Insider: Red Wings’ Steve Yzerman May Take Step Back After Season

The Detroit Red Wings have gone into a swoon. 3-6-1 in their last 10 games has left them tied with the Ottawa Senators for 5th in the Atlantic Division, and they're now two points out of a Wild Card berth in the Eastern Conference.

This was shaping up to be the year that the Wings finally got back into the playoffs for the first time in a decade. So what happens if they don't make it?

Insider Elliotte Friedman, speaking on NHL Morning Skate on NHL Network Radio on SiriusXM, relays an intriguing theory on what might happen with executive vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman's future.

I have no doubt that he's hugely frustrated... The one thing that I kind of wonder about, and I've heard a little bit of rumor to that effect, is maybe does he kind of give another person the GM chair and have that person have a bigger imprint on the organization. I just wonder if he would think about giving someone else a bigger voice in the process as opposed to him doing both jobs himself.

Yzerman has been the Executive VP & GM in Detroit since 2019 after coming over from Tampa Bay. In Friedman's theory, Yzerman would move up to president of hockey operations, while promoting either Kris Draper or Shawn Horcoff to the GM's role.

Both are assistant GMs right now in Detroit. Like Yzerman, Draper was a longtime player for the Red Wings, and he also carries the duties now as director of amateur scouting.

On his 32 Thoughts podcast, Friedman said "it at least empowers somebody else, (and brings them) into league meetings."

Yzerman was called out by his captain Dylan Larkin after doing nothing at the 2025 trade deadline, and this year, he made just one move, acquiring defenseman Justin Faulk from the St. Louis Blues. No help for the forward group, however. The team has scored more than three goals in a game only three times in 16 contests since the Olympic Break.

Stevie Y's future could take a big turn if the Wings don't make a big run and get back to the playoffs.