To paraphrase the Simpsons, ‘ya gotta help us Shawn, we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!’
After 9 weeks of dithering in their search for a general manager to replace Steve Yzerman and — with training camp set to open up in a matter of days — Chris Ilitch took the path of least resistance by naming interim general manager Shawn Horcoff as his officially-official interim general manager for…well…who the hell knows how long?
It was announced, of course, via social media post.
This is the same Shawn Horcoff whom Helene St James reported as the guy picked to keep the lights on in the GM office and get the coffee started each morning after Yzerman was removed from the GM chair, the guy whom St James reported was not authorized to make trades, outside of acquiring Sutter Muzzatti for literally nothing, and who will join the Grand Rapids Griffins roster.
Horcoff is also the same guy who was almost certainly interviewed for the role when Jeff Greenberg was heavily involved in the process for a month, with Greenberg likely serving the head of hockey ops role, before announcing last week that he was stepping aside to return to his role with the Detroit Tigers. Horcoff clearly wasn’t the guy the organization landed on during that search process that ultimately proved fruitless.
So here we are, and, on third glance, hey, Shawn ain’t looking so bad.
While Horcoff will try to make the best of what is clearly a bad situation, he’ll presumably be tasked with trading Dylan Larkin, signing Simon Edvinsson, and getting Alex DeBrincat extended. Larkin will be the most difficult bit of business given how unwilling he’s been to open up his trade list.
Edvinsson and DeBrincat both seem interested in continuing to play for a club in the running for being the most dysfunctional organization in professional sports, which is a small mercy in and of itself, so those deals are presumed to be layups should the interim GM be called on to handle both of those negotiations.
I’ll have more to say if we are graced with a press conference where someone in a position of leadership gives us insight into the future direction of the hockey club.