In the midst of a quiet season in the National Hockey League, there have been waves coming out of Detroit as it has been announced that Steve Yzerman will step down as General Manager of the Red Wings and move up to become a senior advisor to CEO Chris Ilitch.
NHL news: Yzerman out of GM, Devils sign Mantha, several others signed
This action makes many people scratch their heads, wondering why now. If the Red Wings were going to move on from Yzerman, they probably should have done it after the season to have new personnel in the draft and free agency.
“Now is the time in my opinion, if he was fired, why now?” Helene St. James said on the Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play segment on Wednesday. “It’s been three months since the end of the season. To me, this is a strong indication that he has decided to step down. But it leaves a messy situation. I mean, whoever replaces him still has to deal with all the dirt of Dylan Larkin, among many other things, to try to make this team look like they might not be the worst team in Mpumalanga next season.”
For the most part, and it has been reported all season, if Steve Yzerman were to leave, it would be on his own terms. What a competitor you are. CEO Chris Ilitch wouldn’t fire him. But you have to wonder, when you look at everything that’s happened over the past few seasons with the Detroit Red Wings failing to make the playoffs and their massive slump, if the time was right for him to step aside.
What will happen to Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings?
But Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet noted on Wednesday night’s NHL Tonight show on the NHL Network that there is some truth to what Helene St. James said at the beginning of the day. Perhaps Steve Yzerman has said that being the General Manager in Detroit is not for him anymore. His style of GM would not work in today’s NHL.
“I was surprised. I really did not see it coming at this time. I agree with you, the timing is strange, but what I think here is that we have seen chaos in the last few weeks and months in the NHL between offer sheets, trade requests, not only in Detroit but elsewhere. Some of the changes that we see are contracts, and, Steve will keep me very close.
Not many people know what you’re thinking, so most of us are guessing here, and I’ll say that. But part of me wondered if maybe Yzerman saw where this was going and said, ‘It’s my time. This is not for me.’ And maybe he’ll come out and say, ‘Elliotte, you just came up with the stupidest theory anyone has ever put forward.’ But it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some level of truth to that.”
We know Yzerman has been a tough negotiator when it comes to contracts, not only during his time in Detroit but also as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning. You are looking for players who are positioned under the cap structure. Yzerman likes young players brought in before paying big money, and the most important thing for him was that he wasn’t aggressive enough to turn the Red Wings around.
Some Players on the Detroit Red Wings Feel Steve Yzerman Is Too Patient
Yzerman was too patient as a general manager, and it rubbed off on some of his players. Not to mention that he publicly said about his rebuilding team and that their numbers may not be as good as they thought, despite being in first place in the Atlantic Division at the end of January for the 2025-26 season.
There’s a reason Alex DeBrincat, who has one year left on his contract, doesn’t have a new deal, and Simon Evidsson doesn’t have a new contract. Yzerman can’t handle the new NHL performance. He doesn’t want to give these players throwaway dollars. So when the book is written, maybe it will be revealed that this was his decision to withdraw and not the organization that forced him.
“Like, the league has changed so much in a very short period of time, and it makes me wonder if he said where the Red Wings should go and what the organization is going to do, it might not be decisions that I like, or I’m comfortable with where the league is going. So, on one level, I’m looking at all of this and the timing of this announcement,”
Given the way things have been going over the past few seasons, it’s a wonder the announcement didn’t come sooner. Now, all eyes are on Dylan Larkin and who the Detroit Red Wings are hiring as their next general manager.
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