This signifies a MAJOR shift...

Many believe that the Detroit Red Wings have dodged a major bullet. But with the departure of Patrick Kane to Chicago, it signifies a major shift within the Red Wings organization and maybe a bad omen for what is to come of this team in the coming weeks, in the coming months, and heading into next season with a bunch of question marks around the future of this team. Can they score Dylan Larkin's future? And what's going to happen with Alex to bring it? We're going to break that all down in this episode of Red Wings Digest. But before we jump into all of that, guys, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. 85% of you are not subscribed to the channel. So if you want to stay up to date with everything that's happening with the Red Wings, be sure to go down below, hit that free subscribe button, and you won't miss a single thing to do with the Red Wings. We're also on our way to our goal of 5,000 subscribers. Thank you so much to everybody who has subscribed and the support on the channel has been unbelievable. So this morning, we find out that Patrick Kane is no longer a Detroit Red Wing. Now, we all suspected that that was probably going to be the case, but until the day that it actually happened, we were thinking, okay, maybe he could return. Maybe there could be some mutual interest, but he does leave. By the way, I don't think he's getting that contract anywhere else in the league. We can talk about the contract two years, $8 million a year. Chicago just has the means to be able to pay him that. By the way, no movement clause for Patrick Kane as well. But I feel like this signifies something a little bit different. I think it's a cool story for him to go back to Chicago. But in terms of the Detroit Red Wings, he's leaving because they had a hard time scoring. He was one of their best point producers at 37 years old after having double hip surgery. That's insane in and of itself. But Mark, what do you make of this? Does this signify a major shift? Does this signify something bad coming to this organization with players wanting to peel off? I mean, $8 million Stevie Wilder cannot match that. And I understand from Chicago, you bring back that local legend, a guy that's came in, won cups there. But at the end of the day, you cannot give this guy $8 million, especially in this transition period that we're going to see. We don't know what's happening with DeBrancat. We don't know what's happening with Dylan Larkin, though it seems like, of course, Larkin's going to be gone. But with how quiet it is and with the recent moves, it feels like the clear direction once a new general manager steps in. You got to keep in mind, we're still looking for pieces within this organization. With Patrick Kane gone, it feels like this is a team that's going to lean into the youth. And of course, you touched on it. Looking at Patrick Kane, he was incredible for this organization. He had a hiccup at the end of the season, but putting it all on him is not something we can do because of the production this guy put out at his age. I mean, overstepping what we've seen some guys that are getting paid more at the time. Of course, $8 million is a lot of money. But Patrick Kane was a gem for this team. And of course, losing him and looking at the lineup moving forward, it makes the most sense that you're letting these older guys walk. Of course, there's probably a bidding war you lost. That $8 million, you can't go to that number. But Darius, when looking at this now with the fact that this team continuously misses the playoffs, letting key veteran guys walk, looking at a youth movement, there's no more clear picture than the word retool. Looking at this organization dead, we're like deer in the headlights right now when it comes to that word. And at the end of the day, I genuinely think when this new general manager steps in, we're going to see Dominoes fall. And this is the team that's not going to be competing next year. When you look at Patrick Kane, he was one of your best point producers like you mentioned last season. He had 57 points in 67 games. He had four game-winning goals. He was honestly brilliant for this team last season. And they still couldn't score 5-on-5. That's been a big problem. So now you're losing this, first of all. And cool, you get a little bit younger. You also get a little bit more inexperienced. When you look up and down this lineup as it's currently projected, where are you going to find a lot of goal scoring in this lineup? Is it going to be Arvinson? Great. I don't know about that. Your centre-depth is still a huge question mark, even with Dylan Larkin still there. And we know that he could want out. Now I want to get to that in a few minutes as well. What happens with the Brinkett now? One year left on his contract. Does he want to stay? Is he going to sign long-term? If he doesn't, you have to trade him. There are so many question marks now that it just keeps adding fuel to the fire. And like you mentioned with Patrick Kane, it did not end well. One of the lasting memories of him is that horrific tripping call late in that game against the Wild that they needed to win. And they probably wouldn't have made the playoffs anyway, but that's just a tough way to go out. Although he did take accountability and he said, I have to take responsibility for what happened there, a lapse in judgement. He did, again, take accountability for it. But this is, I think, how a lot of people are feeling right now too. If you count Larkin has gone too, the Red Wings have lost two of their top six forwards this off-season, and they've only brought in Victor Arvidsson as a replacement. It's just not good enough. He's fine, right? There's reasons to like Victor Arvidsson. We talked about that when they first signed him. But this coming off a season where their inability to score was a major issue, this is a problem. This is a problem heading into next year, and I don't think young players are going to fix that problem. Especially young players like NBN. I think he's going to be great, but his minor stint so far in the NHL, it hasn't really gone to plan. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens. But Mark, any final thoughts on this? Because we're going to have more content on what this means for Debrinkit now. A lot of people are speculating too that Steve Eisenman stepping down, or him being told to get lost, basically might have been a plan to save or salvage any type of relationship with Dylan Larkin. But I just don't know at this point, with everything that's been put out through the media, if you are even able to salvage it. So it's going to be a wild, I think, rest of this off-season. Looking at the lineup, it's one of the things, and I know I said this is a team that's going to be retooled, and not looking at the playoffs. That could be a positive light as well, because a team that, of course, notoriously can just not get over the hump once we get to the end of the season. It's a broken record that we never want to hear again. This is a team that it feels like, with the new general manager stepping in, with Dylan Larkin's just immediate dismissal, it feels like at this point, because he doesn't want to be on a team that he can't win if this team's going in that direction. His friend Patrick Kane leaving, if Debrinka goes, if other veterans are gone, and he goes out, at least you have the direction of, hey, we're going to lead into the youth. We still have Raymond locked up on a contract. We have Mo Edgerton that has to be signed as well. But this is a team, Darius, that I think getting the clear direction, as bad as it says, where we look at a team and we might not be even looking at meaningful hockey come Christmas time, but at least it's a team that's looking at that one direction of, hey, we want to get better in this time frame. We want to be back in the playoff front instead of just pushing year after year, collapsing right before the end of the season, and then you're back from square one once again with just more pieces added that aren't pushing you over that hump. Yeah, and there's sometimes you can make the case that maybe it's addition by subtraction. There's certain teams that that works for, right? And I wonder, you know, I look at the Ottawa Senators and I go, okay, all that noise about Brady Kachuk is gone now. I wonder if they could still do something with that roster, right? So there is a little bit of that with Detroit, but I think that you're missing a guy now in Patrick Kane that brought so much information in terms of experience, winning Stanley Cups, that he could bring to some of the younger guys on the team. And not only that, he can still do the job. He can still put the puck in the back of the net. He can still make plays, and he still scored some big goals, right? So I think he's going to be missed to a degree. Of course, they were never going to be able to match that contract, so that is what it is. And, you know, him going back to Chicago, cool storyline, all that stuff, of course, but they have some things to figure out here, and I think that is one of the first dominoes, one of the first. I think the first one was Dylan Larkin's trade request. Now Patrick Kane is leaving. What does that mean for the rest of the team if Alex Zabrinka does not want to resign long-term? I don't know where this goes, especially the forward group, and then you have to start asking questions about other guys saying, hey, guess what? Simon Evanson doesn't even have a contract. He's an RFA still. So we are going to be talking about that in future videos. There is a lot to talk about coming up over the next couple of weeks heading into this season. Is Dylan Larkin actually going to be a Red Wing come opening night after everything that's happened, how some of the fans have turned on him as well? And I'm not blaming fans. Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming them whatsoever, but is he actually going to be a Red Wing on opening night? Let us know how you feel in the comments below. It is going to be an interesting next couple of weeks, next couple of months, that is for sure, but they were never going to match that contract. He is getting older. It is about the future, of course, and what's going to happen in 5-10 years from now having made the playoffs in 10 years. But man, I do wonder if this signifies a major shift with the Red Wings.