The Red Wings have hit rock bottom...

The Detroit Red Wings have officially hit rock bottom as an NHL insider just revealed what's happening behind the scenes with the Simon Edmondson contract talks, as well as what the Red Wings are planning to do with Dylan Larkin. And one thing in particular has become apparent through these new reports, through this entire timeline, and that's this organization, this owner, has no idea what is happening or what they want. And we're going to break down exactly what these new reports are saying in this episode of Red Wings Digest, as some of them have some shocking details that will leave you honestly shocked. I'm running out of words. I'm running out of ways to describe what we're going to tell you is going on right now today. But before we get into all of that, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. We've noticed that 85% of you guys who watch these videos on the regular are not subscribed to the channel. So make sure you are subscribed to the channel so you don't miss anything that's happening with the Detroit Red Wings. And we've noticed new viewership over the last little while. So guys, the numbers keep climbing and a bunch of you are not subscribed. So again, make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss anything that's happening with the Red Wings. Lots to get into today, and we're probably going to crash out a little bit in this episode because there is a lot to get to. So in a press release and a statement yesterday from Interim General Manager Sean Horkoff, he said basically as of today, Simon is not practicing with the team because he does not have a contract. He also does not have a locker and he can't play. He hasn't played all preseason. He's been practicing. He showed up without a contract, literally unheard of. But it goes on to say the organization will continue conversations with Simon and his representatives. Okay. Dean's all right. We're continuing conversations. If they were far apart on a deal, right? The deal and the specifics of the deal, Mark, make no sense. They want a bridge deal with this player, which makes no sense. He's going to rinse you in a couple of years for more money. So the team wants a bridge. He wants something that's long term. We'll get into the specifics of what they want. The agent has made it abundantly clear what they want. And through all of this coming out, it makes the Red Wings look even worse. I mean, it got to be a money situation because this is a team. It makes so much sense. Everyone speaks about it. You have insiders, fans, reporters. Everyone is speaking, including agents on why it makes so much sense to get a long term deal because the dollars are going to continue to rise. And if you lock this in now, four years from now, you're looking at a contract that's probably one of the best in the NHL, probably already good when you're looking at the fact this is a top pairing defense and wanting that roughly nine to ten million dollar range. Listen, Chris Illich is worth about three billion dollars from a quick Google search. The fact that he cannot just put the money out there, we're seeing the reports that Stephen Stamko's trade was shut down. Why? Because he didn't want to pay him. There's other people speaking about maybe Quinn Hughes was shut down because of the money that he'll be demanding. This is a hockey team paying the players and the fact that we're going into game one of the season with no locker for the kid, let alone a contract. It's getting ridiculous at this point. And again, like you said, a crash out, definitely incoming. And it's truly worth it at this point, because a team that's inspiring to go on a run to get back into the playoff hunt did not be the laughingstock is now sitting with a second best defenseman on this team at home watching games from his couch. Red Wings fans should feel sick to their stomach about this. This is unacceptable, actually, with all the information that's coming out. And again, agents put stuff through the media. It's not necessarily true, but we'll get into why. I believe he's not asking for anything that's unreasonable at this point, and they're not giving it to him. They're not giving it to him. It's crazy. I want to get this quote from Elliott Friedman over the weekend. It was, you know, pretty firm. The Detroit Red Wings were firm on a bridge deal for Simon Evanston. And by the way, guys, with the with the landscape of the league right now, a bridge makes no sense for this player. It makes no sense. Look at Zeve Boyum. This is a player in Simon Evanston that is more proven than that player. He should probably get close to $10 million, if not $10 million on a long term contract, and you'll be happy about it. It will age well. If you go short term, he is going to be making way more than that on that second deal. And you have the cap space to make it work right now. It's literally a non issue. So, he said, or Elliott Friedman goes on to say, there's some interesting, you know, here's the other thing, right? Alex Dabrinkit. Are you going to pay him? You don't want to pay Sam Coach. You didn't want to pay Quinn Hughes like you outlined. Now you don't want to pay Simon Evanston. Are you going to pay Alex Dabrinkit? You're losing players at a very fast rate. Now from the agent, the fourth period is revealing that Simon Evanston's camp wants nine to ten million dollars. How was this not done months ago? How was that not done if he wants nine to ten million dollars? Six years or seven years at ten million. Sign it now. Sign it today. It's a no brainer. There are players that are less proven than him getting more than nine million dollars on long term contracts. Zee Boyan, for example, right? We're using him as a direct comparable because he is, although Simon is more proven than him. Does that mean he's worth twelve, fourteen million dollars? No. But if his camp is asking for nine to ten, which I don't know how true this is, but I'm sure it's in that range. You should have signed this yesterday. You should have got this done yesterday. It's unbelievable. Now you have other insiders like Jeff Merrick saying a deal will get done here long term. So he's going against the grain of everything that we're hearing at this point. But Mark, it's unacceptable that this contract is not done, that he's going to miss. It looks like the first game on Friday night. It is quite literally unacceptable that it's gone to this point. I do not use rock bottom lightly. This is rock bottom for this team because we also have another update on Dylan Larkin as well. I mean, listen, with Zee Boyan, I read into some stuff on him because, of course, it's a direct comparable, a young defenseman getting that long term contract. And when reading in on their press release, their general manager went out to say, hey, this might not be the best contract in the world for the first two years, but you're buying those extra years at the end of this with a rising capital and a young player that's yet to hit his prime. And that builds exactly what you're getting from Edmondson, except the fact he's a good player now. He's shown that he's a top pairing defense and Zee Boyan's in his first full season or just finished his first. Getting the contract you missed out on the eight year window because you didn't want to name your general manager as the full time general manager. You named him an intern months later that missed out on your opportunity. Then other players got those big deals around the NHL, which raised the cap dairies. This could have been a contract that maybe was an eight year deal at seven and a half, eight million dollars. But seeing the landscape of the NHL, that is off the table now. So you missed out on that. OK, you're sad. You're mad. You got to pay extra money. Now you want to go shorter to save money. You're going to burn yourself or just lose them in the future. When he gets the negotiations again, his agent says, hey, we didn't even know who to talk to. They probably don't even have a general manager at that point. So now you have another disgruntled guy showing up to camp that's still not getting a contract. If I'm Edmonton, listen, I love the kid. He's awesome with this organization. I wouldn't blame him for wanting out at this point as he's still not signed. He's watching games from he's getting Uber Eats because he's not at the rink with this team. Darius, again, I don't like being negative, but there's absolutely no positive coming out of this organization. And it starts with this damn player, too. This is the problem. You can't look at any of this that's happening, any of these reports as a fan, right? Because usually, you know, the narrative all the time and the stereotype is, you know, fans on their couch eating chips or saying, oh, the team should do this, we should trade this guy or whatever. You can't, as a fan of the sport, look at any of these reports and go, yep, that makes sense. That's a logical decision. You can't. You can't with any of this. Now, look at the second point. I want to get to the first point. Friedman yesterday revealed that initially only they only wanted to bridge Simon Evanson, right? And he's wondering now if they're changing their mind because of public pressure, public pressure. That's the right thing to do. That's what you should be doing with this contract. Public pressure. People are freaking out about this because a bridge contract for this player, based on everything we've seen with other contracts being signed this summer, doesn't make any sense at all. Now, this is a part of the video I'd like to call a new segment I'd like to call. It somehow gets worse and it somehow gets worse. We're going to get into that now with Dylan Larkin, the first part of this. So Dylan Larkin, it's been revealed now that it wasn't just three teams. He has eight or nine teams on his trade book, right? I don't know exactly who the teams are. They have, you know, a couple have been revealed, but some of them are just like it's more speculation at this point. And most of them were competing teams that are, you know, top teams in the league. Make it hard to make that trade anyway. Check this out. New report from, keep in mind, bopped up and we've talked about on the channel before. Keep in mind. Apparently the relationship, this could be coming from Dylan Larkin's camp too, just to speed things up. Apparently the relationship between the organization and Dylan Larkin, removing Steve Eisenman from the equation is at a point of no return, right? There's going to be a trade. He's going to be moved at some point. He does not want to play here and he doesn't want to play for this. Now a new report this morning from Emily Kaplan reveals that teams that have inquired about Larkin because we know teams like Montreal must have kicked tires, the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers. There's teams that are not on the list, but they've kicked tires, right? But apparently teams that have inquired about Larkin over the past several weeks say that they aren't sure how the Red Wings, they aren't sure the Red Wings know what they want to do, period. That is one of the worst spots you can be in for a team. They also believe that to complete a trade, Detroit will have to come down from its asking price and potentially become more willing to accept futures. So they have an asking price for teams that is too high, which I get it, you have an asset that you don't want to give up for nothing. I understand that. But it sounds like they have no idea what they want. So Mark, any final thoughts on this? Because somehow it continues to get worse where Dylan Larkin is going to get traded at some point. You're probably losing that trade. You have no idea what you want in a return. You hired an interim general manager who was there the whole time. You still don't have one of your top defensemen signed. He's missing games. He's been missing games. He showed up to camp without a contract, which is insane. I can't believe he did that still. Everybody go buy his jersey. What do you think of this? I don't even know what to make of this at this point. It is so beyond what I thought this would get to. Listen, Chris Illich is in a toxic relationship. Just let her go, bro. This guy doesn't want to be here. He's made it clear. He's showing up to camp and of course, going out there to at least put his face in front of the media. But every report looking at Larkin, he does not want to be in this organization. And for some reason, they cannot let this go. And of course, the asking price got to come down. Yes, because no contending team is going to trade their first line center for another first line center because you're once again in the exact same spot. Where does that get that contending team? Absolutely nowhere. Again, a lot of this blame goes to Dylan Larkin for not expanding that list. I'm sure there's other teams willing to offer a little closer to what the Red Wings want. But again, the futures. This is something you got to take if you want to flip that deadline for a centerman or someone else that can grow into that top line centerman. When Shane Wright became available from Seattle, his name's constantly rumored. It's not saying he's a top line center, but again, a young center that has potential. You can do so much with those extra picks. But the fact that this organization continuously goes to Dylan Larkin and feels like saying, hey, we want you here. He says, I don't want to be here. The next day, it's like he lost his mind again. He goes back. I want you guys here. And of course, Larkin says, I don't want to be. This is a team now. Something has to give. If that's ownership selling this team, if that's getting someone in a position that can actually look at ownership and say, we should do this move and get that done. I don't know. Do it. I'm like you said, running out of words for this team, but I think a ---- shows the best way to describe everything being handled in this organization. It's really bad. And I mean, you mentioned selling the team. I don't know if that's so easy. And I just wonder if you're just more hands off, right? If you're Priscilla, it's like, just stop. Just stop. Let the guys do their job. Right? Like it's, it's ridiculous. There's rumors flying around. I didn't want to bring it up in the video, really, but I guess I will. There's rumors flying around, you know, this morning that the advisement basically warned candidates like you do not want to work here because you're not going to be able to do the job. You're not going to be able to do the job. That of course is just purely speculation. So this coming out of my mouth right now, just letting you know, like that's not confirmed or anything like that, but fans are upset. Look at this from Red Wings diehards, right? Like people are upset. Like I'm not buying any tickets this year and he's not the only one, right? There is a lot of tickets available for the home opener as well still. So people are fed up and what does that lineup look like on day one? We don't know. They've made some more cuts. They got the roster down to 23 at this point. These are the names, some notable names, some younger guys that have made the team, which is great. Love to see that for them. Nate Danielson being one of them. We talked a lot about him during the summer too, but it's, it's tough, man. This is, I mean, this is rock bottom at this point with these new reports and the day the season starts, all these insiders, Elliot Freeman, Emily Kaplan, all of them reveal kind of what's been happening the last couple of weeks and articles and, you know, just before the season starts to get ready for the season. And we had a feeling some of this was going on, but now to be confirmed, um, this is just not good news for the Red Wings. They got to figure this out very quickly and it does not paint a bright picture for the future.