Three Items The Next Detroit Red Wings GM Must Address

For the first time in several years, the Detroit Red Wings are on the hunt for a new GM.

And really, this is the first real search they'll have to conduct in more than a generation, because when Steve Yzerman got hired a little more than nine years ago, it was such a no-brainer that there was barely a search at all. He was the obvious heir to Ken Holland, but there's now nothing even close to a guarantee.

With that in mind, here are the three most pressing issues facing any hire they make, whether it's in a week, a month, or longer:

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2. When Do You Move On From Dylan Larkin, If At All?

Clearly, one of the biggest issues that led to the end of the Yzerman era is the disquiet around Larkin, their current captain. He wants out. Is that because Larkin is frustrated with Yzerman personally - there were some rather infamous comments last summer about the GM not providing help, or the players not earning it - or is he frustrated about the direction of the team in general?

This ties back to what Red Wings leadership is looking for in the new GM, and, interestingly, Yzerman will seemingly still have some sway over that hiring process.

If it's a personal issue, maybe a new hire ends the trade demand, full stop. If it's an organizational issue, can the new hire convince Larkin that things will change as soon as possible, and there's no need for a change of scenery?

Also part of this discussion: whether the Red Wings are better off moving on from Larkin, regardless of the next GM's preferred direction. If, for instance, there's an understanding from the top down that another crack at a years-long rebuild might be in the cards, they should probably trade him for futures anyway.

That's certainly not what Yzerman wanted (the stated goal was to trade Larkin for current roster players), but he's not the GM anymore. If the next hire has a different vision, does Larkin even fit into it?

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3. What's The Timeline For Being Competitive Again, And How Competitive Is "Competitive," Really?

This is a question lots of NHL teams have to ask themselves. While everyone would like to win the Stanley Cup, the vast majority of teams in the league aren't especially likely to truly compete for it consistently. Some teams can make a conference final almost out of nowhere, but for most, their big prize at the end of the season is maybe getting into the second round.

The Red Wings are a team that should have higher aspirations than that, given their overall financial health (they don't need to rely on revenue sharing to make ends meet) and their status as one of the league's most important franchises.

But when you miss the playoffs for 10 years straight with no obvious end in sight, barring the kind of out-of-nowhere success teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins or Buffalo Sabres just had this past season, maybe the math is a little different. Will they be content building a team that reaches 96 or 98 points just to end the playoff drought, or will they take the longer view and try to build a team that can be Cup-competitive again further down the line?

Those goals aren't mutually exclusive, of course. Still, there are a lot of teams around the league that have shown the former kind of more modest aspirations, and you don't want to end up like the Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, or Calgary Flames.

So it's as simple as whether they want to take shortcuts for short-term gains, even if that means building a more robust prospect base for the future, or they're taking the longer view.

That, too, feels like a decision that will ultimately be dictated by ownership.

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This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 3:17 PM.