In an (somewhat) unexpected announcement Wednesday morning, the Red Wings announced that Steve Yzerman will be transitioning from his role as Executive Vice President and General Manager. Yzerman will continue to serve as a senior advisor to Governor and CEO Chris Ilitch.
According to a statement from the team, The search for a new head of hockey operations is underway. Yzerman will remain in his current role until a successor is named. The Red Wings say that Yzerman will serve on the search committee for a new hockey ops leader in an advisory capacity.
I don’t really need to explain why this is happening. Obviously Yzerman’s rebuild didn’t work out, and the team is in a really tough spot with Dylan Larkin’s trade request, and the potential domino effect it could have. “Clearly, we are not where we and our fans expect to be as an organization. I’m looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves,” Chris Ilitch said in a statement.
In the announcement, the Red Wings said the search for a new GM will be led by Chris Ilitch, and that both internal and external candidates will be considered. If you were to ask me, or most Red Wings fans, the preference would of course be an external candidate. It’ll probably be Kris Draper.
