There are some definite drawbacks to getting old, but one benefit is I can say I am one of those old heads who was privileged to witness the Detroit Red Wings when they were the class of North American professional sports. With 4 Stanley Cup championships, 6 Finals appearances, a 25 year playoff streak, 16 seasons finishing atop their division — with a streak of 8 in a row — the franchise was the definition of a dynasty, with nearly every hockey hall of fame-bound player wanting to don the winged wheel to get in on the fun. Of course there was the Russian 5, which was a hell of a lot of fun and signaled European talent was among the best in the world.

Sadly, it’s time to admit those days couldn’t be further in the rearview mirror as we prepare for the 2026-27 NHL season.

As Detroit prepares to open up camp, we received news that Dylan Larkin would report to camp and there would be no captain to start this season. While the Larkin news isn’t particularly surprising, the fact they don’t have a captain at the start of training camp is emblematic of the state of the organization.

Moritz Seider is the obvious choice as the organization’s next leader, but I suspect naming him captain is a big enough honor where the organization would need to hold a press conference. Why wouldn’t Chris Ilitch want to do that? Because it would be uncomfortable for him, given he didn’t speak to the Detroit fanbase following Yzerman’s removal two months ago; given the fact one of the people believed to be central to the re-org in Jeff Greenberg just publicly announced he was stepping aside to return to the Detroit Tigers; and the Greenberg news almost certainly indicating the search will begin anew after two months of dithering.

In short, the organization appears to be in total disarray.

Chris Ilitch isn’t the sort of guy who is going to bother standing in front of the media — even a sports media as cowed as the Detroit beat reporters — and have to respond to questions like ‘hey Chris, what have you been up to this summer?’

So there will be no captain, no head of hockey ops, and no general manager as training camp kicks off. The owner remains voiceless, relying on his social media team to push out statements.

This is leadership?

While on the one hand you can understand the desire to protect Seider from having to answer for an organization that is in total disarray, with an owner essentially in absentia, it only serves to highlight the total lack of leadership across the organization.

Head coach Todd McLellan — who has referred to his time with the Red Wings organization in the aughts as a sort of Harvard education — is the lone person in a position of leadership willing to use his voice, and while he’s certainly coached enough hockey to deal with the shitshow facing him this season, he has to wonder what to make of ownership that is asleep at the wheel and a former captain who clearly has one foot out the door?

If you’ve read any of my articles, it’s clear I’m not a flamethrower, particularly not in this current social media environment, but let’s take a look at what’s taken place since the final game of the 2025-26 season.

April 23, 2026

• Steve Yzerman recommitted to turning things around in his end of season press conference that covered the team’s 10th straight season of missing the playoffs.

This is the last time anyone in a leadership position spoke in person in front of the media

June 4, 2026

• News breaks that team captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade. No one in a leadership position with the Detroit Red Wings is made available to discuss the situation. This is the first time in the franchise’s long history a sitting captain has requested a trade, and the organization said nothing.

June 27, 2026

• Steve Yzerman and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper conduct a video conference call to discuss their recent picks in the amateur draft. Yzerman indicates at the top of the call that he’ll have a statement at the end to discuss the Larkin situation. He confirms Larkin’s trade request and says he will do what is in the best interest of the Detroit Red Wings but takes no questions.

July 1, 2026

• Detroit is fairly active at the open of free agency, signing two free agents and trading for Keegan Kolesar. The organization does not conduct a press conference to discuss their free agent signings.

July 15, 2026

• It is announced that Steve Yzerman has been removed as the head of hockey operations and will have no role with the hockey club going forward. There is nothing beyond the release of the statement.

August 5, 2026

• Helene St James from the Detroit Free Press indicates the organization has hired TurnkeyZRG to help them identify candidates for the open hockey ops position. Turnkey ZRG leadership has close ties to the Ilitch family and Olympia Entertainment.

August 6, 2026

• In an appearance on NHL Tonight, Elliotte Friedman suggests current Detroit Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg is a name he’s not hearing from other sources but he believes may play a role in the new hockey ops department in Detroit.

It’s worth pointing out the MLB trade deadline was on August 3rd.

September 7, 2026

• After a month of presumably being involved with the hockey ops search process, Jeff Greenberg publicly announces he’s formally removing himself from the search process and will continue in his role with the Detroit Tigers organization.

September 10, 2026

• On his 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman says the Red Wings organization reached out to teams to request clearance to interview candidates but never contacted several of them to schedule interviews.

September 11, 2026

• The organization releases a statement that there will be no team captain announced until they figure out who will lead their hockey ops department. For the record, Steve Yzerman was removed from his post more than 8 weeks ago.

For those keeping track at home, that’s 4.5 months since anyone in a leadership position stood in front of the media and took questions. It’s nearly 9 weeks since Steve Yzerman was relieved of his duties.

Elliotte Friedman has suggested Yzerman was let go, but people who claim connections within the organization suggest Yzerman stood his ground on his plan and told Ilitch that if he didn’t like his plan, he should fire him — or words to that effect.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it makes much difference how things transpired, other than to say if Ilitch intended to fire Yzerman, it displays a breathtaking amount of incompetence to do so after Yzerman ran the draft and signed free agents.

While Simon Edvinsson seems willing to report to camp without a new contract, it’s yet another sign of how poorly the organization is being run. With no general manager and no head of hockey operations, the expectation would be for the owner to give a sense of how things are trending, but Chris Ilitch only seems capable of issuing statements via social media.

Todd McLellan was clearly given full permission by Yzerman to speak his mind with regards to the state of the team, so with Yzerman now out of the picture, it will be interesting to see what McLellan has to say as training camp opens up. Without Yzerman’s support, we may not get the level of candor we’ve come to expect from the bench boss.

If that’s the case, we’ll have to continue to rely on leadership via social media post.

While it’s been a tumultuous summer for the Detroit Red Wings organization, that shouldn’t detract from this summer’s signing of Viktor Arvidsson to a 2-year, $10 million contact.

Arvidsson’s had a successful NHL career to date, playing nearly 700 NHL games with 5 seasons of 25 or more goals. He came into his own in the league as a member of the Nashville Predators, scoring 94 goals over three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

The bottom fell out for Nashville towards the end of Arvi’s time in Music City, as the Predators went from a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in the 2016-17 season to first round fodder over his final four seasons. He was eventually traded to Los Angeles in 2021 with three years remaining on his contract.

Arvidsson continued to be a quality scorer in Los Angeles until his final season got derailed by back surgery. When he hit free agency, he signed to a 2-year deal with Edmonton and, after a disappointing season with the Oil, was moved to Boston last year, where he regained his scoring touch, potting 25 goals.

Today, we’re going to do a deep dive into Arvidsson’s deployment during his time with both the Kings and Bruins, as those are likely to give us the best insight into how Todd McClellan will use him this season.

Viktor Arvidsson: isolated impact per 1200 average deployment minutes

Credit: Micah Blake McCurdy, Hockey Viz

For Arvi, I’d imagine a big part of the appeal with Detroit is the fact the 2RW spot was opening up, with talk of Patrick Kane pursuing a deal with another organization — ultimately being reunited with the Chicago Blackhawks. As the visualization above demonstrates, Arvidsson’s scoring rates position him as a middle six forward.

Using Hockey Viz’s synthetic goals metric, Arvidsson has typically scored at a rate that would fit in line with a 3rd through 8th forward, which, while it trails Kane’s sG (which suggests he’s been a top 5 forward during his time in Detroit), represents a player ideally suited for the 3RW spot. Like nearly everyone in Detroit, he’d be ideal if he could be deployed in his proper place within the lineup rather than having to play further up, but he’s a quality addition for a team that needs scoring, as Detroit was 17th in the league last season in expected goals.

As we dig in, let’s start off by taking a big picture view of Avi’s deployment across his last three organizations.

Source: Hockey Reference

Looking at how he was deployed under Todd McLellan in Los Angeles during the 2022-23 season, it’s no shock he’d be willing to reunite with him in Detroit: Arvi got first line minutes 5v5 and got heavy power play time before his 2023-24 season was lost to injury.

The 59 points he put up in 2022-23 represented his best season since his age 24 campaign in Nashville, where he compiled 29 goals and 61 points. He averaged 17 minutes a night in LA that season and shot at a very reasonable 11.4% clip, and while he wasn’t the dominant 5v5 goal scorer he was in Nashville — from age 23 to 25, he averaged just under 25 even-strength goals per season — he was still a respectable point producer.

Let’s take a look at who centered Arvidsson back in 2022-23.

Arvi’s Line Splits: Los Angeles (2022-23)

Source: Natural Stat Trick

Arvidsson was used as a middle six right wing, with his primary pivot being 2nd line center Philip Danault. The duo performed well, with Danault and Arvidsson generating an expected 5v5 goal differential of +6.77, despite taking more than half of their draws in the defensive zone.

The addition of Moore to the mix as their left wing worked out reasonably well, with the three forwards generating an xGD of +4.65.

Overall, Arvidsson’s 2002-23 season in Los Angeles should make us optimistic about his role in replacing Patrick Kane, the question is who will end up centering him in Detroit, and we’ll get to that when we conclude this article.

Next let’s take a look at his deployment in Boston last season.

Arvi’s Line Splits: Boston (2025-26)

Source: Natural Stat Trick

Arvidsson played almost exclusively with Pavel Zacha, and that line punched well above their expected goal differential (-3.36) by a whopping 22 goals. Arvi’s time on Fraser Minter’s line also went well, as the duo kept their heads above water for both expected and actual goal differentials. Arvidsson also received a small amount of ice time with top centers Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm, but it was so small it’s not going to tell us much.

Looking at Hockey Viz’s Presence and Importance chart for the Bruins last season, Zacha is listed as the Bruins’ third center behind Lindholm and Geekie, while Arvidsson is listed 7th among all Boston forwards; so Zacha and Arvidsson — along with Casey Mittelstadt — provided the key pieces to a very high end NHL third line.

This fits in line with Arvidsson’s career to date, going all the way back to when he broke out with the Predators. The chart listed at the top of the article which tracks Arvidsson’s production per 1200 minute season places him firmly in the 3rd line forward spot as a player who can provide exceptional scoring depth.

If you believe Boston’s play-style resulted in their elevated goal production — Boston finished last season 29th in expected goals, but their goals for placed them 11th in the league — then you may feel skeptical about Arvidsson being able to replicate this production in Detroit. In Boston, Arvidsson — along with Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt — formed one of the best middle six lines in the entire league.

The only forward line across the league with a better goal differential…(+19) is the Colorado Avalanche’s top forward grouping of Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, and Martin Necas — who have outscored foes, 37-16, in their 474 minutes of 5-on-5 reps (+21).

-Conor Ryan, Boston.com

Boston coach Marco Sturm commented on how this line tended to score their goals, which was anything but tic tac toe:

That’s what they do, right? It was not pretty, but that’s how they play. They’re just hard around pucks…

-Bruins head coach Marco Sturm following a 6-1 victory over Winnipeg

In looking at Arvidsson’s finishing stats over at Hockey Viz, he appears to be above average at scoring in close or near the right face-off circle. He’s also good at poaching goals by getting behind the defense on breakaways. In the o-zone, he thrives off the chaos that ensues from a forecheck and typically sets up shop around the opposing net.

It remains to be seen whether Detroit has the capability to deploy a middle six line similar to how Boston utilized Arvidsson last season; I have some thoughts on how this would work, which we’ll get to in the conclusion of this article.

How Arvidsson is used on the Power Play

You have to go back to that 2022-23 season in LA to find a campaign where Arvidsson was a major contributor on the power play, potting 10 goals with the man advantage. For that campaign, Arvidsson was the 5th most utilized forward on the ice, with Drew Doughty dominating ice time among defenders.

Arvi primarily played with Danault as his center on the power play, as well as with Arthur Kaliyev, who scored 8 power play goals, but also got decent ice time with Anže Kopitar, who potted 7 power play goals, and Adrian Kempe, who led the Kings with 11 power play tallies.

Conversely, when in Edmonton, Arvi was on the second unit, with his most common linemates being Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jeff Skinner. Hyman plays a similar game to Arvidsson, and was a much more established player in Edmonton, so it’s no shock Arvi wasn’t a major contributor to the Oil man advantage.

Edmonton leaned very heavily on Evan Bouchard, Draisaitl, McDavid, Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins as their primary attackers with the man advantage, which resulted in Arvidsson only contributing one power play goal.

Last season in Boston, Arvidsson was 5th among forwards in the pecking order, often playing with Casey Mittelstadt and David Pasterňák. Pasta had one of his poorer seasons when it came to power play scoring, and Arvi only contributed 4 goals himself.

While the Bruins had a top 10 power play unit in terms of goals scored and success percentage, Morgan Geekie, along with Pasterňák, Zacha and McAvoy were the guys driving the bus, with each guy being on the ice for 9.8 or more goals per 60 minutes. For Arvidsson, he was only on the ice for 7.5 goal for per 60 last season.

The takeaway here is he’s likely going to need Power Play 1 minutes in order to score with the man advantage.

Now let’s take a look at Detroit’s depth at right wing next season.

Detroit’s Depth at Right Wing

Source: Hockey Reference

On the surface, Viktor Arvidsson would seem to be a solid replacement for Patrick Kane as the Red Wings 2RW. For comparison, last season Patrick Kane put up 16 goals off a 9.5% shooting percentage, and averaged 14:30 TOI at 5v5. So while he played 2 more minutes per game at even strength, Arvidsson’s shooting and goal production were much better.

Arvidsson’s time in Edmonton, however, suggests he struggles when given tougher minutes. During his season with the Oil, he was 5th among forwards and 2nd among wingers according to Hockey Viz’s Presence and Importance chart for forwards.

While it’s tough to suss out one consistent lineup at even strength during his time in Edmonton, Arvidsson was most effective when on the ice with Leon Draisaitl, Jeff Skinner and Vasily Podkolzin. Of course Draisaitl was getting some of the toughest minutes in the league, and when the two were paired up at even-strength, Edmonton didn’t produce offense.

While Leon Draisaitl got a decent number of Selke votes that season, he’s not your typical checking line center, and that’s perfectly fine given his skill set, but it wasn’t a great fit for Arvidsson to do his best work.

When Arvi was on the ice with Adam Henrique, the Oil were spinning their wheels with some of the highest expected goals against and lowest expected goals for among Edmonton skaters.

To me, this demonstrates that Arvidsson would perform best on a third line that has a clear identity as a forechecking line that is hard on the puck. That describes his time in Los Angeles in 2022-23 and with Boston last season.

In Los Angeles, linemates Philip Danault and Trevor Moore combined for 141 hits. This past season, while his linemates Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt’s hit totals don’t jump off the page, as Marco Sturm commented, they were hard on the puck. In both situations, his line got less than half their zone starts in the o-zone, but were generally capable of holding their own when it came to tilting the ice.

Viktor Arvidsson’s Role in Detroit

The hope as the 2026-27 season opens is that Marco Kasper can turn into a Pavel Zacha-like pivot. While Kasper had a horrific sophomore campaign last season, his 37 point rookie season as a 20 year old was better than any season Zacha had prior to his age 25 season when he hit 57 points.

To continue with the hopium for next season, Emmitt Finnie may be able to hold down the Cassey Mittelstadt role, as the 20 year old former 7th round pick put up 30 points in his age 20 season; Mittelstadt hit 25 points in his age 20 season as a member of the Sabres.

While past production guarantees nothing, there’s reason to believe Kasper and Finnie, who both made the NHL at age 20, are on a solid trajectory.

Oh, and last season Kasper and Finnie combined to generate 317 hits. That’s a line that would be hard on the puck, which would give Arvidsson his best chance at producing 25 or more goals for Detroit. The question of course is whether the Red Wings will use this group as a 2nd or 3rd line?

Put on your Red Wings tinted glasses, and squint real hard, and you can see this being a second line that Todd McLellan can expect to compete on a nightly basis. You’d prefer to see them dominate as a third line, but as has been the case throughout Detroit’s rebuild, you are often stuck utilizing players further up the lineup than their ideal spot.

If this unit cannot keep their head above water as the second line, it may make sense to play Andrew Copp and JT Compher as the nucleus of your second line, thereby bumping the Finnie-Kasper-Arvidsson group down to the third line.

On the power play, the Red Wings have lost two of their top 5 forwards in Kane and James van Riemsdyk, with their #2 forward in Dylan Larkin likely to be moved at some point this season. This likely suggests a PP1 unit of DeBrincat, Larkin, Raymond, Seider and Arvidsson, at least for the start of the season. If that’s the case, I’m bullish on Arvidsson making a serious run at the 10 power play goals he scored for the Kings in 2022-23.

Even strength is going to be more of a challenge, particularly if Arvidsson is paired up with Finnie and Kasper, but it’s also a line that has the potential to punch above their weight class given the type of game the two youngsters play.

For as long as he remains with the club, Dylan Larkin could be expected to center the top line with Alex DeBrincat on the left wing and Lucas Raymond on the right flank. That’s a legit top scoring line so long as Larkin can play at the level expected from him. It may also help goose his production, which could help drive up his trade value.

The second line is where the big, difficult questions pop up.

If Finnie and Kasper can hold down second line duties, there’s reason to be optimistic about Detroit’s top two lines, at least until Larkin’s trade request finally gets resolved.

While we await the outcome of Chris Ilitch’s search for the new hockey ops group to lead his NHL franchise, we can skip ahead and consider a few options for how the 2026-27 season may play out.

The two big factors that loom large over the franchise are as follows:

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As has often been the case with these pieces, I will lay my cards out from the drop: I don’t see why Jeff Greenberg would leave the Tigers’ front office for the same role with a struggling Red Wings franchise. On the one hand, he’s helped turn the Tigers around, as the franchise has made two straight post-seasons, and — if not for a brutal stretch of in…

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Previous articles:

• Vegas Assistant GM Vaughn Karpan

• Carolina Assistant GM Tyler Dellow

• Buffalo VP of Hockey Strategy & Research Sam Ventura

• Dallas Assistant GM Scott White

One of the principal complaints about how late Detroit’s decision came to reboot their hockey ops department was the belief that all the good candidates had been snatched up.

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Previous articles:

• Carolina Assistant GM Tyler Dellow

• Buffalo VP of Hockey Strategy & Research Sam Ventura

• Dallas Assistant GM Scott White

Like my preview for Sam Ventura, I’m going to lay my cards out at the drop: I don’t view Karpan as a strong candidate for the GM spot. However there are rumors circulating across the internet that Vaughn Karpan is goi…

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Previous articles in this series:

• Dallas Assistant GM Scott White

• Buffalo VP of Hockey Strategy & Research Sam Ventura

In my previous article in this series I made the case for Sam Ventura as the next Red Wings GM. The takeaway from that article was that Ventura would be a very acceptable choice in MLB, but probably needs a few seasons as an assistant GM b…

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Credit: NHL

Let me begin by saying there is absolutely nothing to indicate Sam Ventura will get an interview with the Detroit Red Wings. However, when you look at the recent success of Eric Tulsky with the Carolina Hurricanes, and you consider that most poorly performing sports teams tend to be copy cats when it comes to cribbing what they view as the ‘s…

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Credit: Maple Leafs Hot Stove

With Helene St James and Elliotte Friedman reporting that interviews are set to begin to fill Detroit’s Hockey Ops and GM vacancies, I decided to take a look at a few names who seem like logical candidates to get an interview slot. Today, we’ll take a look at Scott White, who served as GM of the Texas Stars for 16 seasons an…

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Credit: MLive

I got back from a camping trip with my son just in time to hear the latest on Chris Ilitch’s search to replace Steve Yzerman. Helene St James and Elliotte Friedman are reporting that the Red Wings have hired outside consultants to help them identify the next hockey operations person to lead the organization, and interviews will begin next w…

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Credit: TSN

The last time the Detroit Red Wings took a USNTDP player out of Hermantown, Minnesota in the second round, it worked out pretty well; so it didn’t come as much of a shock when they selected the third and youngest of the Plante brothers with the 47th overall pick in this summer’s draft.

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Last week we learned that Steve Yzerman was out as Detroit’s general manager. While my first reaction can best be described as shock, it was quickly replaced with a sense of relief, as Yzerman was stuck in a Groundhog Day of perpetual mediocrity.

To be fair, he never got much lottery luck, and Detroit just happens to be in a division that has become the …

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No, I’m not suggesting Eric Tulsky as the next GM

In the aftermath of Steve Yzerman being moved out of the Vice President of Hockey Operations and General Manager role in Detroit, it’s natural to think about whom Chris Ilitch will appoint to fill these roles? I’m not going to throw out names, at least not until we get some reporting on people being consi…

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With the news of Steve Yzerman being ‘moved’ out of the GM chair in Detroit, the time has come for Chis Ilitch to revamp the entire Detroit Red Wings front office. When you’ve had as much success as this club had from the 1990s to the 2010s, it’s understandable to lean on those who played a major role in that success; but at some point, you must come to…

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Credit: Castanet

When I wrote up my 2026 Red Wings Draft Primer, Detroit didn’t have a first round draft pick due to the Justin Faulk trade. The team however was able to get back into the first round when Utah exchanged their 23rd overall pick for Sebastian Cossa, and with that pick the Red Wings selected JP Hurlbert.

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Credit: The Peterborough Examiner

Note: during the summer, I’m going to create scouting reports on the most recent Red Wings draft picks. In my Red Wings draft primer I identified Levac as a prospect I liked in the back half of the draft, so this year’s series will start off with him.

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While Steve Yzerman and Dylan Larkin engage in a game of chicken regarding the former Captain’s destination, Detroit made two free agency signings and one trade this month. Let’s take a look at those moves and try to suss out what they tell us about this upcoming season.

The Dylan Larkin Sitch

At the end of Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper’s press conference…

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Since NHL drafts have embraced WFH energy, we dip into the archives

Following up on last year’s first edition, it’s time to make far too early proclamations on how this draft went for the Detroit Red Wings. In my draft preview, I made the case that Detroit needed to finally target skill with their best draft capital, and I have to say I am pleasantly sur…

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Credit: Detroit Hockey Insider

For the first time since Ken Holland was general manager, the Detroit Red Wings do not have a pick in the first round of this weekend’s NHL draft. While they lost their first rounder to St Louis as part of the Justin Faulk trade, there’s certainly a possibility of them gaining a first as part of a Dylan Larkin trade package…

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Photo: CBS17

In my first post on the Yzerplan, I outlined Ken Holland’s doomed attempt to retool on the fly, and the transition to Steve Yzerman’s patient pursuit of a core that would grant the franchise a long window to compete for championships. As I’ve witnessed the Red Wings get close to qualifying for playoff hockey the past four years before ultima…

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