Commentary | Red Wings legend Yzerman failed to adapt in rapidly changing NHL
When a team endures a decade of misery, a staggering playoff drought and player unrest, a change in leadership isn’t shocking. When it features the inglorious fall of a franchise legend? One of the more shocking failures in Detroit sports history.
Steve Yzerman’s ouster as Red Wings’ GM is the ending no one saw coming, right up until it became inevitable. In a rapidly changing NHL, Yzerman couldn’t make deals in the forceful manner that was successful elsewhere, in another time with another team. He negotiated hard, tried to rebuild dutifully, but struggled to adjust in a league where players are gaining more control, where “Original Six” teams don’t have the same appeal, where the once-mighty Wings are just another dysfunctional franchise.
The Dylan Larkin impasse will be considered the fatal blow for Yzerman here, but it goes deeper. Larkin wanted out partly because Yzerman wasn’t able to upgrade the roster, an issue that grew as the playoff drought hit 10 years. Free agents and their advisers spurned the Wings. Trades couldn’t be consummated because players wouldn’t commit to the Wings long term.
Owner Chris Ilitch made the announcement Wednesday that Yzerman, 61, was moving to a new role as senior adviser and would help in the search for his replacement. Perhaps there was mutual agreement for the change. Plenty of people - players, fans, other team executives - were fed up with Yzerman, who may have been fed up with the new realities of team-building in the NHL.
Ilitch said they’d explore internal and external candidates for the next leader, and I assume assistant GM Kris Draper will get a look. But this also is a chance for Ilitch to do what he did with the Tigers when he hired Scott Harris four years ago, making a clean break and bringing in fresh ideas.
“Clearly, we are not where we and our fans expect to be as an organization,” Ilitch said in a release. “I’m looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves.”
Yzerman’s response was what you’d expect from a franchise icon.
“My commitment to the Red Wings and this community will never waver,” Yzerman was quoted in the release. “I want to thank our passionate fanbase for their support, as they are what makes Detroit and the entire state of Michigan a very special place in the hockey world.”
Right now, it’s a long way from that special place. If Larkin’s trade request was the tipping point, and it certainly appears that way, it’s somewhat ironic. Larkin was the one who originally made the strongest commitment, signing an eight-year contract extension in 2023. By locking up his captain at a reasonable rate ($8.7M average salary), Yzerman won that battle. But he often lost the war for team cohesiveness and chemistry, and that protracted negotiation reportedly sparked discord between the two.
It certainly didn’t help that the day after Larkin signed, Yzerman traded forward Tyler Bertuzzi to the Bruins for a first-round pick and more. Instead of celebrating his new deal, Larkin broke down in tears talking about the departure of his close friend.
From then to now, the rift grew between the two - the old-school iconic captain who won championships, and the new-school captain who’s about to turn 30 and has made it to the postseason only once. That’s not all Larkin’s fault, of course. But it helps explain their differing perspectives.
When Larkin’s trade request became public six weeks ago, this is what I wrote: Yzerman can be unyielding and austere, more about business, less about feelings. But times and players are changing. Yzerman’s firm control and tough negotiating worked in Tampa. … That was almost 10 years ago, and Yzerman’s approach has taken a beating in Detroit.
In seven seasons in charge here, Yzerman collected young talent and assets, and seemed to be building the right way. He inherited a decimated roster after Ken Holland’s departure at the end of a 25-year playoff streak. Pain and patience were expected, but not limitless. And maybe over time, Ilitch and Yzerman weren’t as compatible as they’d hoped.
Yzerman struggled to lure high-end talent and had to operate in the margins. He landed Alex DeBrincat, who wanted to come home to the Detroit area. He signed aging-but-still effective Patrick Kane. Sprinkled among those were middlin’ veterans such as Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher, James van Riemsdyk and others.
The Wings’ best young players - Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson - were drafted and developed. That was always the plan, but it required supplementing with stars. A fierce leader as a player, Yzerman also was one of the brightest executives in the league when he built Tampa Bay into a Stanley Cup champion. He didn’t forget how to judge talent and negotiate when he came back to Detroit in 2019. He also didn’t inherit nearly the talent he did in Tampa, where Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman were becoming superstars.
The NHL has changed dramatically just in the past couple years, with elite players forcing their way to preferred destinations, to play with preferred teammates. While winning an Olympic gold medal, U.S. players celebrated and bonded in the most competitive environment possible, and some, like Larkin, wanted more of it.
Even before then, star defenseman Quinn Hughes forced his way out of Vancouver last December. Hughes played at Michigan and is friends with Larkin. Yzerman was interested but Hughes had only one year left on his contract and wouldn’t commit to a long-term deal with the Wings (or anyone else). Yzerman wouldn’t pull the trigger without that commitment, and didn’t want to surrender Edvinsson in the deal. Minnesota gave up a bounty, and now faces a difficult negotiation with Hughes, whose agent (Pat Brisson) is also Larkin’s agent.
In this game, relationships matter. Over the past several years, other stars have pushed to move and been accommodated. Brady Tkachuk forced his way out of Ottawa to play with his brother Matthew in Florida. Mitch Marner and Jack Eichel maneuvered their way to Las Vegas. For hockey stars, these lures are strong: Sunshine, Stanley Cup chances, low-tax states.
Twice in recent years Larkin complained that management didn’t do enough to enhance the roster at the trade deadline, precipitating one late-season collapse after another. Players deserve blame too, and that includes Larkin, who perhaps was miscast as a top-line center and captain. He needed help and asked for it, but Yzerman was reluctant (or unable) to deal, and held the contract hammer.
Yzerman’s power blunted
Larkin had his own hammer, a no-movement clause that effectively blunted Yzerman’s power. When Larkin offered a list of only three teams he’d agree to, Yzerman knew it would be difficult to win the deal, and said there was no guarantee he’d honor the request. He had a valuable asset, a productive center on a team-friendly contract, and wasn’t surrendering it for draft picks and youngsters.
Yzerman dug in. Larkin dug in. The Wings made modest moves, acquiring rugged forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Keegan Kolesar, but couldn’t revamp further without settling the Larkin issue.
With training camp less than two months away, someone had to break. And maybe that someone was Ilitch, whose team was being bashed for the mess. You could argue it makes sense now to trade Larkin for picks and prospects and relaunch the rebuild. You also could argue it might make sense for Larkin to rescind his request and make amends with his hometown team.
The Wings are in better shape than when Yzerman arrived, but not nearly the shape many envisioned. Yzerman’s unwavering hockey beliefs served him well as a player and as an executive in Tampa, and his credentials in those situations are unblemished. But in the league’s shifting landscape, his principles are framed as stubbornness, and fewer people want to play his way.
He couldn’t make deals, not big bold deals, and he couldn’t deal with it. Or he didn’t want to deal with it anymore. Obviously something had to change, and if Yzerman couldn’t, the Wings had no choice.
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This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 11:03 PM.