The Red Wings’ search for a new general manager has produced its first candidates. Two days after the club moved Steve Yzerman into a senior advisory role, the Detroit News reported that assistant general manager Kris Draper has emerged as an early internal candidate, while Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman outlined a process that will weigh in-house options against outside executives.
Draper is the most familiar name on the list. A Red Wings fixture for 17 seasons as a player, he joined the front office in 2011 and has spent the last four years as an assistant GM while running the amateur scouting department. Shawn Horcoff, another assistant GM who has overseen the AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, is the other internal name expected to get a look.
The external field starts with Ryan Martin, the Rangers’ associate GM who spent 16 years in Detroit under Ken Holland and Yzerman and built Grand Rapids into a two-time AHL champion before leaving. Martin has been a finalist for GM openings without landing one. Friedman also floated Brendan Shanahan, the former Maple Leafs president and another figure with deep Detroit roots, as a name to watch among outside candidates.
Owner Chris Ilitch is leading the search committee and has said the team will consider both internal and external options, with no timetable attached. Yzerman, who advises the committee and keeps day-to-day control until a successor is hired, is in the unusual position of helping choose the person who will inherit his unfinished business.
That business is substantial. Whoever takes over walks into Dylan Larkin‘s trade request as the first item on the desk, followed by new contracts for restricted free agents Simon Edvinsson and Alex DeBrincat. It is a lot to hand a first-time general manager, which is part of why the external names carry weight — a decade without a playoff berth tends to shorten an owner’s patience for on-the-job learning.
For now the list is short and the process is early. The next hire will determine whether the rebuild Yzerman started finally produces a contender or resets again — the most consequential call of Chris Ilitch’s ownership since he handed Yzerman the keys in 2019.
There is no direct fantasy read on a front-office hire, but the Larkin file is the one to watch. A trade out of Detroit — to Florida, Minnesota, Vegas or Dallas, the four teams on his list — could reshape his linemates and usage, and with them his scoring outlook. Edvinsson’s next deal matters for dynasty managers banking on him as a top-pairing point producer.
