The Detroit Red Wings wanted nothing more than puck drop on a new season, a chance to turn the page on a tumultuous offseason of gossipy headlines. Captain Dylan Larkin requested a trade in June, Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager in July, and restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson remained unsigned. Interim general manager Shawn Horcoff was only announced two days before training camp opened in late September.
The Red Wings, fresh off missing the playoffs for a tenth straight year in 2025-26, limped into another preseason. Larkin, stripped of the captaincy, was soon injured. Edvinsson, still without a contract, came to town before heading home to Sweden following his own trade request. The drama seemed to reach a fever pitch before Detroit could get to its first real game, where the team's play could do the talking.
"It's us against the rest of the world," defenseman Moritz Seider said. "That's something we've learned pretty fast, with how much noise there is around this team." Seider stressed that the team had everything in place to be a good hockey team and that each player needed to be the best version of himself.
The crowd at Little Caesars Arena was not so optimistic. Larkin received resounding boos during his pregame recognition, and fans were already despondent over the failure to lock up Edvinsson and the unresolved Larkin situation. The club had also whiffed on a mid-September deadline to sign Alex De Brincat to a maximum extension, and Patrick Kane had walked back to Chicago in free agency. Detroit later signed De Brincat to a seven-year, $91 million deal, but the team's record stood at 1-3-2. Once on the ice, the Red Wings lost 2-0 to New York in their home opener, and chants of "sell the team" echoed through the building.
Source: ESPN NHL · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing