The Detroit Red Wings are in the middle of the interview process, having hired an outside firm to interview their future general manager.
Jeff Kealty, assistant general manager for the San Jose Sharks, and Brett Peterson, assistant general manager for the Florida Panthers, are two individuals whose names have been mentioned frequently.
The future GM will need to re-sign Simon Edvinsson, arrange a Dylan Larkin trade, and decide Alex DeBrincat’s future, among a number of other things.
However, there is one task they must complete that, regardless of what you may think, is more significant than any of those ones.
It’s about being transparent.
Where the last government failed
The Steve Yzerman administration guarded secrets like Fort Knox, for better or worse. Nothing escaped, from potential trade concepts to prospect evaluations. In the early years of the Yzerman era, this was quite helpful. The squad was able to quietly shop Anthony Mantha as a result, which gave them a plethora of selections and a few roster players.
It did, however, result in some PR blunders.
We will never understand why Yzerman traded Jake Walman so quickly. He still had worth, particularly after seeing what the San Jose Sharks received for him. The Jakub Vrana incident in particular caused additional challenges when Yzerman declined to discuss this. The supporters started coming up with their own concepts. The locker room started to seem disordered.
Frustration soon erupted in the absence of solutions.
This summer, all of this obscurity culminated in an unhappy captain Dylan Larkin requesting a trade. Yzerman declined to give more than basic facts during a recent press conference, escalating an already tense situation. Eventually, Yzerman quit his post as a result of this, which made an already terrible situation worse.
What the following GM must get right
The Red Wings aren’t obligated to be an open book. They can still keep their cards close to their chest, if necessary. However, they are unable to make the same errors that the Yzerman administration made. The following GM must confront the problem and make a statement upfront when difficulties (which will undoubtedly arise) arise. There is no justification for supporters and media professionals to give opposing facts during a very turbulent period in the organization’s history.
The next administration needs to prioritize two things: setting expectations and transparency.
It is not anticipated that the next GM will win the Stanley Cup in their inaugural campaign. However, they’ll want answers. They will undoubtedly want to know what the strategy is going forward and how the team intends to deal with the problems at hand.
A secretive government wouldn’t be able to do much to change that.
