{"id":645097,"date":"2026-08-18T16:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/645097\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:09:23","slug":"are-red-wings-execs-dead-men-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/645097\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Red Wings Execs Dead Men Walking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s going on with the Detroit<\/a> Red Wings?<\/p>\n

Even generational franchise superstars who are currently part of the club\u2019s management team can\u2019t answer that question.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say much right now,\u201d Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom<\/a>, the club\u2019s vice president of hockey operations, told writer Gunnar Nordstrom of the Swedish website Expressen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When one of the biggest stars in team history doesn\u2019t appear to know what the future holds, that can\u2019t be very reassuring to the Red Wings fanbase.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is, since Steve Yzerman\u2019s<\/a> removal as GM of the club last month, every other member of the team\u2019s front office must be tiptoeing around on eggshells. <\/p>\n

Who\u2019s coming, who\u2019s going, who\u2019s staying, and who\u2019s leaving? We don\u2019t know, and evidently, they don\u2019t know, either.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 NHL Tonight (8\/7)<\/p>\n

\u2014 NHL Rumour Report (@NHLRumourReport) August 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

What also seems apparent is that owner Chris Ilitch is looking for systemic change within the club\u2019s front office.<\/p>\n

Red Wings Front Office Future Uncertain<\/p>\n

So where does that leave people like Lidstrom, director of amateur scouting Kris Draper, and player development director Dan Cleary?<\/p>\n

Who knows?<\/p>\n

Are they dead men walking?<\/p>\n

Probably.<\/p>\n

Even Horcoff\u2019s sudden status as the interim man in charge offers him little in the way of job security. <\/p>\n

Whoever is ultimately hired as GM of the Red Wings will want to bring in his own management team. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

If he hires another team of duds\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Wings Diehards\u2122 (@RedWingDiehards) August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

That means even Detroit coach Todd McLellan<\/a> and his staff are certainly wondering what the future holds for them.<\/p>\n

And yes, this is professional sports. It\u2019s a results-driven business, and people are hired and fired all of the time.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not news.<\/p>\n

However, such job disruption generally takes place within weeks of a season ending. Not within weeks of a new season getting underway.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s going on with the Detroit Red Wings? Even generational franchise superstars who are currently part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1511,93,5,4,1493,135],"class_list":["post-645097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-detroit-hockey-now","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nicklas-lidstrom","tag-steve-yzerman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117117384349091274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}