Red Wings owner Christopher Ilitch will “likely look to his baseball team” — the Tigers — for inspiration, as he “heads up the search to reshape” the team’s front office, according to Helene St. James of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. When Ilitch revamped the Tigers in 2022, he chose Scott Harris as president of baseball operations, who was “viewed as an analytics guy” with an MBA from Columbia University. Ilitch is “big on analytics, as he pushed” former Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman to “lean into the field.” The Red Wings said in a statement that “internal candidates would be considered, but odds overwhelmingly favor an external one.” St. James wrote former NHLer Brendan Shanahan “makes sense on multiple levels.” He is an “experienced president of hockey operations,” played for the Red Wings from 1996-2006 and brings “instant name recognition and should excite a fan base that’s endured 10 straight years of missing the playoffs.” It could “make sense to have someone with Shanahan’s cachet as the top man, with another hire serving as general manager” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 7/19).
