BY MIKE RIFKIN
In the late 90s and into the 2000s the Detroit Red Wings were the envy of every fan base, because of how consistent they were. It wasn’t just making the playoffs, it was the fact that every year they were a threat to win the Stanley Cup. The Red Wings made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons, that ended in 2016 and now they haven’t made the playoffs in a decade. The Red Wings were a top notch organization and now it’s really bad.
This past summer was a tough for Red Wing fans, Captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade and 23 year old Simon Edvinsson is still in Sweden unsigned as a restricted free agent. And oh yeah there was a two month waiting period between the Wings demoting GM and former captain Steve Yzerman and replacing him with an interim GM in Shawn Horcoff.
Larkin, didn’t play in Friday’s season opener due to injury, but when he was introduced the Red Wing fans booed their former captain. Larkin was supposed to be the next big time Red Wing. Being a Michigan native, becoming captain of the team he grew up rooting for must’ve been a cool experience. Larkin requested a trade over the summer, after getting his first real taste of winning, when the Americans took Gold in the Olympics. The problem isn’t the fact that Larkin requested the trade, it’s about the fact he was only willing to go to three teams because of his No trade clause. But I have two issues with this and I believe Red Wing fans might feel the same way. First thing is if he truly wanted to leave, he’d be open to going anywhere, not limiting himself and the other piece is coincides with the first if those other teams don’t have what the Red Wings feel is equal value why would they trade him?
The Edvinsson situation is more upsetting, here’s a 23 year old very promising young defenseman, and he remains unsigned. Things are so bad he’s working out with a Swedish team instead of being in America, trying to iron out a deal. According to insider Elliotte Friedman, Edvinsson like Larkin prefers a trade out of Detroit. Now I do want to say this is not the fault of Shawn Horcoff, he was put in a impossible situation. The real person at fault is Owner Chris Illitch, who waited two months to hire an interim GM. Red Wing fans are so fed up with Illitch that they had sell the team chants going the other night. Here’s another layer for Horcoff, Alex Debrincat, one of the best goal scorers in the league is an impending Unrestricted free agent, does he want to stay? Or do you have to move him as well?
The Red Wings have been a standard for a long time, now they are a mess of an organization. The amount of players and coaches that have left have turned Hockeytown into a ghost town.
