BREAKING: Red Wings make MASSIVE move...

We have breaking news as it's finally happened. The Detroit Red Wings have let go of Steve Iserman and relieved him of his duties as GM. But there are serious implications that this has on the team and the direction of the team moving forward and raises a ton of question marks around not just players, but who the next GM of this team will be as we are already so deep into the offseason. We're going to break down everything you need to know from the initial report to who will be the next GM to what happens with some of the players including Dylan Larkin on this team ahead of next season. But before we jump into all of that guys, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. We've noticed that about 85% of you guys who watch these videos are not subscribed to the channel. So if you want to stay up to date with everything that's happening with the Red Wings, Mark and I are going to keep you covered for everything that's happening with the Red Wings. But let's get right into it. Randomly, this morning in the middle of the offseason, we are on July 15th. Now at this point, the Red Wings dropped an announcement on a leadership transition and very vague there from the initial report. But as you click in, as everyone is now talking about on social media knows at this point, in a major development, the Red Wings announced that Steve Eisenman is stepping down as the team's head of hockey operations and becoming an advisor to Chris Illich. Now this is him stepping down as GM. I think it's more, hey, you're not going to be the GM anymore. We can get into that discussion. Of course, everyone's talking about that. And a search for the team's next president slash GM is underway. There's a very interesting caveat with that last part, which I want to get to Mark, and I want your thoughts on that too. But what's your initial reaction on this? Steve Eisenman is no longer the GM. We've been talking about it for a while. I mean, the Eiser plan, the Eiser plan has been a disaster, especially the last couple of years. It's felt like a pressure cooker over the past couple of years, especially when you look at the lack of success within this team. We've seen him go out, and his biggest swing was Justin Falk at Trey Devlin. Of course, Justin Falk was a great player, and it's awesome to have a piece like that a part of the organization. But even from a standpoint, a fan standpoint, we knew this was a team that needed that second line center, a centerman at all, because all of it was down. And with the way things kind of unfolded, I'm not shocked that this did happen, but I'm kind of surprised that it happened this quickly. I thought maybe Steve would be around to work with the Dillon Lurken trade saga. This has a huge implication on that on its own, because we know Steve and Dillon weren't the greatest of friends within the organization, but you can see Steve kind of just spoke on this organization, leaving it going, and he said he's sincerely grateful to the entire family, the organization. His idea of still wanting to build this team is there, but we're going to find a completely new era of this team as we're going to see a new president, a new general manager, maybe new coaches step in, because we know general managers like to kind of sprinkle their own on top of a team. It's going to be interesting on how this unfolds, Darius, but I think the word I've used for this is just kind of shocked it happened at this point. Yeah, and I think it's shocked that it happened at this point, and I want to get into why in a second, but before we do that, I do want to let you guys know that this video is brought to you by PrizePix, and PrizePix is America's number one sports picks app that brings you closer to all the action on a daily basis. We're going to get into some fun picks and promotions later on in this episode, so stay tuned for that, but make sure to download the app using the link in the description and using the promo code Digest when you do so, as new users get $50 instantly in their lineups when you play your first $5. Now I want to get into a couple quotes here. You're talking about Steve Eisenman and his quotes and what he said, and obviously it was a privilege to be here. He's still going to be around and dictating some of the stuff that happens day to day over the next little while, and he's going to stick around as a senior advisor. That's kind of weird to me. I'm not going to lie. If the guy is fired, then the guy is fired. If he truly is stepping down, then I mean, that's pretty admirable in itself, but at the same time, I don't know how I feel about that, and I don't know how fans feel about that. Let me know how you feel in the comments below, but I wanted to get to this quote from Chris Illich, and he's like, clearly we're not where we and our fans expect it to be as an organization. That for sure is true. I mean, the team was abysmal last season, 5-on-5. Dylan Larkin wants to leave now. We know Dylan Larkin and Steve Eisenman have been butting heads, like you mentioned, for the last at least two seasons at this point, and he said, I'm looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship caliber organization HockeyTown deserves, which is a bit of a slap to Eisenman because that was the goal with bringing in Steve Eisenman and the Eisenman plan at the time. So obviously, I don't think he was doing that directly, but it has not happened. They need to move in a different direction, but I don't know how I feel about Steve sticking around to be the senior advisor, and especially right now, right? If you want to move in a different direction, you do it right now. You clean house, right, and he shouldn't have maybe any input on anything, which I don't know how much he's going to have, but clearly the Illich family does trust him, and I feel like that's a reason why he hadn't been fired up until this point, and again, if he is truly stepping down, it's pretty good. The timing is weird. The timing is very weird with where we are in the offseason. That is for sure because we just went through a period of time where there were major decisions to be made, and he's running these decisions. He's making these decisions, right? So it's very interesting. Now he is sticking around in his current role. I want your thoughts on this too. I'm not sure if you mentioned this earlier in the episode. He is going to be helping with the search for the new GM as well, so I feel like things might not change too much because if he's helping with the search, if he's helping ownership, maybe he wants somebody with still the same philosophy as him, with the same ideas, right? Like you have to wonder about that stuff, so I think that's a little bit maybe troubling, and again, this is a legend within the organization, has won Stanley Cups here, we know all that, but as a GM, as the guy in charge, he has not even got close to having this work. I'm glad that it's one of these things where you can see that it's not only him, it's going to be the president of that organization. It's going to be multiple bodies, a lot of leaders, a lot of people are going to step in and of course have a say within this role, but the way they trust Steve within the organization, I think you said it best, if you're going out and he wants a guy that has the same philosophy, wants this team to be in a certain spot with a certain way he wants to build it, that is a little concerning, but I do kind of hope that this ownership group looks and say, hey Steve, listen, we're going to go in, you have a great hockey mind, you have great philosophies in certain senses when it comes to hockey as well, we want your opinion on it, but this is our list, we want you to talk to these guys as well, but him being current general manager and president, until it happens, that's a seamless transition, and I do agree with that, we see a lot of teams do it, I mean looking over in Vancouver for example, Jim Rutherford held that position until he found his successor, then he walked off into the gates of retirement, so maybe that's what we're going to see is Steve slowly moves out of the organization, but dears, my biggest thing now is how does this affect Dylan Lurken? Because we know Lurken, we have that request, he wants out of the organization, I kind of want your opinion, and the fans as well, let us know in the comments, do you think this even opens the possibility of Dylan Lurken saying, hey, maybe I don't mind staying right now? Yeah, I think that this changes everything, right? I think Dylan Lurken could be open to staying now because, and I know I'm going to sound like a hypocrite here because of what I just said a couple minutes ago, but there is the possibility of a new GM coming in and Dylan Lurken going, alright, maybe we're going to be doing something different here, but with Eisermann sticking around, I don't know if that's going to be the case, you know what I mean? Like he might hire somebody that just shares the same ideas, and then a guy like Dylan Lurken might be like, I still want to leave, right? So I'm just thinking about it from that point of view, and I appreciate, you know, Mark, your point of view as well, right? I think that it could go the other way too, right, where he goes, okay, new GM coming in, maybe I stick around, maybe the team is going to change a little bit, right? Because that, I think at the end of the day, is why he wants to leave, and we don't really have to get into that, but they're not competitive, he wants to win, he wants to make the playoffs, he's going to be 30, right? So those are the biggest things to him, and it just does not look like the Red Wings are headed in that direction. And maybe this is a situation too, and again, I'm just speculating here, we're going to have more that's going to come out over the next couple of days, we're going to have some more content on it, but maybe it's a situation where Iserman goes, and it's true that maybe he did actually step down, because he realized, if I do this, and we bring in a new GM, and we're actually changing things with the team, maybe a guy like Lurken will want to stick around. But at the end of the day too, like, maybe you do want to make that trade, right? Like if you don't want to be here, I don't know, there's so much that goes into it, we can talk about Dylan Lurken for hours and hours on end at this point. But guys, this video is brought to you by PrizePix, and PrizePix is America's number one sports pick app. It brings you closer to all the action on a daily basis. We've got some fun picks for you guys today, because the World Cup semi-final is wrapping up. We know who our finalist is, or one of our finalists is, in Spain, they beat France yesterday, so France will play for third place, and then we'll find out who meets them there. It's either England or Argentina. I've been picking England to win this game, a little bit biased of course, for those of you who know, I am Portuguese, so I guess that is pretty funny in that way, but England just looks good. They look good throughout the entire tournament, I think Argentina has had a tough time putting it together. They've won games, and I respect that, but I think they've had a tough time putting it together. But I said the exact same thing about France and Spain, so it could absolutely go the other way, we'll see what happens. I'm going to go more on goals for Harry Kane, he's been great in this tournament too, and more on everything for Jude Bellingham. He's been a beast in this World Cup, so it's unbelievable, and you know Messi's got to show up big, so let's go more on goals for him as well. But it should be a fun game, I'm going to pick England to win this one. Mark, do you have any thoughts on this game as well? I mean, right now, I can't cheer for Messi, of course the organization who picked Miami, but I think it's going to be interesting, especially with prize picks. And fans, listen, not only can you do awesome picks with prize picks, they have promotions as well. Taco Tuesday is serving discounted projections all Tuesday long, and Flex Friday, get up to a 40% higher payout every single Friday. Make sure to download prize picks using the link in the description or the pinned comment. Use code DIGEST when you're signing up, because of course, not only does it help out a ton, but new users get $50 instantly when you play your first five, and again, shout out to prize picks. Go check it out. Darius, do you have any kind of final say on this, because listen, it's going to get interesting. We now have to figure out who the next general manager is, what happens with the president of Bakke operations, is there a new coach coming in, what happens with Dylan Larkin? There's going to be so much around the team, and do you kind of have any final say on how you feel about all this? Yeah, it's crazy, and this is just an initial reaction. We're going to have so much more content for you guys out here on the channel, because like you outlined, who is the next GM? How does Steve Eisenman sticking around affect the team? What's happening with Dylan Larkin? What's happening with Alex the Brinket? What's happening with Moshe Haider, Lucas Raymond, all these guys? Are they going for a rebuild now? Where are they going? Do we want to keep Dylan Larkin? Where are we going with this, because it has not come to fruition what we thought the plan was going to be, and them being this great team and making the playoffs. Something had to change, but with them sticking around, how much is it changing? There are so many questions. We're going to have so much more content for you guys out here on the channel, so let us know in the comments how you feel about Steve Eisenman being let go, fired, stepping down, whatever you want to call it. I'm sure we'll find out more over the next coming days. But there is change coming to the Detroit Redhawks.