After years of missed playoffs and crushing mediocrity, the Detroit Red Wings had to make changes. What they didn’t need to do was approach the process in such a confusing, nonsensical way that the once-proud organization now feels like a rudderless ship, drifting into the fog — seemingly without anyone who knows how to fix it and turn it around.

When the Wings announced in July that Steve Yzerman would no longer be the team’s general manager moving forward, they put one man’s feelings above the needs of an entire organization. In an effort to preserve Yzerman’s ego the team said he was simply “stepping aside” and taking on an “advisory role” to team owner Christopher Ilitch — but stupidly allowed Yzerman to oversee free agency and the 2026 NHL Draft before leaving his role.

This was the canary in the coal mine for the Red Wings disastrous offseason. There wasn’t a need for Yzerman’s exit to be a long, drawn-out process after Detroit’s spring collapse, which was partially due to inconsistent play, but also horrific trade deadline management by Yzerman. Detroit’s deadline saw the team make moves that did nothing to help the organization, while also giving up critical draft capital. The team traded its 1st round pick for 34-year-old Justin Faulk, who proceeded to go -5 in 17 games for the Wings, while overspending on the acquisition of 38-year-old David Perron, who netted three goals and a -9 in 16 games after the trade.

The end result was a Red Wings team that went 5-8-3 after the deadline, destroying any hopes of the playoffs, while watching Elmer Söderblom (who Yzerman traded to Pittsburgh) thrive for a Penguins team that made the playoff push Detroit lacked.

These were all known quantities back in April when Detroit’s season ended, but the organization instead approached the Yzerman problem as a bizarre mystery they had to unravel, taking the better part of three months to announce they were moving on. Ilitch said it took time because the team wanted a thorough review of the organization — all while anyone with eyes could see the glaring problem in front of this team.

Instead of acknowledging the Yzerman issue and solving it, the team dragged out the process to move it away from national focus. Now you had a man with a reputation for making horrible hockey moves overseeing the most critical teambuilding period on the calendar, for seemingly no reason.

When it came to free agency there was one simple move the team had to make: Re-sign Patrick Kane. That’s it. That’s the end of the list. It wouldn’t have made the team drastically better, but was critical to ensure they didn’t get worse. Instead Yzerman let Kane walk for a contract he easily could have bettered, then tried to back-fill the void by trading for Keegan Kolesar (who had already been regressing in Las Vegas), and making Viktor Arvidsson his big free-agent acquisition, despite Arvidsson having a history of inconsistent play.

In the span of three months, Yzerman single-handedly took a team that looked like a playoff lock, and tinkered them out of contention. Then he ensured they would get worse in the future, while facing the reality that he had given away a Top 15 pick for Faulk, who is clearly past his prime. It takes a real knack to solve other team’s problems while making your own organization worse, but Yzerman managed to do it.

As for why Detroit found itself in such a hole, that comes back to the front office as well. The NHL Draft is an imprecise process, but when it came to Yzerman’s hand he might as well have been throwing darts blind. Since becoming the GM in 2019 to 2025 the team selected 67 players, picking five times in the Top 10 — only 14 players have suited up for an NHL game, while Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond are the only players who would be considered legitimate, above-average NHL talents.

Another hammer fell on the organization in June when captain Dylan Larkin demanded a trade. At the time it appeared as though the Red Wings were simply running everything back with Yzerman at the helm, and Larkin saw a team around him that was getting dramatically worse.

There are wildly varying opinions on the Larkin situation, and none of them are inherently wrong. Yes, he should honor the contract he signed in 2023, especially when he’s the captain — and even more so when he’s the one guy who can help get things back on track. However, Larkin didn’t ask to be saddled with Yzerman’s inability to surround him with talent, especially considering it appeared the GM would be back.

The Wings decided the best path forward would be to kick the ball down the road, and say they wouldn’t deal with the Larkin situation until they had a permanent GM in place. The issue is that they couldn’t find a permanent GM in July or August, because at that point the majority of qualified candidates were gone — and others who might consider taking the job would have to take it knowing they didn’t have a free agency or draft to improve the roster, opening themselves up to be a scapegoat.

Just when you think there isn’t a way the Red Wings could have made this worse, they found a way. The team announced it was stripping Larkin of his captaincy, which is understandable because you don’t want a disgrunted leader — but stunningly they also said they just won’t have a captain.

Four days later they finally name a GM, and its Shawn Horcroff as an interim. The organization pulled up their AHL general manager to take over the top job. We don’t know if he’s up to the job, he doesn’t have experience at the NHL level, and he’s functionally cut from the same cloth as Yzerman when it comes to his process. So the team replaced Steve Yzerman with … a less experienced Steve Yzerman.

It’s a mess. A mess of Titanic proportions. There’s an alternate timeline here where the Red Wings present the market with a roster that has some solid talent, it just needs honing — they land a top GM prospect, use their large war chest of salary cap space to improve, and we’re looking at this team like a playoff lock right now. Instead, they have managed to set themselves back several years, become the laughingstock of the NHL, upset their fanbase, and make Detroit a less attractive landing spot for future talent, both at the player and executive level.

All because this team decided it was more important to shield Steve Yzerman than build the team.