The post Are Red Wings Execs Dead Men Walking? appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.
What’s going on with the Detroit Red Wings?
Even generational franchise superstars who are currently part of the club’s management team can’t answer that question.
“I can’t say much right now,” Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom, the club’s vice president of hockey operations, told writer Gunnar Nordstrom of the Swedish website Expressen.
When one of the biggest stars in team history doesn’t appear to know what the future holds, that can’t be very reassuring to the Red Wings fanbase.
The fact of the matter is, since Steve Yzerman’s removal as GM of the club last month, every other member of the team’s front office must be tiptoeing around on eggshells.
Who’s coming, who’s going, who’s staying, and who’s leaving? We don’t know, and evidently, they don’t know, either.
Elliotte Friedman: Re Red Wings management search: I think if [Detroit Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg's] interested in the job, he will be a factor; I'm not saying he's the favourite or anything like that – NHL Tonight (8/7)
— NHL Rumour Report (@NHLRumourReport) August 18, 2026
What we do know is that, for the time being, assistant GM Shawn Horcoff appears to be the man calling the shots in the hockey operations department.
What also seems apparent is that owner Chris Ilitch is looking for systemic change within the club’s front office.
Red Wings Front Office Future Uncertain
So where does that leave people like Lidstrom, director of amateur scouting Kris Draper, and player development director Dan Cleary?
Who knows?
Are they dead men walking?
Probably.
Even Horcoff’s sudden status as the interim man in charge offers him little in the way of job security.
Whoever is ultimately hired as GM of the Red Wings will want to bring in his own management team.
Friendly reminder that Chris Ilitch earns a lifetime of love and respect in the city of Detroit if he can hit a home run with this Detroit Hockey Ops search AND IF that team he hires can get Detroit back to perennial contender status in the NHL.
— Red Wings Diehards™ (@RedWingDiehards) August 12, 2026
If he hires another team of duds…
That means even Detroit coach Todd McLellan and his staff are certainly wondering what the future holds for them.
And yes, this is professional sports. It’s a results-driven business, and people are hired and fired all of the time.
That’s not news.
However, such job disruption generally takes place within weeks of a season ending. Not within weeks of a new season getting underway.
The Red Wings are in a state of confusion. And, with a new campaign looming over the horizon, the time to bring some order to the situation is running out fast.
The post Are Red Wings Execs Dead Men Walking? appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.