstanley]

It would be ironic if the final straw for Ilitch was Yzerman refusing to spend too much of Illitch's money to acquire Jason Robertson.

Edited July 18 by lordstanley

[1984Echoes]

Yeah...

I think this is much more a recent opinion shift then Ilitch screwing up by making a late decision.

IMO.

[buddha]

47 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - you're as down on Ilitch as I was on Yzerman. But no doubt if Yzerman had to go it would have been better at the end of the season so the new guy gets the draft and the chance to move Larkin before the draft. All true.

But we can guess what actually happened was that Ilitch was waiting to see if Yzerman worked his way out of it and when it started to look like Yzerman's plan was to just start the season with Larkin still on the roster and no other resolution, he saw that was untenable.  And to be fair, just judging by the shift here, I think until pretty recently a lot of people thought Yzerman would have found a way to move forward.

waiting to see if something would happen instead of proactively making a decision is kind of a sign of bad management.  its like he had no plan.

[buddha]

23 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Yeah...

I think this is much more a recent opinion shift then Ilitch screwing up by making a late decision.

IMO.

why isnt it both?

[KL2]

40 minutes ago, buddha said:

waiting to see if something would happen instead of proactively making a decision is kind of a sign of bad management.  its like he had no plan.

Not always sometimes just rushing to remove people isn’t the right move either. Anybody in management knows that. 
 

I think it’s a bit of yzerman being burned out and not giving 100 and illitch seeing the offseason and seeing no attempts to improve or move forward and saying enough. Anybody available now would be available next offseason and it’s unlikely someone like say Nill we be more available. So he made the move now to give the new person a year to figure it out and come into next offseason with a way to move forward

[Jason_R]

2 hours ago, lordstanley said:

It would be ironic if the final straw for Ilitch was Yzerman refusing to spend too much of Illitch's money to acquire Jason Robertson.

I have wondered this same thing. 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

 its like he had no plan.

well one thing we can probably can plan on is that Larkin isn't going anywhere anytime soon, esp if the new GM is an outside hire bringing in a new staff.